Oh no! The game I bought yesterday just went free today! This will not stand, please boycott xyz! I'm tired to the yo-yo App Store price wars between indie developers and just want straight pricing. It's ridiculous and unfair that game developers don't respect me in their attempts to promote their struggling business. I could have KING SIZED it at Burger King but didn't because I have to give me hard earned money to some puke who despite having made a worthy game went and made it free the next day. Everyone, please get in here and complain about it! Seriously, rather than focusing on game content let's take over the forum by invading game threads to hijack the discussion by whining about how we got mislead by dishonest programmers and their backstabbing attempts to get noticed. So what if this developer spent a year coding a game uncertain if it would ever make a profit but just wanting to get a quality release out there; it's not my responsibility to support them with financial kudos! The availability of quality product for discount pricing can not go on... everyone, let's stand united about price cuts to keep the negativity and selfishness alive in Touch Arcade! Please post in here as a call to arms; no longer will we let basic economics rule our gaming outlet! Let's unite together to demand that if we pay one price, everyone else should too because I'll be damned if I'm going to let someone else get a bargain over me! (I am in America after all!) If these developers want a hand-out they need to apply for food stamps like the rest of us. I didn't pay $300 for my iPod to let someone shaft me over $2 when they're forced to reduce price to no/little profit! One developer told me that I was unlikely to get a better value than a 20 hour gameplay release for $4 to cover after dropping that original guaranteed price to $2. Imagine the gall of suggesting that their product would entertain me endlessly for a cheap value despite having been made cheaper! Don't they realize I get more enjoyment out of yelling at homeless people for free?!? Our rage will not be quelled by these logical attempts to justify the benefits of readily avaliable entertainment at a generally low price even before discount. Game developers need to learn that it's time they financially support themselves rather than getting a any value for their product from me. At this rate I may have to resort to pencil and paper classics like hangman or tic-tac-tow because the App Store market crash is defrauding my investments. When I bought Infinity Blade I thought I was investing in something of value I could one day sell on ebay as a collectable but instead the market crashed and my $6 investment is now worth only $3. This can no longer stand, I have a family to provide for! Ok... now I'm off to vomit but brothers and sisters, carry the banner of righteousness onward!
"Ok... now I'm off to vomit but brothers and sisters, carry the banner of righteousness onward!" You are what a politician ? hahah anyway the the issue you have raised is truly acceptable and somebody has to do something about this unexpected price drop, but mean while i have tip for you before purchasing study there daily purchase statics and also kinda of company if it is big or renown company then i don't think so they change price's frequently and about small developers they generally make apps free when there apps doesn't go for sale, say about 2 to 3 weeks you use appannie.com or other same kind of sites for statics. and at last the easiest way Come to TA and ask TA community this the best place you ever know
I don't have a big problem with devs dropping prices, the games are insanely cheap anyway. The exception is when they promise people it will not drop ever (IB for example), then it does.
I'd promise not to drop the price if it meant making sales. If they wanna whine afterwards it's their problem, they're getting the deal of a lifetime with iOS games anyway and they still don't f***ing realize it.
I can't really be bothered to read all that - I can kinda guess what the sarcasm is about! Good to bring up the topic though, and annoy the whiners.
undeadcow - nice rant. But on a serious note the only problem I've ever had with all the apps that go free for a day, or drop down significantly in price temporarily or permanently is it makes me wonder if any devs or companies may be getting influenced to not develop for iOS devices. Let me rephrase - I understand that prices change and video/computer game pricing structures are already crazy enough as it is (if you don't like the price, just wait several months or a year and it may be dirt cheap) but what happens with all the free/99c price drops on the App Store is a bit much. Hell, after being subjected to this after getting my iphone4 a few months ago even I'm smart enough now to just wait out the inevitable price drops for apps I'm not dying to get immediately because I'll just grab them when they drop to 99c for a sale. This is very unlike the PC or console market (I think) as a new game that retails for $50 or $60 you *might* see drop in price by a factor of 20 to 30%, but on the App Store its common to see apps normally costing $5 or $6 drop down to just a buck. That level of price reduction is simply unheard of for a sale on just about any other products from what I've seen - PC and console games included. I'll give you a good example. I still have yet to get Dead Space for iOS (I know - the horrors!) because I've got other games to play for now and knowing that EA will drop it in price sometime to 99 cents gives me absolutely ZERO incentive to get it any sooner unless I decided I just *had* to have the game more immediately. Now if EA or other companies rarely, if ever, dropped a $6.99 game down to $.99 then I would have picked it up at the regular $6.99 price knowing that it would be a freezing day in Hell for them to drop it down to 99c (if ever). If I knew they had a history of only dropping their price on a sale by a buck or two then I might wait a little while longer but I already have it figured out that this game will probably be on sale this next Christmas for a single dollar (if not sooner). So I guess my point is, I'm not cheap, I don't mind the price drops (even if I just bought the game literally the day before) but the sudden and extreme price drops possibly might be causing some loss of sales from customers like me who now know better. And I can't see that being a good thing for the companies (as it may influence them not to develop as much on iOS) and then for us customers (as companies not developing quality titles on iOS means less good games for us on iOS). Those are my opinions anyway. I have absolutely no evidence to back any of them up...
My main issue with the price drops isn't the price per se, but rather, I find it kind of insulting to the customers who supported them from the beginning. I'd much rather support a developer like from Cave or Square-Enix (who will keep their price for a reasonable amount of time) with a $9 purchase than a random dev with a $1 game who will drop the price to free after a week. It's obvious that from a dev's point of view, the customers who have already purchased their game are the "easy" ones, while the rest of the customer base are the "difficult" ones to hook. But if they're going to make me feel like an unvalued customer by playing the pricing game, then I'll choose not to purchase their games in the future. What's worse is that recently, more devs have been pulling the BS "we're not going to drop the price" card. I don't care if devs have sales, but it's very shady to lie about it. But, I don't think that wasting forum space in the games' official threads is warranted. Having a containment thread like this one (even if the OP is a satirical, sarcastic rant) is much better. All that being said, for the people who throw fits everytime a game's price drops $1, they really don't have anyone to blame but themselves. The App Store and the devs aren't going to hold your hand through purchases. If someone is the type of person to lose sleep over $1 sales, I would suggest never buying games earlier than 1 month after release (preferably 3). There are tools like AppShopper to track prices and to view a developer's pricing history. Indie devs are much more likely to drop prices to free than big name ones, etc etc. Country of origin seems to have some correlation to price drops as well. Plus, there's always has the option to just never spend a single cent on the App Store, and then maybe the complaining will stop. Honestly though, I would call sporting a $200-300 device while complaining about $1 games penny wise, pound foolish.
I can bet the same infantile guys that keep ranting about this are more than happy to purchase other apps temporarily free/on sale when they still don't have them. Me, I can't say that I liked paying $10 for World of Goo and, before I even played it, watching it fall to $0.99 but it's OK because I bought A LOT of great apps for that price or even free. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Grow up and live with that, guys.
In the end, the actual pricing economy obviously benefits to the customer because the very cheap or free apps currently outnumber the high priced ones. And for every game being slashed immediately after release (and after you paid), there are 3 others that you'll get for free. However, I doubt that this is an ideal economy for the devs in any other way than the very short term and/or the very successful apps. But more importantly, and that's the only part that I'm angry about, I think the habit of reducing the price of your game to nothing or almost nothing gives a very misleading message to the customers. In any "normal" conditions of the world we live in, it is a basic rule that a specific amount of work will be compensated by a specific amount of money. And that an increased quality of said work will be compensated by an increase of financial retribution. If you take it the other way around, it means that a dev giving away his game for free is basically admitting that the result of his work is worthless. I think in a world where you still value work and take pride in the result of your efforts, you should never ever give anything for free if it has cost you something in terms of personal implication (time, talent, money, ect...). Unless you're a really nice person ready to work your ass off for ungrateful people.
The only problem I have with price drops are when they happen a few hours after release . 24 hrs later I don't have a problem with it's part and parcel of the AppStore .
I agree with this. I think the $0.99/FREE culture (or race to bottom, or whatever) in the appstore will eventually only lead to worse and fewer games as the good devs and indie devs realize they cant make money. Basically, a lot of people will only buy $0.99 games, it's expected. Dont get me wrong, the appstore is crowded with crap games that arent even worth 99 cents. But, there's also a ton of games at .99 that are worth much more, but cant sell for more because of the competition.
If you actually supported the dev, why would you complain about them trying to make more money through sales? You should be proud that you were there helping out in the beginning. That's real support.
You said it man. After dishing out over $60 a month for the past 26 months, I've never felt like I had been ripped off just because the developer lowered the price hours or a day after when I had bought it. If you bought it at the price you did, then you felt that it was worth the price at one point in time. That should be good enough for you. After all, you made the decision. You're supporting the dev, and most times, how much are you actually saving? A dollar? Three? Surely, never more than four. Take it easy guys. As long as they didn't promise not to cut the price, it's perfectly fair. You have to let CHAIR go for this one as well. I'm pretty sure three months after the release date is long enough.
I would like to quote backtothis. Although I agree with this list , I really don't like it when I paid 9.99 for games like Rolando 1 & 2, Real Racing 1 & 2, Papa Sangre etc. and see them drop by at least 75% of their original price . But can I do anything ? No . Would they bother if they lose me as their customer ? No . Should I just accept it ? Yes . Have I learnt my lesson ? Yes . This is why I waited so long for N.O.V.A. 2 to drop in price (wasn't worth it IMO. Idk what's so good about NOVA2 and I've already deleted it) What is the moral of this ? Idk . You tell me .
Check out with the developer of Ready Action said here about a current free event... sooooo yeah... we've really got these dogs on the run. Keep kicking them in the gut, that'll teach them to lower prices and screw us all over... I think, right?
