really! I'm new to iPhones, and to this forum, but I find it SO crazy that games are actually this cheap! I remember when I was buying for PC or PS2 (now, this was 5 or so years ago) and spending between 20-75$ for a game. It seems like such a great deal to me, compared to buying games for PC or any other platform. Anyone else find that $.99-$5.99 is a great deal for a game? Or am I just living in the stone age? How do the developers make any money?
It's the iPhone. They're not supposed to have prices like $50 because of the following reasons: - They're all electronic, no physical discs required, no marketing costs, no packaging costs, just plain development costs - They're not in the same league as console games; you can't fit games like the real Resident Evil 4 onto a cellphone, it doesn't have the memory or graphics capabilities The current prices are mostly reasonable. There are occasionally the over-optimistic indie developer trying to push for a price tag like $4.99 for a minigame that could mostly be worth $0.99, but those usually end up being ignored by the audience anyways.
Yup, games are cheap, but I'm happy, because otherwise, with my low budget, I'd have to play MUCH less games, lol.
Many devs skimp on the beta testing, resulting in apps that appear in the app store before before being sufficiently tested on each of the officially supported devices That means you're taking a bigger risk with both money and your time whenever you click the buy button. The game may not load at all, have sound glitches on your model, have inconsistent performance from device to device, erase your saved games and stats, or crash just as you finish a level. It doesn't help that devs are always adding new features without fixing all existing bugs. Some devs have admitted to not even having access to certain devices such as a 3rd gen itouch, or 2g iphone for testing purposes. Or, they have exactly one of a given model lying around, and conclude from experience with a single unit that a build is stable on that class of device. Add control and memory management issues of many apps to the above, and what you have is value somewhat compromised by aggravation. Ideally, a person should never have to pm or email a dev unless to clarify instructions. As soon as such an action is required to get something working, then that effectively increases the price by whatever that amount of one's time is worth. Example of correspondence with dev: I: "Game keeps freezing at such and such a point..." Dev: "I've had no such problems on a variety of devices" I: "Ok that sucks for me. For what it's worth, I'm using OS 3.12 on a 2nd gen itouch" Dev: "OOOHH.... I didn't test it on OS 3.12....I'll have to do that for the next update....Have a nice day buddy "
When you're talking about the iPhone this doesn't apply quite so strongly as for most other mobile phone platforms. The iPhone/iPod Touch have some pretty hefty (especially the most recent models) graphics capabilities as well as a decent amount of device memory to work with. Yeah, you're probably not going to be able to fit as much content as you can in a console or computer based game, but you can come significantly closer that with most other mobile phone platforms. In the iDevice world the problem isn't lack of capabilities in the device. The low prices themselves are becoming a part of the "games lack depth" problem. Many many games for the platform could easily include significantly more depth in both content and gameplay, but development studios choose not to go that far simply because the development cost to sales revenue scale quickly tips in a negative direction. Developers have to carefully consider how much they can afford to develop in light of the consumer demand for dirt cheap games. I firmly believe that if the consumer mind-set on the platform was geared more toward considering $10 to be an average price for a game, instead of wanting every game to be $.99, you'd see a lot more of the releases contain significantly more content and gameplay depth than we are seeing at the moment. Q
Also take a look at your iPhone screen. Then take a look at your computer screen. Divide your computer screen size with your iPhone screen size. Then divide your regular PC game price with the result of the previous calculation and what do you get? Your ordinary iPhone game price. Well, maybe not exactly, but that could be one explanation.
As I've said elsewhere, the iPhone may have some nice games, but it's not an ideal platform for gaming. The screen is smaller than the average display, and virtual joysticks / d-pads are still a problem for most people because their big thumbs cover too much of the screen. Many developers started offering their games at low prices to compensate for these, and other, drawbacks. I'm not complaining, however. I've spent at least $90 in the app store.
Developers don't need to buy packaging, pay for distribution, shipping to retailers, organise a way for payment, etc. The appstore is simple, and people trust Apple so there's no qualms about clicking 'buy'. Also volume. The sell in volume. You know, the louder you can make your game, the more it will sell.
Trust Aurora to argue against the only sensible topic I've seen in weeks. Yes, they are cheap, but that won't stop all the poor malnourished little kiddies from complaining that $2.99 is way too much to trade for the hundreds of hours poured into the making of a decent app. Just because you take away packaging and distribution doesn't suddenly mean the devs don't need money. How is anyone supposed to live off the shit pay they earn on the App Store? It's ridiculous. I still maintain that $4.99 should be the minimum price for a game. If a game is submitted that really isn't worth just five measly bucks (which isn't many at all, unless you ask freedog), it should be rejected for not complying with standard quality regulations. If the kids wanna moan, let them. The iPhone is an expensive device, generally aimed at the kind of people who can afford to spend five little dollars on a game.
but a select few do pretty good. For example the pocket god team is probably closing in on 1 mil in profit from a .99 game. Doodle jump creator probably does pretty good, and the big devs like EA and gameloft make huge money. The indie devs are the ones that stuggle to make cash.
It's funny because these cheap prices actually make me end up spending more money than I do on console games. I take notice when I spend $60 or $120 on a PS3 game or two.. I quickly lose track of what I spend on these appstore games because they're all just a few bucks... but so many of them can add up very quickly. I just got my itunes receipt in email today, it was 60$ for about 20 games I dl'd over the course of 3-4 days this past week. I know it's the price of only one console game but if someone had asked me what I spent over the last week, I'd have figured around $20-30. If I hadn't seen that today I'd have probably spent another 10-15$ today as well. There is a direct correlation between the amount of time I spend on TA and how much money is in my bank account
Agreed. I spend 60-80+ a month on games. I love to try lots of them. I do feel that they are very cheap and there are alot of great games in the .99-2.99 range. Overhead or no overhead, it's cheap people just like to complain and whine too much.
I guess a lot of it has to do with people's income too. For me, $4.99 for a game is a super bargain. if I get 10 hours of fun out of it, I feel really satisfied. But, then, I am a kept woman I can see how people (teenagers, mostly, maybe?) without incomes, could find $4.99 to be a lot. $1.99 almost seems like theft from the developers... honestly! It's true that the devices are geared towards people who have the money to buy one. Certainly you don't spend $300 + on a device if you can't afford to spend any money on it once you have it. I also agree with Quorlan that the lack of effort put into the games is directly correlated with the fact that no one wants to pay more than .99 for an app. That wouldn't really motivate me if I were a developer. I think the low prices also make it unfeasible for a lot of indy developers. I think that there are SOO many amazing games that have come out from indy developers, in different platforms, that are just very creative. I like being able to support independent devs because then you get a wider array of creative ideas on the platform. If that means spending $5.99 instead of $1.99, it seems worth it to me, for increased quality and diversity.
I don't think it's an issue of motivation as much as it's an issue of not being able to tell the bank you're going to be missing this month's mortgage payment because you need to beta test. I think a lot of the loudest price whiners live in insulated environments where the only thing they have to worry about is running out of iTunes credit- Which obviously doesn't give much perspective when it comes to realistic pricing and the worth of goods/services.
It's $5. If you're not living in a third world country you deserve a slap. Besides, devs would still have the option to put a game on sale. They'd set the lower price and the maximum sale time would be a week or something, after which it'd automatically revert. Perfect for cheapskates like yourself who are quite happy to rob the people providing your entertainment.
