Are iPad game prices too high?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by ElectricGrandpa, Apr 6, 2010.

  1. ElectricGrandpa

    ElectricGrandpa Well-Known Member

    Sep 5, 2009
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    Brampton, Ontario
    This is something I've been thinking about over the last couple days since I got my iPad, and it really hit home when I read this article on Engadget about how iPad prices are way too high: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/editorial-ipad-prices-are-out-of-control-and-will-kill-us-all/

    Basically, iPad prices are freaking high right now. Not compared to other gaming platforms, but compared to the iPhone. At first this seems likes a great thing for developers, now we can make more money! ... but will we?

    I'd argue that in the very short term, it'll be good for some devs while the iPad is new, but once users start getting their iPad app bills, they're going to tone down their purchasing a lot. On the iPhone even when I bought a ton of games, I'd never end up paying more than $40 a month, but now people are reporting bills of over $100 in just a day or two.

    I think that this is bad for indie devs. Whether you like it or not, what this means is that users are going to buy fewer games. If users are buying fewer games, it means they're probably not going to be buying my game and your game. Instead they're going to be buying games from names and brands they trust. If they have a choice between a 4.99 Gameloft game and your 4.99 game, most of them are going to buy the Gameloft game, because they know Gameloft makes high quality games and there's a risk that your game could be a giant dud.

    Even if we price our apps well below the $4.99 mark, I think we're still going to see fewer sales, because users don't have infinite money. They're going to be spending more on all the other expensive games and apps that the iPad has. For every 9.99 app that they buy there could be up to 10 indie games that they're missing out on.

    I know that games will tend have higher prices on the iPad because it's definitely more work to develop for, but I'm worried that the very high prices(although they will eventually mellow out somewhat), are going to create an ecosystem where users are more concerned about prices and their budgets. I don't know anyone who keeps track of their purchases on the iPhone, but on the iPad, users are going to start thinking carefully about each thing that they buy, which is bad for us. What do you think?
     
  2. nattylux

    nattylux Well-Known Member

    Sep 17, 2008
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    Prices are already dropping. The iPad market is guided by the same principles the iPhone market is - purchases are driven by visibility, and visibility is provided by the Top Lists, which are calculated based on # of units sold, not revenue generated. Therefore, the incentive is still to make it onto the top lists, and people are trying to do that by dropping the price.

    I think the iPad App Store is going to look a lot like the iPhone store in about a month.
     
  3. mrWalrus

    mrWalrus Well-Known Member

    Dec 20, 2008
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    designing games
    Venice, CA
    I've personally never seen people so distraught over paying $5-10 for software.

    If making software was as quick and easy as pushing a button, I might agree that prices are high. However people need to realize that quality software takes highly skilled, and talented, people a good deal of time to make. And if the people making the software can't earn a living from doing so then the software is not going to come out anymore.

    Instead, what was bad for the market was putting pricing in the hands of non-professionals, and letting the market fall in love with 99 cent apps. You can say that's capitalism, but even the most desperate company in the console market knows you can't lower prices to the bear minimum and expect to be around next year.

    Of course the two markets are different for a great number of reasons but there's fact remains that there's no way to even come close to break even at that price point.

    There is always room for quality apps. The rest of the market should, and will, fall by the wayside.

    As for the engadget article, that individual has a page full of software for under $100. Where I come from that's a steal and in the console market he'd not even be able to afford two games for that amount.
     
  4. The prez 12521

    The prez 12521 Well-Known Member

    Aug 17, 2009
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    this may be true and all, but just because I have a $500 device, dont assume im a millionaire. And as bad as it may be, Why should i pay 3x for the SAME game with some new art?
     
  5. Eastbound

    Eastbound Well-Known Member

    Then don't buy the same game with upgraded art. If the games don't sell at high prices, the prices will drop.

    And everybody knows the market's prices will be driven down soon, so why complain?
     
  6. The prez 12521

    The prez 12521 Well-Known Member

    Aug 17, 2009
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    exactly!
     
  7. ScottColbert

    ScottColbert Well-Known Member

    Yoiu don't have a too. The iPad and the apps are a luxury and not a necessity. Nowhere does it say you have a right to pay lower prices. If you want something on the app store, either wait until it's on sale or until you have the money. Don't bitch about devs trying to make a living.
     
  8. The prez 12521

    The prez 12521 Well-Known Member

    Aug 17, 2009
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    im not really bitching, i have the many for the apps. Im just stating excuses I've seen places...

    like this: COUNTERATTACK: well if you want to make a better living dont develop app store games.

    now insert your valid statement :p
     
  9. MexicanJesus

    MexicanJesus Well-Known Member

    Nov 10, 2009
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    Did you just into a forum for developers, then say developers are bad for not underselling thier product?
     
  10. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    iPhone Dev
    Actually, I think that might be the opposite of capitalism. Capitalism follows a supply/demand structure with a focus on maximizing profit per unit. There are elegant equations (formula) to figure this out, and it kind of confuses me that programmers, people who are supposed to be knowledgeable in math, simply do not understand this.

    But I do agree that the idea of $0.99 apps is bad for the market. We let it happen and I am guilty of it myself.

    I can't think of any developers that ended up with LESS profit after they raised their prices. Unfortunately, it is a tough sell to convince devs to raise their prices.
     
  11. MexicanJesus

    MexicanJesus Well-Known Member

    Nov 10, 2009
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    In the dope game, when you catch someone underselling, you kill them.
     
  12. ArtCoder

    ArtCoder Well-Known Member

    IMO, prices will fall if developers let them fall. And I hope we'll be mature enough to set a reasonable price for our games and not give in to competing in terms of price.

    Once there are quality titles at 0.99/Free, it makes it tough for everyone to make a profit. If you set your price higher, you're immediately compared to this or that game of the "same quality" available for 99c. On the other hand, if you lower your price, you hardly earn enough to justify the development...

    Of course, developers that willingly set their apps at 0.99 are probably hobbyists who don't care much about their winnings or big companies that have so much money to put into advertising that even at 0.99 they manage to raise millions...

    The difference with the iPad is, I think, that it's not as easy to make a quality title. The iPad's screen is not as forgiving as the tiny screen of the iPhone, so you have put quite a lot more work to have a high quality app. As a result, games for the iPad will necessarily be more expensive or they won't be many of them. It just wouldn't make sense for a developer to put the extra work just to earn pocket change.

    I must point out, however, that I don't agree with what many devs are doing right now. Princing your iPad port (with little or no added value to the customer) at 5x what you're charging for the iPhone version is not reasonable at all, IMHO.
     
  13. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    Bingo!

    My hat is off to all of the devs that turned their existing games into universal builds.

    One method I haven't seen used yet (was discussed in the Labyrinth 2 thread) was to use the lite + DLC method, and be able to enable the DLC if the iPhone/iPod version was on the device. (Kinda like how The Quest's expansion apps allow you to enable the expansions in the main game, after which you can delete the expansion app, which is awesome!)
     
  14. Big Albie

    Big Albie Well-Known Member

    Feb 12, 2009
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    Casual gamer/marketing dude
    San Francisco, California
    I've never seen so much complaining about prices as I have here. The market will decide what the prices are and the devs will react accordingly. This is how it has always worked, and if you're not in agreement with prices, then you simply your right not to buy.

    No offense intended to anyone, but our society has become one of self-entitlement where everyone feels like they're owed something (in this case, cheap if not free games). Devs are running a business and are entitled to make a living. You as a consumer are entitled to buy what you feel is of value at a price you feel is appropriate. If you don't like it, then don't buy it, but we don't need another session whining about what is and isn't fair pricing.
     
  15. Jarek

    Jarek Well-Known Member

    Dec 17, 2009
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    FISHLABS Moderator
    Końskie, Poland
    It all depends on a developer. To give an example, Real Racing costs 4.99$ for the iPhone and 9.99$ for the iPad? Do You think it is high price eventhough the its doubled?

    In my opinion it isn't at all - for iPhone version I am playing now I would pay 9.99$ because it is worth it. Not to mention HD textures, extended gameplay, car skin selection and many other new features in iPad version.

    If You go to grocery and see two kinds of cereals, one 250g from not popular but checked producer and one marked, Nestle cereals for 3.99$ which would You choose?
    Product is all the same, price is changed depending on the producer.

    (Maybe it's not a good example ;))

    And just one the margin - I find iPad prices a little bit too high in general. Maybe not for You, Americans, but for people who are allowed to buy imported devices only, their prices is an obstacle...
     
  16. Deewin

    Deewin Well-Known Member

    Dec 16, 2009
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    my first 2 iPad apps costs about 99 cents each. Artshop pro and Goodreader. Both of them are supposedly better than the competition (which costs about 5-10x more) too :D
     
  17. PoV

    PoV Well-Known Member

    Oct 10, 2008
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    London, Ontario, Canada
    iPad is a very different market. I'm already getting some very different feature requests compared to iPhone, the big one being profiles. The iPad seems to be more of a family+shared device, where the iPhone is more personal.

    Admittedly, many of us just took our games and tweaked + HD'ified them for the market. But as the market grows, we'll have to take the usage scenarios like the above more seriously. If you can justify adding profiles and things like that at the 99 cent price point, well all the power to you.
     
  18. mobileben

    mobileben Well-Known Member

    Jul 17, 2009
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    Lumpy's Handler
    Zgrunturos and San Francisco
    #18 mobileben, Apr 6, 2010
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2010
    My 2 cents on this all. IMHO, the race to the bottom has already begun. You have people already selling iPad/"HD" apps for $0.99 or are employing similar methods used with the iPhone App Store. So it is probably only a matter of time when the prices will erode.

    Obviously everyone has their own right to choose pricing as well as deciding whether or not the price is too high to purchase. But the current iPhone pricing scheme has really created an environment where the consumer has way more product than they can consume (note I am not saying anything about quality of product, just volume). So it is only natural they become accustomed (dare I even say expect) to the low prices. This has helped shape the ADD-esque behavior of the consumer. There are plenty of examples of products that charge more and are gobbled up by the consumer. In other words, the consumers have the money, if they feel the intrinsic value is there.

    The problem right now with indie devs is that they generally price too low and produce products that aren't always of the best quality. This is all to the benefit of the large publishers, since they have name brand recognition as well as more forgiveness from people when their products aren't stellar. In the end, the current climate widens the gap and allows the larger publishers to grow their market base even more, while the mass of indie developers struggle even more. Sure there will be a small number of indies that "make it". But do they really make it in the long term? Or are they simply the flavor of the month?

    Something I tell people some times ... "I'd probably have an easier time pan handling $0.99 off of someone than selling them a $0.99 app". Okay, I live in a city so it is more applicable to me. And it is a joke ... sort of. Because in the end, it probably is true.

    And yes, I know it is my choice to be doing dev in this arena ...

    As a side note. When we submitted our Hoops Madness series a few weeks back for approval, we marked it as available for all devices. We have at least 7 iPad users that downloaded one of the versions. We are actually working on a HD version (altho I don't think we'll call it "HD") but figure we had nothing to lose from doing that.
     
  19. Deewin

    Deewin Well-Known Member

    Dec 16, 2009
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    We now live in the age of entitlement. People want everything cheap or free from digital media companies without any type of restrictions because they would be paying for the content. Many people don't want to pay X amount of dollars for a product anymore because it's so fast and easy to pirate digital content from the web.
     
  20. Big Albie

    Big Albie Well-Known Member

    Feb 12, 2009
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    Casual gamer/marketing dude
    San Francisco, California
    It's unfortunate because this has seeped into everything and not just content.
     

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