With good, popular games going free and some great freemium games that don't really require any money to be spent on IAP, I'm finding myself spending much less on apps than I did a year or two ago. I'll occasionally buy games that I'm particularly interested in, like Shadow Gun, Modern Combat 3 and Infinity Blade 2. But it's kind of insane how much entertainment you can get for free in the App Store. Over the last few months I got a whole bunch of good games for free, including: - Reckless Getaway - Jetpack Joyride - TanZen - RoboKill - Cover Orange - Zombie Smash - Backbreaker 2 - Cross Court Tennis - Mos Speedrun - To-Fu 2 - Minute Commander - Race After 1977 - Sprinkle - NFS Shift - Sports Car Challenge - The Sims Medieval - Where's my water? - Asteroids Gunner - Space Miner - Bullet time HD - The Nightworld These games alone provide hours and hours of entertainment. So much that I often struggle to find time to play the games that I've actually payed for. So I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same way. Now I'm not complaining, getting games for free is great. But I can now see why freemium is starting to take off and why iOS game developers/publishers often drop their games down to $0.99. I'm not sure yet if freemium games are a good thing or a bad thing, but either way, it looks like they are here to stay for a while.
Gotta agree with you, so many games go free nowadays. It's like you don't need iTunes credits at all... I've been having 0 credits for few weeks now and been listing all releases in wishlist so I'll buy them later, but anyway, been downloading a lot of free games...
I spend more now, but download less. Seems like I used to download every decent game that went free, and found myself forcing myself to play games I did not really enjoy in time I did not really have. In the last month I have deleted nearly 200 free and paid games on my ipod and from my backlog. I now buy the games I really want on launch (MC3, Shadowgun, IB2, Bike Baron), and leave the rest free or not (recently NFS Shift, Sims M, etc).
I still do a lot of instabuys to support developers that I think deserve it. I'll even throw a dollar at some freemium games like Bullet Time. I don't necessarily like freemium but they deserve it!
Even with the amount of fantastic games that are available on sale/free, I've actually been spending more because i've been spending more time gaming on an iOS device than before. The majority of games that i've bought, i've felt i've got more than my money's worth (not really difficult considering the price of games these days) I have way too many games, and i dont like to play more than a couple at a time, so I add games to my wishlist and, almost inevitably, they fall in price or go free, so I end up downloading/buying it thus only adding to my never ending game backlog.
I voted for 'about the same', but my spending habits have changed. When I started buying games, I bought a lot of cheap ones. Now, I buy more expensive and high-profile games, but less overall, so it balances out.
Of course I spent the same or maybe less money than the past year, cause the tons of free, freemium, lite version and 99c quality games that popped out during this time...please raise the price...appstore, you are ridicously cheap
Well I've spent MUCH less, but it's not because games go free more often. I simply don't have the time playing so many games, so that's the main reason why. I could care less if a game I bought went free, unless the developer had already promised the game wouldn't go free, or if the game went free after a launch sale.
I've spent far less over the past 6 months or so, but not because games are going free, because I've been less interested full stop. I overdid it with iOS games and fall-winter 2011 has been such a good time for PS3 games there hasn't been anything on the App Store strong enough to pull me away from it. I'm slowly coming back though, pacing myself...
Much, much more. I've spent way more in the last year than i ever did before. That's cause I got my iTouch this year
I've been spending quite a bit less since this time of the year in 2010. I actually spent about $450 from September 2010 to the end the year. Right now, I'm probably still below $200 for my purchases between September 2011 up to today. It has nothing to do with sales and freebies though. I haven't been able to download a good game gone free in...ever honestly, because I buy the games I want when they first come out. I never bother downloading free games I haven't heard of. Honestly that's just a waste of time once you see what I have in my library on iTunes. The reason for my spending less is probably because the only games I get anymore are new games. Back then, there were older releases I never got to pick up so half of my spendings were on older releases when I got a giftcard. Now, it feels like the rate at which premium priced games release has slowed down so drastically that I don't feel the need to wait for any kind of sales. Have you seen how many worthwhile paid games EA and Gameloft have put out in the past few MONTHS? 5? 4? Not only that, I have every older game I want now besides FFIII. That's literally the one game left on my wishlist from the past 3 and a half years of releases on the AppStore. Also, I've connected my iTunes account to my card in March so I don't get iTunes giftcards anymore. I was never able to hold onto my credit when I used to buy giftcards, lol. I always had to spend it all the day I got the card. Finally, I buy very few casual games now. I used to get every casual game that was popular, but they don't entertain me anymore. Don't want to keep saturating my iTunes library with them. Reading down my purchase history, I see Black Ops Zombies, Infinity Blade 2, The Bard's Tale, Don't Run With a Plasma Sword, Dragon Fantasy, INC, Sonic 4, iAP for Tactical Soldier, Puzzle Agent 2, iBlast Moki 2 HD. Those were my purchases from 11/22/11 up until today. The only casual game in there is iBlast Moki 2 HD. It's one of my favorite puzzle games ever so I thought it'd be worth it getting it for the family iPad 2, but yeah, the others reflect the types of games I now buy. I don't consider platformers to be casual games (DRWaPS, INC, Sonic 4). Thinking about getting Desert Zombie today if it doesn't lag like hell on the 4th gen. iPod like it does on the iPhone 4. Sometimes, I really wish I didn't have such a bad habit when it came to buying iOS games. Before I began gaming on the iOS, I would generally always finish or try to finish a game before moving on to the next one. On the iOS, the prices are so low, it's often impossible for me not to buy the next big thing as soon as I can. I've always said that the bigger opportunity cost when it came to iOS games wasn't the money you're spending on the games, it's the time you could be using to play another game. With this mindset, I have no problem deleting a paid game, especially if it was just a dollar, 5-10 minutes after buying it. Obviously, this leads to an incredibly extensive backlog. It's quite a different phenomenon from console gaming or even from other handhelds. Although my iOS spending has gone down quite significantly, I now buy new releases for the 3DS and games on Steam. Consequently, my overall game spending is still about the same. Thinking about getting a PS3 once winter break starts in a week. I'm afraid doing so might cause my iOS spending to plummet down drastically and the time I have for iOS games even more drastically so I'm still thinking about it. I'd probably end up spending a max of $30 a month on the AppStore if I do get one. We'll see. Quite an interesting thread though, thanks.
I come from a portable gaming bckground. The 1st year of my ipod I tried the casual games ,but felt bored quickly after a day or 2. Iam used to games with a little more depth , even if its simple. I will give stardash as an example ,its simple controls but gameplay has ton of depth and imagination. I wish the apstore had games that were more midlevel like a castlevania type, contra type,or of course mario type. Until games all reach a certain standard ,my spending has decreased dramatically.
A lot less than last year and the year before. Maybe a game or two a month. iPhone games just don't interest me as much as they used to.
I used to buy any game that looked interesting... ANY! Ended up wasting hundreds of dollars on stupid games which I've barely touched since and most of which have gone on sale or free. :| On the bright side I've learnt to read reviews, only buy one or two dollar games and wait for any more expensive games I want to go on sale - worked with Scribblenauts. That being said if they go on sale for more than $2, I'll buy it anyway if I want it. I also check AppShopper for the pricing history just to be safe. If there's a game I feel like I absolutely need and there are no chances of a sale soon, I'll buy it though and won't wait Anyway, I've ended up saving heaps of money and waiting has allowed me to get heaps of good games for free which I would have bought in the past but decided to wait for now, such as Monster Island, Burn the Rope, iSlash and more!
Definitely. Used to be exactly the same. I try to make sure the game is something I'd want before buying it now. Saves money and more importantly, saves time. I still can't force myself to wait for a sale for a game that I want though.
Kepa comes to mind, as a result of his awesome marketing skills, he gets a lot of first week purchases.
