When it comes to casual games on the Mac, you can't do much better than BigFishGames.com: new games all the time, and all for the same price point of $6.99. A very few of these games were ported to the iOS. But, staring at the launch titles for the MAS today, a decent number of 'em are available at BigFishGames for substantially cheaper. I'm a huge fan of BFG, so I'm at a bit of a quandary: either continue to buy them from BFG or switch over to the MAS and spend a premium to get something built into the OS. The future is likely that people won't need to "discover" BFG anymore because the MAS will be built-in, but I doubt the price points will ever dip to $6.99. And, in the long run, I suspect the MAS will eclipse BFG because Mac casual game authors/porters won't need to find a distribution network anymore - there's one already built-in.
Isn't BFG a subscribe type deal? And don't you need a credit card? If MAS is like the App Store then no credit card needed, iTunes cards are sufficient. Easier for teens, people without credit cards (or who don't want a card linked), and gifting. Not to mention the MAS is much easier for the segement of people that are not very tech savvy (like grandma). As far as pricing, competition is always good. I for one am excited to finally have some choices on what is available and where to purchase it on my Mac (steam, BFG, MAS). For a long time there just wasn't anything fun available, and if something became available it was like 2 years after it came out for the PC.
I'm speaking as a game dev, so I'm might be biased. In the long run MAS will eclipse MAC BFG. MAS will be build in the OS and Apple will push it with strong marketing. Dev are getting more money from MAS than on BFG (if the game is sold at the same price on both portals, dev earn x2 on MAS). BFG never updates game (or very rarely if it contains a very bad bugs). MAS will allow dev to update their app as often as they wish (similar to the IStore). I'm pretty sure that games will reach a similar point to the one on BFG at some point. JC
I'll start by saying that I have no experience of Big Fish Games so I'm kind of talking generally. I'd prefer to buy my software from the Mac App Store as the fewer places that I need to register my bank details, the better in my book (that's not to say other places aren't reputable). That said the lesson in this is to hunt around the web as there's obviously more than one place to buy Mac Software. I think I'd be inclined not to buy at all in this case. Developers have just been gifted a great big marketplace, increasing their audience by many, many times over what has gone before for Mac. I won't support the ones that try to take the **** out of me.
