Hello everyone! I have been at work developing a game for awhile for the iPhone (actually started before I even bought a phone haha), and am nearing completion of it. Because I have little to do in my life, I have also been researching sales and pricing correlation on the App Store for the last half year. What originally started as just a small project to see how I would price my app and the DLC for it has actually turned into a school project. So far I have written around 40 pages on it (I am actually using it for one of my papers I need to graduate too!). Its basically a mini manual, detailing the following: -Elasticity on the App Store Market by Genre (basically, how do price changes effect the sales of games in various genres) -Introduction Sales/Price Hikes -Sales benefits of being in the Top 100, Top 50, Top 25 -Being featured by Apple -If the game is more console like (such as NOVA) or more simple like a traditional cell phone game -Brand recognition (games made by EA or Gameloft, and games with tie ins like Avatar) -And a little bit more... I have contacted various developers of successful games and abysmal failures for sales data. However, I only refer to the games in the paper as Game A, B, C etc for confidentiality on sales figures (some devs are a major pain in the ass on this one). I have noticed the huge discussion on this site since I joined about many of these topics and I was wondering, do you guys think there is a market for a manual like this for developers? Maybe I could sell copies of it to them? I feel like for the amount of time I have invested into this that the data I have drawn is very conclusive. Using statistics and regression analysis, I have found a high correlation between many of my hypothesis and the data that I have to support them so my ideas are also statistically supported. I would also answer some general questions if any devs have them because this site has been great to me so far!
You may want to post this in the Developer Discussion section. Also, you may want to write an actual abstract, so people have a better understanding of what you're offering.
I don't think I ever asked for you to be in my study? And you can't get the results anywhere yet. I have them on my laptop right now and am deciding if there is some site I can post them to and maybe make a profit because I think new and existing developers would be interested in this kind of data.
Never mind then. That was a different guy. I'd love to read it, any possibility of uploading it to iTunes?
This sounds right up my alley. I would definitely be interested in reading this, as I love anything related to Economics, and I have actually been trying to study trends in the app store over the past couple months as well
Yeh, my girlfriend left me awhile back and after that I needed something to drown out my sorrows and fill the void, plus I had a lengthy economics project due on researching market trends hence how this was born, and hence its length.
I don't want to post it online yet until I actually hand in the paper for class because they check online to see if it was copied and such, and I don't want to fail for something I put alot of time into. However, one thing I wanted to say is there is a definite correlation between games releasing at different price points and their sales. When you control for outliers (games like Doodlejump and such which just are run away successes and tend to be the exception, not the rule) and just look at the average, games with .99 tend to not sale as much as their 1.99 brethren. Devs I have talked to on average have also made more of profit on 1.99 price point than .99 (although this depends on amount invested into the game). Now some of you are going to argue with me and say but wait, most of the .99 games are in the top 25. Yes, that is true. However, these games are the exception. My paper is looking at making a profit in general, and is not really focused on marketing your game into the top 25 which is clearly the exception. Most games released will never see the top 100, let alone 50 or 25. So games priced at 1.99 seem to sell the best if you are out to make money. Many .99 games actually barely sell at all. I assume because they are viewed as poor because of their price, and the few that catch on virally (like Doodlejump) then sell for ridiculous amounts. 2.99 games also seem to turn a nice profit (like iDracula), for the same reason. Higher prices perceive higher quality. However, some games that sale for this price but aren't that great typically enjoy poor sales after an initial burst upon release (I assume from word of mouth).
from what iv seen on here if the game is not .99 its to expensive. so not sure where you get 1.99 as the magic number. is there a place to see sales online? chris.
I don't think there is. I contacted developers to get sales data. And 1.99 seems to be the magic profit number and sales number.
Yeh it definitely is the magic price point number for profit. Now it probably won't get you into the Top 25, but my data shows it will make you money on a consistent basis. I think its because .99 apps are viewed as crap typically.
Also, if some of you guys would be willing to provide me sales data and such (I would PM you the specifics I need), that would be great. Because I could add it into my stats and see if it further supports or changes my hypothesis.
