What I mean is that if you want a couple weeks, maybe a month or two, Ittll be on sale. So, why should anyone buy it at launch? I want valiant hearts, but if I wait a bit, I can get it cheaper. I feel bad doing so, but I'm positive they'll have it on sale so why buy it now? Thoughts?
If the developer compensate the player who bought the game before the sale, it's ok with me. If not, I got mad, and never buy their apps unless they are on sale.
It depends. If I like the game, and the game is featured, but not getting enough downloads, I think it's fine. The developer needs to maximize on it's exposure
Early sales only hurt the developer by weakening his income and diluting the publisher's image, for example \/ People who believe that video games are some sort of investment and should hold value over time (long term or short term) might find their money better maintained on other resources. Just buy games you would enjoy playing for a price you consider fair and no matter on any future price changes.
I get more cheesed off at the switch to free rather than price drops and sales. I've got ten apps on my update list that have switched to free with ads so I won't update them.
If a new game I buy at full price goes on sale a month or so later, I have no problems with that. However if I buy a new game and it goes on sale 1-2 weeks later, then I do have a problem and I'm annoyed by it. Also the next time I wish to buy one of their games, I think twice.
I think they're doing a disservice to those who bought their games first day of release. That's why I rarely buy apps on launch.
Supply and demand, I guess. The first full-price caters to the "MUZZZZT GEETTT GAMMME NOWWW!" dudes and dudettes, and then, hopefully, the discount caters to the rest. It does reek a little of desperation, though, but the thing is the cream does NOT always rise to the top. Without a few necessary strokes of luck, even most really good games will sink into the silty mire of neglected app store games. I think sales are often just a developer screaming "BUMP!" and getting temporarily back on the radar for a few moments.
In the case of smaller devs I guess a lot of price tinkering early after release is trying to figure out how to maximise their revenue. If an indie is self publishing they won't have data about whether halving their price will increase the total revenue or not, so they'll be testing the water a bit.
I don't mind at all. I'm happy to buy games ASAP so the dev gets more money. Shame people wait, games are so cheap as anyway
i'm the same way. i have so many games that if i started playing everyone i already own to completion, i would be long dead before i finished just iOS games, not even counting other systems. if a game is appealing to me, and the price seems alright for what i'm getting then i buy. sometimes then a game goes on sale soon after, i'm not mad, unless its 5 dollars to free or something drastic like that. but i don't have some master list of developers to not buy from or anything silly like that. if i play a game for 10 min and enjoy it, then its worth the buck or two that most games cost.
I buy a LOT of games and also have a huge list of games i've had to de-install due to space (which i will install later) so i should really not buy another game for about 18 months as i have so many to go through ! But i want devs to do well on iOS, my thinking is if devs release games which arent successful more and more will give up or move to another platform. So if my 1 or 2 dollar purchase helps them slightly then i'm quite happy buying a game when its out rather than wait for a price drop. Some of that might be from when i was a kid and games cost mostly $10, i'm still stunned how cheap games are on iOS and the quality of the majority of them. iOS is amazing for gaming, long may it continue
It doesn't bother me, but then I generally only buy them after they go on sale. I rarely pay more than 69p so the only sale that can have from that is to go free in which case I'm out 69p which doesn't bother me at all.
I agree but again i think its due to too many people waiting for price drops. If devs made a lot of money they wouldnt think of going freemium. Sadly they do as their apps after 12+ months of work dont sell as much as they think it will despite being just say $2 etc. Apps which go from premium-freemium i wouldnt solely blame the devs, i cant believe they sit there thinking 'i know whats a great move, lets annoy our paid customers and switch the app to freemium'. Presume they do this due to like i say lack of sales/revenue and trying something new to save jobs etc
We waited about 5 months or so before putting Glorkian Warrior on sale, and then we only did so when Apple asked us to. I would've set the sale price at $1.99 for our first sale, but apple asked us to set it as 99¢. Basically, we do whatever Apple asks, because if they want to give us a special promotion it's always worth it. And we really needed to have a sale, because sales had really really slowed down. That's why everyone has sales! If folks are buying tons at the regular price, maybe don't have a sale. But that's not the case for most of us. Knowing how hard it is to sell your game without direct spotlighting by Apple, I don't begrudge developers anything they want to try. The competition is fierce out there!
