What's the most you'd be willing to pay for an iOS game?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by klink, Jun 11, 2015.

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What's the most you would be willing to pay for an iOS game?

  1. Nothing, I only play free games

    3 vote(s)
    3.0%
  2. 99¢

    1 vote(s)
    1.0%
  3. $2.99

    3 vote(s)
    3.0%
  4. $4.99

    6 vote(s)
    6.0%
  5. $9.99

    9 vote(s)
    9.0%
  6. No upper limit, depending on the quality of the game

    78 vote(s)
    78.0%
  1. klink

    klink 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #1 klink, Jun 11, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2015
    There was a recent poll in MacWorld UK where 61% of the respondents said they wouldn't pay anything for games. I'm curious what peoples opinions would be on a gaming website. Please be honest so we don't skew the results.
     

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  2. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    That poll was SO depressing to see. I mean Android people expect everthing free but i was surprised that was iOS

    Then again look how many people wait for a one dollar price drop on a game here, or rush like crazy people trying to get a promo code for a 99c game. Depressing.

    I think the prices arent too bad, a lot of throwaway games are about 1 or 2 dollars which is about right, the higher quality you go i'm totally happy spending 5 or 10 dollars on a game (I'll be picking up Transistor later)

    Again when i was a kid in the 80's games were very expensive, i was on poor pocket money, still saved up to buy as many games as i can. All these years later kids have 200 or 300 dollar phones yet dont seem to want to buy a game for 1 or 2 dollars.

    I've been around for the 8 bits, the arcade years, 16 bits and more. I think mobile gaming is amazing, GREAT value and just so much variety. I'll always buy a game on release as i want the dev to get maximum value. Depressing how many cheapskates there are though
     
  3. Lift the Camel

    Lift the Camel Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2013
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    It all depends on the game. I would have no problem paying $30 - $40 for a game I thought I would really like and play a lot. Quite a few of the games I have installed, I would have paid $10 - $15 for, but they were $5 or under, generally. The App Store is awesome, but I think it causes many developers to price their games lower than they should, just to be competitive. Every single developer who buys into the no in-app purchases nonsense, should add optional 'donation' style in-app purchases for people who are willing to pay more. I love not having to worry about in-app purchases, but would be more than willing to throw a few dollars their way of I really like the game.
     
  4. Kenan2000

    Kenan2000 Well-Known Member

    Nov 25, 2013
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    They are dumb kids or dumb adults who cannot realize that there are so many masterpieces on ios,they think that only shitty free2play games work well on ios just like the console kids who hate on quality ios games,you have NO IDEA how much hate Bioshock received the day it was announced for ios and IT HAS SUCCEEDED JUST LIKE XCOM.

    Just ignore them,eventually they will realize that playing shitty energy bar,timer games is not the definition of fun because such games provide no fun of whatsoever compared to the games of the same genre but with a price tag.

    It was always like that - lazy people who don't wanna spend money will never disappear,but maybe,just maybe,they will realize that laziness is not worth loosing so much fun from playing games.

    PS If people complain about the game or lower the rating of the game cause they cannot play properly because of controls then probably something is wrong with their hands,I can play Monster hunter,Bioshock and other AAA quality ios games easily without a useless controller (oh well,maybe that's because I've been an ios gamer for 3 years...)
     
  5. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Said it a lot of times before but on my phone....

    Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolfenstein, Sonic I and II, Bastion, KOTOR, Bioshock, Atari, Activision classic old games.

    A couple of emulators, tons more AAA games, huge RPG's, great Cave shoot em ups, tons of platformers and other games

    All on one device in the palm of my hand, love it !!
     
  6. Exact-Psience

    Exact-Psience Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2012
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    I paid about $40 on MHFU on iOS coz i had to buy the JP version before the NA version came out :D

    The others i think the most i paid arent as expensive simply because they are mostly episodic like in Telltale games.

    That said, i am currently pretty strict with my purchases (having the one-purchase-per-week rule is one of them) so i can be really flexible with the price, but that would also mean i wont buy $0.99 titles even if it looks really good coz of the fact that i might be interested in something else.
     
  7. klink

    klink 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #7 klink, Jun 11, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2015
    That's a very smart approach. I find my limiting factor is often more time based instead of finances. It took me many years to figure out it's more enjoyable to dive deeply into a few quality games instead of sampling a bunch of games.
     
  8. Kenan2000

    Kenan2000 Well-Known Member

    Nov 25, 2013
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    I try to spend only 15$ per month lol
     
  9. Exact-Psience

    Exact-Psience Well-Known Member

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    Yup... that's one of my limiters too. The games i must buy now are something i can and must finish.

    Coz of that i havent bought anything that's endless for some time now.
     
  10. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #10 Nullzone, Jun 11, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2015
    Like psj3809 I've been around for a long time (hey, psj, did you ever play the original Pong and Asteroids? ;) ) , and with the memory distortion of old age the days where games cost 50+ bucks feel like yesterday to me.

    I would pay 50+ today as well, if the game is good enough. Something like Chaos Rings III would cost what on a console these days, 40 bucks? No problem with paying the same on iOS. Maybe a little bit (say, 5 Euros) less because I do not get a physical copy of the game that I can keep for my kid (That's important to me. I still have my PS1. So who knows, maybe he'll play FF7 or something like that one day) .

    As for spending limit:
    Originally I had set myself a limit of 25 Euros per month. That gives you a lot of good stuff on iOS.
    For comparison, the cheapest PS1/2 games you could get in Germany when those were the current console generation were the Platinum Editions for 20 Euros. Regular price was between 50 and 70 Euros, for ONE(!) game.

    Well, even with that limit, I ended up having a huge bunch of games that I didn't finish yet or not even played at all.
    So my new limit is "unless it's something really exceptional (like, say, a new Spiderweb release) , it goes onto the backburner until I finished all the other stuff or can say for sure that I won't complete game X and Y".

    With my current backlog alone I'll be busy for a few years, and it constantly grows.
     
  11. q8phantom

    q8phantom Well-Known Member

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    #11 q8phantom, Jun 11, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2015
    To be honest, I find myself only liking premium games, I have a lot actually! and when I play "Freemium" games, I do prefer not to pay, exception when I can buy a level, or something unlock-able that will stay on my device.

    I'm totally not a fan of buying energy, and following that approach into my game development as well ;)

    Because of this issue, I'm still deciding how much to price my game, I don't want to go too expensive, not cheap at the same time! It's 2 years of work on the game!
     
  12. ojtitus

    ojtitus Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I prefer premium games. If Sega would wake up and bring Phantasy Star Online 1&2 Plus to iOS, I would be happy to pay $100 for the game as long as it had offline and online modes. And if Wizards of the Coast was smart and brought the full featured MtG game to iOS, I would happily spend thousands over time, again as long as there is offline and online modes.
     
  13. Lift the Camel

    Lift the Camel Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2013
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    I typically only end up liking premium games as well.

    I hate the idea of buying energy, or consumable items, and don't think I ever will, so I am grateful for developers such as yourself.

    Maybe start with $6.99 and have the option to 'donate' more of people like it.
     
  14. q8phantom

    q8phantom Well-Known Member

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    Thank you, the price suggested seems about right, close to what I had in mind.
     
  15. Echoseven

    Echoseven Moderator
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    I would not pay much more than US$5 for a game (which works out closer to 6.50 local currency).

    Not because I don't value the games, but generally because I don't have that much time to play them. I have all the big releases on iOS - both Baldur's Gate games, Monster Hunter, KotOR, X-Com, Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick (both fully unlocked), Dragon Quest, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

    You know what I play the most? Well, at the moment it's Space Marshals (god that game is fantastic) but very rarely do I stick with the large releases. Mostly it's me throwing money at the developer/publisher.

    That said, Til Morning's Light is freaking amazing so I don't know. I guess all I'm saying is I buy just about everything that interests me, but only play 10% of those and price isn't really the limiting factor.

    Why did I post in this thread then? =/
     
  16. Kenan2000

    Kenan2000 Well-Known Member

    Nov 25, 2013
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    You're cool,mate.For each their own,some people like tiny,shorter games with not much content and some people love vice versa.At least you DO buy apps of your favorite developers.
     
  17. Edmilan

    Edmilan Well-Known Member

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    #17 Edmilan, Jun 12, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2015
    Willing to pay premium price for really really really good AAA game on iOS. Games that come to mind are those like Skyrim, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Blizzard games, etc
     
  18. farmboy74

    farmboy74 Well-Known Member

    Aug 26, 2011
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    I very much prefer premium games over the freemium games that the app store is awash with. I certainly don't mind paying a higher price especially if the quality is there.

    There has certainly been quite a few decent premium games released just recently, long may it continue.
     
  19. dancj

    dancj Well-Known Member

    Jan 25, 2011
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    I mostly got to £1-£2, but occastonally I push it up to £4.

    There are so many great games that come down to $1 or free that I don't ever need to spend more.
     
  20. klink

    klink 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 22, 2013
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    I wish something like this could be posted on the front page. I have a feeling we're missing a lot votes from casual fans. The MacWorld poll didn't separate gamers from non-gamers. So you couldn't identify if people wouldn't pay because the were cheap or that they didn't really care for games.
     

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