Wow. This guy's still trying say I told you so? Give it up man. Post all the charts, stats, and assumptions you want about App Store success, it doesn't make a difference. If anything, you come off looking more foolish and (IMO) cheaper than ever. Arn (one of the founders of TA) just completely proved you wrong, and i'm guessing he knows a little more on the subject than you do. Honestly man, in the time you've spent in this thread bitching about the price and trying to prove the devs wrong, you could've gone to your local 7-Eleven and panhandled the additional $2 you were unwilling to pay for the game, and bought yourself a copy.
"All evidence" suggests no such thing. If you want to make a comparison that's even slightly worthwhile, post the actual comparable chart for Run for a start (ie starting from release day), not the one from a month later. And, y'know, feel free to keep ignoring the large number of games which continue to outsell and/or outlast Canabalt at 99c. How's Backbreaker Football doing, a game just as simple as Canabalt and which can be basically completed in about 90 minutes? What about Cartoon Wars, released in July and still at No.11 in the All-Categories Paid chart? Line Up Pro, a bog-standard colour-match puzzler released two weeks before Canabalt, but still at 14 in the All Categories chart despite competing with thousands of similar games? Fling, released way back in August at $1.99, but which has been climbing from nowhere since having the price cut to 99c and is now sitting pretty at No.3 in the All Categories chart, despite being another simple generic puzzler? Skee-Ball, which is competing against an existing game that's almost identical (Arcade Bowling) and a very similar one with vastly superior graphics and much more content (Ramp Champ), which came out two weeks before Canabalt but is holding rock-steady at No. 2 in the All Categories chart? All of these games are original content, all of them have very simple gameplay, none of them are built on famous IP, and none of them (except Backbreaker Football) has had any noticeable hype whatsoever. Yeah, you REALLY pwned me. Sorry, love, but the facts don't fit your blinkered price-raising agenda. Fact is, Canabalt was sustained by hype and pre-existing brand recognition for a few days, then dropped off a cliff, then got a charge of App Store front page life support which sustained it for another week, and is now in free fall again. A two-week lifespan is NOT the norm for really good games. It might be the norm for rubbish, but not for something as good as Canabalt. It doesn't matter how angry or whiny you get about people being "cheap", the fact is that a lot of people who would buy this game at 99c are turning away from it because IN CONTEXT it's poor value. If the developers think they'll make more money from two weeks of sales at three times the price, that's entirely their right and I wish them the best of luck. Me, I'll just have to content myself with the 335 games I've got on my iPod at the moment, because I'm so much of a cheapskate that I only average around $120 a month buying iPod games that you get for free...
Gotta wonder about your argument when you claim that Skee-Ball, a game invented and trademarked in 1909, is not "famous IP." But then again, maybe you hadn't heard of it because you'd probably have to pay over 99c to play it at an actual arcade
I soo agree with you, but then again, it does keep this thread active and maybe that a good thing. Game is worth every cent that i paid for it.
I bought this yesterday after trying out the flash version. It's great, and I'm fine with the price, but it does make me wonder: what happens if Apple finally releases Flash for the iPhone/iPod touch? But that's neither here nor there. Definitely an addictive game and I'm happy to support the developer. The graphics and sound are awesome and it definitely has that "just one more time" quality. One thing I'd like to see added is Plus+ or OpenFeint. That would be a lot better then Twitter integration.
don't know if this has been posted, but for anyone who hasn't seen it, here's a link to the dev's sketchbooks about detailing all the behind the scenes stuff and design for canabalt. It's a nice read: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/11/the-running-man-behi.html ps. CRUNC, Apple will never enable flash on the iphone. Can you imagine how much that would shatter the sales in the Appstore? There would be a tidal wave of high-quality, free flash games and appstore sales would plummet. end of story.
So I had heard a little bit ago that the devs were working on some more artwork to add to the game, is this still in the works?
Unfortunately no. It only has the option to post your score to Twitter. I hope they'll add Plus+ support for leaderboards, rather then using their own thing.
I think a new obstacle will be coming on the next update because i saw a tweet of semisecret "i ran 93874 before hitting a billboard blah blah" something like that.
