battery lifes a killer. if this game was top notch, best graphics out there, had awesome online, lengthy story, just all over amazing... easliy worth $20. more than that... i dont know.
I don't think that that will ever happen. Too many people are on a iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2G and below that only like <10% of gamers have the proper device
You seem to be basing this new $30 price point on the engine and not the game. I believe the Unreal Engine 3 will do a lot to create Triple A games on the app store but in the end, the iDevice is primarily a phone or media device. I think $15-$20 games are possible but $30 is stretching it too far. When games reach that price point, the app store will be competing directly with the DS and the PSP and the games will be scrutinized much more closely and reviews will suffer. I don't think you are too far off though. Looking at some of the in-app purchase games like Skies of Glory, it's $28 for the complete experience. That is most likely the only way a game will release at $30 or above.
This. On a Touch, it's less an issue, as I don't rely on it for anything but music, etc. On an iPhone though? Not going to happen. No one in their right mind would willingly sap their battery just to play a 30 dollar game and then risk missing calls.
I don't think I'd pay something like $30 for a game that uses a screen the same size as my palm, when console games are ones that cost that much. I'd much rather pay for a real 40+ hour RPG that can be played on the TV. For me iPhone is used as a phone, for quick half-hour gaming sessions, and for neat little apps that won't work with the TV.
yes the price point is based on content not the engine (of course!) Im just saying now we are seeing the possibility for amazing games that dont need their own engine programmed, allowing way more development for art/storytelling/Deathmatch CTF multiplayer modes and more!.. The 4G iPhone/Touch will be using the EXACT same processor as the new PSP (its going to be from intel, and guess who intel likes) This engine will be cross platform. Soon games will be released across all of the devices. And once battery technology really improves, Sony and Nintendo will end up developing for the iDevice.. *The touch will be spearheading this IMO, its what all the kids will be asking for christmas when we see the cross platform release of hardware and games* Mac has the complete package, this is why they win in the end. Their device is more functional than the rest, the rest of these iphone-like devices just dont even get close to the complete package offered by Apple. This is just the start, give it a year and well start to see how things will level out. once 4G hits everyone will have access to the iPhone. Apple has a really longterm gameplan (more like a sniper eye on the competition, they're just getting closer to realising there is a red dot on them) Its why I bought 9 shares of AAPL last summer and its gone up +57 points/+$500
no resale value I can buy a $30 DS or PSP game and resell for $15 if I end up hating it or get tired of it. Iphone games have no resale value. Therefore, I'll never buy such an expensive game.
i feel like this is a minority and would not be considered in app development (and subsequent pricing)
i was thinkin of somethin but sounded retarded, but what if when dev can use the dock connector for their own accesories, why not just make a game cartdrige that connects and has all the games data? i was also thinkin that if ue3 will require more memory, why not make a small external hard drive if they plan on selling ue3 games through the app store?
this is WHAT they would do IMO.. but do we really need some stupid game connector, ill just play the freaking game, I think this is moving away from a streamline idea.. too much 3rd party garbage, IMO, who wants to carry that around neway and I found out a long time ago that when my music collection is gigantic (it normally gets deleted one way or another) that i just dont NEED every album I own @ once (this was when the ipod video came out and I wanted to puton some tv seasons)
This should absolutely factor into pricing. Digital content changes what powers we have over the content we own, often for the worse. We can not sell, lend, or trade a digital copy. Publishers are coveting a move to digital delivery exclusively on all platforms to squash this very market... one that they try to equate with stealing despite the consumers clear legal rights. DD gives them what they want, but if they want the consumer to go along, they need to be willing to split the economic boon with the consumers. The same can be said for many of the other economic benefits a DD system like the AppStore provides. The lack of manufacturing the software delivery method, case, manual, and the elimination of shipping costs make DD a very attractive method of delivery economically. It only seems fair that those savings be passed on, in whole or part, to the consumer. Sony's DD model the PSP Go is an absolute travesty for the consumer. All Digital Downloads are priced at the same level as the physical copies are at retail outlets, and there have been numerous examples where the PSN version actually is more expensive. While the AppStore is still young and we've yet to see how it will mature, it gives me hope that the Sony model - a model that only benefits the publisher and developers for the benefits that DD provides - will not necessarily win the day.
$30 is simply too much for a game on this platform, there's no chance for me buying one for that much.
Why would anyone pay $40 for a 40+ hour RPG on an iPhone when they could pay the same, get a similar length RPG and play it on a console?
Here's your problem, though I encounter this a lot with mac fanboys. Everything you posted here is based on subjective thinking and feeling, not objectivity and fact. Sony and Nintendo are never going to develop for the iPhone. They have no reason to, Nintendo especially. Wishing a thing, doesn't make it so. And the rest, well it's so based in fantasy it's not even worth refuting, but is worth a big laugh.
+1 These thoughts are mere volatile fancies which have nothing to do with reality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbJqswLi3uE
From a developer's perspective Some of the points you've stated in this thread are very valid, but I think you're mostly missing the point. It's not about how good games are possible on the iPhone. The iPhone (2g and 3g) is far more powerful than the DS and about the same power as PSP. The 3GS is a bit more powerful than the original Xbox (it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's a good reference), for example. Some people have said they would cash out $30 for a 40+ hour RPG. Creating an RPG like that is technically entirely possible (although the price is never based on the length of the game; today's action games often have only several hours of gameplay). The problem is justifying the investment. With the PSP or the DS, the owners are gamers. These people have bought their devices for gaming exclusively and if a game is good they're willing to pay for it. The iPhone + iPod touch install base is huge (not as huge as the DSes though), but a lot of these people are not gamers. It's a fact that an average price for a game on the iPhone is well below $10, and anyone who's not a gamer is simply not going to buy anything at $30, even if it has 200h of gameplay. Now, if you set your price to $30, you're basically appealing to only a small fraction of the iPhone market, the people that you could call gamers. Among that small number of potential players, only a portion will buy your game. In the end, you're left with a realistically very small user base, even though there are tens of millions of iTouch devices sold. If you want to target a larger portion of the market, you need to go with something cheaper and in that case it's usually unjustifiable to invest the amount of money necessary for a game like UT3, Bioshock or GTA4. Next you have said you'd want the kind of graphics like on today's consoles. Well, that will require the 3GS-class devices and that shrinks the potential market further, *a lot*. Going for both is difficult. The 2G/3G and 3GS are two very different classes of devices game-wise, because the 3GS supports shaders and creating games that could run on both types of hardware makes the whole process even more expensive and complex (remember the PC scene - the jump from fixed-function to shaders happened practically all at once; there were very few games that could work on both classes of hardware). So, the problem is not in what is possible technically on the iTouch devices, it's about what is profitable; the AppStore and the state of the market. Right now, a few-million-dollar games just don't seem profitable and that's why you don't really see the epic games from the PSP and DS on the iPhone, but only pale clones in most of the cases. Just my $0.02
