Price Increase Experiment $0.99 to $1.99 - Starting Soon!

The price is belong to the game content, it should be higher if your game is the rich game.

 

Unfortunately, that isn't true. There are many factors that are involved and has nothing to do with the costs, nor quality of the content or gameplay.

A lot of developers think that time invested = price. It doesn't work that way. If that was the case, we should be selling our games at $100 a copy, no problem.

 

I couldn't agree with you more.

This is an interesting thread. I say I should start spending more time here than on iphonedevsdk as that place has gone downhill quite a bit.

 

why? too many 14 year olds making too much noise? beware - happens here too

 

The business discussion here seems much more sophisticated/engaged. I think a lot of spam creators crowd the iphonedevsdk boards. Jibberish English, rude comments, and scammy practices abound.

I'm sure there are a fair number of idiots that still troll the developer threads, but you guys seem a lot more focused on what I want to talk about as well.

 

I found this article about iPhone app pricing:
http://blog.cascadesoft.net/2009/12/14/pricing-strategies-how-to-price-an-iphone-app/

The author didn't discuss experimenting with different prices yet, though. Still, the article gives an overview of pricing strategies. Your thoughts?

 

eek.. thats nasty..

i like to contribute information and assist indies - so, your welcome here

 

Yeah, good call. The app store is a ridiculously elastic market - where else would merit price experimentation threads?

 

Companies experiment with price all of the time in lots of different markets.

[rant]
The problem as I see it for developers on the App Store is that the marketplace is too highly controlled by Apple.

What I mean by that is that they have a lot of variables they want to control for good or bad: App ratings, software compatibility, bugginess, price points, rating and review system, featured app system, etc...

The problem for us is that Apple doesn't really tell us a whole heck of a lot. For instance, a lot of small developers (and unfortunately a lot of spammers) rely on updated apps popping up on the new release list.

When they pulled that without warning (ostensibly to stop spamware) they screwed over some indy developers that are trying like hell to get their apps noticed. And all the spamware people are going to do is create more spamware, putting them at the top of the list with new "apps".

And I don't think the move itself was that big of a deal, as updates really shouldn't belong in the release list. But to just do this out of the blue, is unsettling and frustrating. It's an immature and flawed system, and we are trying to make money on a system that is being run somewhat arbitrarily, at least from the indie developer's point of view.

There will always be people exploiting the system. More information would help those of us trying to make real products. And maybe we could give Apple some input if they just asked.

And with how flawed the marketplace is now, the spamware apps are completely polluting the pool. I don't have the solution, but I hope Apple tries to fix it, as I know they want consumers to get their hands on quality products, but their system is making it difficult to sell them.

[/rant]

 

D-Cypher, make sure you put a link to your game(s) in your sig. I like to look at what other developers are doing.

 

Good idea

Electrical engineering is my background, not art, as you will see

 

My point was that in all other markets consumers EXPECT to PAY for items. The App store differs drastically in that regard. I don't wander down to Best Buy and bitch to all the employees that things cost money (then again I'd have to wander to the movie studios or product manufacturers and tell them personally for a true comparison)

 

Good point.

 

That article was really interesting. Other stuff on the site is quite good too and now I want to buy their economics app LOL

 

Top lists are based strictly on weighted total sales over a window of time, not revenue, which makes it all the more impressive that certain titles (i.e. GameLoft's Uno) can retain high chart position at premium prices.

If app rankings were based on revenue, the incentive to discount to the bone wouldn't be there, but instead developers would be motivated to choose an "optimal price."

 

Wow, several monthes of work jumping from the price of a subway ticket to the price of a beer ?

People will never be able to afford this

 

Hey there everyone This is a very interesting thread! One thing though, if I understand correctly the game is still on some of the TOP lists correct? I think (not) being featured anywhere is a lot more closer to home for some of the devs This is why I think you guys might also like the results of our little experiment as we will be trying to change the prices for some of our less fortunate early game titles. We will post the results on our blog probably but i'll be sure and post a link here as well.

 

Am I the only one to be shocked and pissed off by this massive underpricing we can see on all those wonderful apps ?

I mean, it is a common fact now that for the same quality, iPhone games will have to be 4x cheaper than on other platforms. Hey, mass marketing does have limits.

Underpricing a work to generate more sells is called agressive marketing. And the appstore is the only market I know on earth that is supporting such an economy breaking.
Just do that cheap pricing in any other serious business (like webdesign & graphism for instance, as I worked for them), and you will be blacklisted by every other market actors.

Something is wrong with this overall 1$ scheme. Your work has value, goddamn it. Some apps do worth 1$ though, but some others really worth much more.

How can any serious business justify tagging a game with 30$ on a serious platform when you got (sometimes) better games for 1 freaking dollar ?
How will Rockstar justify to sell GTA Chinatown Wars 4x times more expensive now ?
How on earth can any serious studio have the will to raise the appstore bar ? (I mean, seriously raise the bar)
This will hurt the handheld videogame market long term.

Come on devs, let's do a favor to each other, let's stop devaluating ourselves like this, let's stop acting individually, driven by the fear of being vampirized by the 1 dollar gem beside your app.
Let's be responsible adults.
Estimate the value of your product based on the overall videogame market, not the crapstore.

Please.


P.S : Of course, thank you for your analysis share, this is of great value