To be honest, some of them are being sold overpriced with little to show for it. Who wants to spend five dollars more for a higher screen resolution? You just know it took the developers three days to build. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, if the developers are actually providing new content to the buyers then I see no problem. Take a step back and think about it this way: A PSP game costs $40-$50 new, market standard. The PSP has a screen resolution of 480 x 272 and the power of a computer from +- 2001, meaning that the assets aren't overly complex. Whereas in the iPad market games are costing $5-$15, are built on a 1024 x 768 screen resolution with art assets roughly comparable to a PS2. Developers work overtime to deliver an excellent game and they get torn apart if it's "too expensive". Some games like this take months and months - they should be selling for $30 average. Of course, there are other factors to consider; ie the often dodgy nature of the App Store and the fact that you are taking a risk when you buy something without trying it. I just hope that we don't get into the 99c trap that the iPhone market has.
I think this is the important point here. Whatever your feelings about pricing are, the way the appstore is setup greatly encourages the push to lower prices. As long as the charts stay based on sales numbers, then games will always be "underpriced". Of course I don't like to be contributing to this devaluing, by pricing my game at 99c, which I feel is worth twice that. Yet I had to take into account the fact that I'm a new entrant into this business, it's my first game, with a reputation yet to prove. It's pretty much just me on this and I have limited time and resources for marketing. I assume most developers are likely to be in my situation and so we need to use all means available to get noticed and remain competitive. Given the nature of the appstore chart, low pricing is unfortunately the most attractive means to achieve this. Having said this though, it took me 6 months full time to make Spirit, and I've recooped my costs now after less than 2 months of it being out. I can't imagine having the same opportunity to do this in any other (non appstore) market, even compared with the current competitive pricing structure.
This topic is getting big... I try to point out some points that are discussed here: 1) Rising price for $5 when only adding higher resolution - not fair 2) Prices of 5-15$ for iPad apps - that is cheap against DS/PSP and is good for indie devs that are working hard on their games/apps 3) There is a lot of trash in AppStore priced 0.99$ people can't find good stuff and start to ignore those games/apps and buy only reviewed or featured ones. In my opinion there should be a way for users and Devs to separate from that pile of trash by some kind of trademark. How to achieve that? I thought of one way to do this - make a community for devs/users where Devs can send in there work other users/Devs review game/app and give advice what to change or improve. If game/app is ready and is worth work community allows to mark with some kind of branding - icon/text/else (for example: GA (Good App) or GG (Good Game)). People will see branding and will know that this is good product. Also community can give advice on price-range of game/app so users and Devs would be satisfied. Summarizing what can be achieved with such community: - Quality products are separated from trash - Price of product is right for both sides That is only my opinion/thoughts about what to do to help AppStore.
An excellent post full of thoughtful points. Thank you. And I think the comparison to desktop software is absolutely perfect; there are way more options out there for desktop software across the internet or in stores, where they they range in price from free to thousands. But what is the most successful photo manipulation software, and how much does it cost? What is the most successful editing suite, and how much does that cost? What are the most popular games and how much do they cost? The price seems to have very little relevance the most important thing is quality. Quality will always shine through, especially in this information blogging world we live in today. I've always believed that developers should stop worrying so much about pricing their apps correctly to drive sales, and that they should be focusing on quality (and marketing) instead. And those who are complaining about iPad prices? We could never really have expected them to stay $0.99 forever. More than 3.5 million apps for iPads have been sold since saturday, and looking at the Top Ten of which apps have been selling on the iPad, only two games cost $0.99, with one costing $1.99, one at $4.99, another at $7.99, but a whopping five costing $9.99 so clearly the customers are more than happy at those prices.
iPad prices between 10 and 15 bucks for real games and 5 to 10 bucks for small games (like smiles) are ok. It gives the devs the possibility to create longer lasting games or games with tons of polish and it gives users the possibility to play the games instead of jumping from one game to another and never play one single game completely.
This is a gross misunderstanding of how markets work. How long and how much effort is completely irrelevant in our economy. Our industry is completely based on PERCEIVED VALUE, not actual value. If you want to get technical, creating the iPad app did not take 3 days. The original concept was introduced within the iPhone and that consumed a huge amount of resources. But what about the developers skills? That can take years and often DECADES for many of us. Schooling is not necessarily cheap financially, and it certainly doesn't come free time-wise. So are you actually complaining about spending $3-$5 on an app that probably required a decade of overall dedication and compiled knowledge and skill? Please, you spent more than that on your damn coffee and muffin this morning (whether or not you drink coffee is irrelevant, choose something else that you splurged on today).
I could not agree more - well said! Where else other than the App Store can you purchase applications for 99 cents? I have seen people have almost life altering decisions when it comes to purchasing a $2 app! For the price of a coffeee, you could buy 2 of those apps which they are struggling to hit the "Purchase" button for in the App Store...
You might want to hone your reading comprehension skills. He clearly said 3 days to bump up the resolution, not to make the whole game. And I will agree, to charge 3-5 bucks more for a cosmetic update is really biting the hand that feeds you.
Seems sensible I agree, and as a gamer I'm not too interested in resized iPhone games anyway. But as we're on the subject of "fair" I think you'll find that most of us devs don't think charging $5 for a game is expensive at all. The much debated "race to bottom" has created a mindset where iPhone developers feel forced to dump their prices. So, when the new sibling in the iThingy family arrives it seems like a golden opportunity to get the price up to a level that feels more fair based on the amount of work that has gone into it. I guess "fair" is in the eye of the beholder.
Flickkitty was making the point that the amount of work put into 'upsizing' an iPhone app into an iPad app was irrelevant. That was the point of his whole post. (From my understanding) he wasn't talking about an iPad game from scratch.
Yeah, you may want to bump up your reading skills. The 'cost' associated with a cosmetic update has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything. Did the app just magically appear one day, and the developer decided to make a cosmetic update and submit it to the app store? No industry in the world operates on those standards. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy a $5 app, and it is almost insulting that anyone would even find this to be a point to bitch about. I don't like paying $3 for a gallon of gas- who can I talk to about this because I think I am paying WAAAAY too much.
Well you can talk to me for starters: In the UK we have to pay £6 ($10) per gallon. I always find it funny when Americans complain about $3 or $4. Even if you had to pay $9 a gallon you'd still have a bargain!
Not when you have to burn a gallon just to get to the nearest gas station. Some places here are kind of spread out.
I'm glad you posted, this is EXACTLY my point. People are complaining about software costing $5. FIVE DOLLARS. Software on other platforms starts at $20 and goes up to... what are the console games at now, $60? I know we used to sell Snails on Windows Mobile for about $10-$14.
Damn, are you really that dim? Reread the original post again-what you said had nothing to do with his point. Some people's kids....
What flickkitty said makes perfect sense. You seem to be hung up on the fact that he said "Creating the iPad app" when he obviously meant that to mean "Upscaling the iPhone app into the iPad app". His wording wasn't even wrong, just slightly ambiguous. When you put his statement into context, however, it makes perfect sense.
Yes I am really that dim. However if you would like to formulate your argument into coherent ideas, I would be happy to tear them down for you. You have yet to make a point, but instead stand around shouting 'YEAH! What he said!". So... let's go.
Not to be negative about the issue but I think the iPhone/iPod/iPad market is one of the most "spoiled" market I've ever seen. This is a result of the $0.99 revolution caused by the iPhone app rush. Remember when Popcap's PC games started selling for $19.95 years ago? They still sold like hotcakes! Furthermore, customers became more "serious" about buying because they had to think twice before spending their money. This eventually resulted to nice reviews & testimonials, word of mouth marketing and other viral means. I honestly think this is a good thing for all of us developers, publishers and customers. It's about time we sell our goods for what its really worth! Let's just be reasonable and aim at giving "real" value for our customer's money.
