Yeah, there was some announcement that they were off for the holidays. Not sure why adjusting price on existing apps requires their supervision. But if it isn't on sale by then, it won't be until after the new year. And because that's a long time for an app to discount, I wouldn't expect many Christmas sales.
It doesn't close, they just freeze the chart positions and new app approvals cease to go through as the appstore employees get some time off. You can still buy stuff...mostly it's a big deal for developers as they want to get a good spot on the chart and cash in on people redeeming gift cards and such.
My post was misunderstood. IIRC, updates and new submissions will be put on hiatus; prices can change throughout the holiday period. There will almost certainly be massive Gameloft and EA sales (and it's subsidiaries, Firemint, Chillingo, etc). If I were a betting man I would guess a number of Sega games will see sales, along with some of the other mainstream console/PC centric publishers. Some of the publishers who have very large catalogs may do a "deal a day" sort of thing, running from the 24th or so through the first week, at least, of January. Some of the premier ios developers and publishers with a good number of premium ios games might have some sales, like my favorites, Crescent Moon Games (I'm trying to think if there are any I don't have...just grabbed Slingshot Racing, I will buy ANYTHING they release because they are one of the few publishers who seemingly have maintained they're scruples). And tons of odds and ends. A lot of the sales won't be until Christmas day or later...I wouldn't be surprised if there are less sale prices leading up 'till Christmas, after all, there will be a lot of people with new devices, iTunes gift cards, pre-paid debit cards, etc. beginning on Christmas (or, if they follow the Italian side of my family's tradition, Christmas Eve).
I know it won't happen, but I'de love to see The Quest Gold go on sale again. I picked it up on my "other account" (broke up with gf, shared account, had to get my credit card off, yada yada) when it was on sale for 4.99...don't remember when that was, have to check. I spent hours, probably, playing cards in the tavern...
I gave Apptrailers a grilling to get my 10 dollar gc...they ignored a support email until, a week later, I informed them that I would be contacting the BBB, Apple (to take down a fraudulent service); might have even thrown my state AG in there. next day, I got it. Got $15 off of FAS the day before yesterday (should have grabbed Amazon though, it was cheaper); waiting for the Amazon (itunes is a lie, I think) $10 card to become available again (I held off for some reason) on FAD...add in the 30 I had in my account, and I'm looking good. It won't last long though, I usually buy 4.99 and up games. Sometimes 1.99 or 2.99; usually only buy 99 cent games when they are on sale for that price or if I'm trying to kill off a balance that's below 1.99. I've flushed plenty of money on not-so-cheap games with cheap devs though, like Dangerous at its highest price.
Hope Gameloft puts Shadow Guardian on sale. Got Backstab during their Thanksgiving sale but it was prett disappointing (didn't even finish it). So even though I'd like an Uncharted type game, I'm not willing to pay full price for it fearing it won't necessarily be that great and will eventually be $.99 at some point.
IMO Gamwloft games "seemed" much better when the overall production values on the appstore were much lower...now thre are original games and ports that play and look better than Gameloft's clones.
Yeah, I got backstab and tom clancys shootemup for the ipad, and have enjoyed both for a buck. Yeah, maybe at full price, it would be different, but it's great to be given a chance to play some of these games on the cheap. Seems like a lot of people want 9mm and dungeon hunter 2 to go on sale, so it'll be great if they do. I have bought almost every EA game even yahtzee and john madden football (which is a total piece of crap) but I've been happy that EA has put almost all their games on sale during xmas time. Some games like deadspace, spymouse, fifa, real racing, nfs, and others are great values at a buck.
I wasn't even aware of your post. I was referring to the announcement to developers, which contradicts your account: https://developer.apple.com/news/
I don't keep up but are they ever advertised? They just seem to happen. Something I was thinking earlier is that after Christmas is when it would be smart for devs t& publishers to have sales. Seems like the right time to compete for all those gifted iTunes cards.
I checked 9mm and a few other gameloft games. When they dropped to $0.99 last year it was Dec 20th. So that may be the date again this year to watch for. Pretty much anything good they drop to a buck I'll get. I'd love to see some older games like the first few ios Asphalt games (I love retro graphics) but seems like once they move onto the next version they bump them to $4.99 or more and never budge.
