Downside of cheap & freemium games/apps The "cheap" mentality is bleeding into other apps, not just games. Case in point, I paid a pretty penny for a Collins French-English Dictionary ($26.65) when it first came out in 2010, back before the days of IAPs & the 99 cent craze. I have found it very useful & don't regret a penny I spent on it. Recently, there was an update to Collins, marrying it with another French dictionary, Le Robert, creating Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary. To appeal to those unwilling to pay the stratospheric price of almost $27 dollars, it has dropped its price to $15.99. Sounds good, right? WRONG! "Concise" in the title means "fewer words...waaaaay fewer!" For a dictionary, having fewer words is NOT a good thing. Since I got a free update (I had already bought the app), I d/led it. It was dreadful. But for the fact that I hadn't synced with iTunes, I immediately deleted it. Others may not be so lucky. I'd love to go back to the time prior to the consumer mindset that "everything should be free" or "unreasonably inexpensive." I wouldn't want to be a dev in this climate...
The Collins translation dictionaries go on sale regularly, ever since I first saw them in early 2011. I hardly call that evidence that $1 gamers are undermining the app store economy. Let's keep some perspective here.
I can't say that I agree with that. LOL! I think the success of KOTOR at $10 is encouraging. And I have a feeling XCOM is going to be a hit whatever price they set. Hopefully this starts a trend of more fully realized games appearing at a relatively premium price and doing well. Maybe well even see new IPs in such games eventually.
Well said. Plus the market saturation in iOS doesn't help things. I have to admit, the 99 cents / free price really discouraged me to pirate apps when I got my first iOS device. I was a hardcore 99 cent penny pincher back then. I thought hey- at least I wasn't pirating apps. What encouraged me to buy full price for games that I like were: -Games were maturing on iOS. Felt that the content for more and more games was indeed worth more than 99c -D0uche of a friend who buys iPhones and macbooks at every other iteration, totally capable of buying apps but prefers to pirate them instead just for kicks and says the apps aren't worth the purchase, the hardware is. If there's no apps for the hardware, eventually there won't be any hardware at all.
Going on sale & having half the number of words is hardly the same. The Collins Dictionary I bought is no longer even listed. If mine ever becomes unusable due to an iOS update then I will be out of luck & will have no other choice but to use the Collins-Robert (or purchase another). That's not what wanted & not what I bought. How would you like your app or your game to lose half of its features? I think my point is valid & my perspective is fine. IMO, cheap or freemium games, jam-packed with IAPs, are having an overall pernicious effect on the app store via the push towards cheaper pricing. Again, IMO, I feel that push is affecting other apps as well since no one wants to price their app out of the market. You are as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.
All I'm saying is, consumers have reasons for how they act. What drives a person to be stingy with games doesn't necessarily affect how they spend money on other merchandise. A student who's dropping $500 on textbooks and other school supplies isn't going to look at a $30 translation app and go "What the heck, why isn't this $1?" They're just gonna buy that sucker, or get a cheaper dead tree alternative. (Cuz seriously, I've never so much as seen a translation dictionary that costs $30 off the app store.)
I feel that I have wasted money on $.99 cent sales and time on free downloads. When I first got my iphone, coming from PSP and DS, I couldn't believe how much free stuff was given to us. However, I have come to realize that I NEVER play the majority of games I buy simply because they are only $.99. The games I play all the time were ones that by and large I spent more money on, and was rewarded with quality games. Starbase Orion ($7.99), Battle for Wesnoth ($3.99), Kingturn and Knighturn ($4.99 each), FFT ($7.99 with sale), Hunters 2 ($4.99). Played so many hours of these, and I have probably spent more on sale games that I will never play again. Lesson learned. I will pay for the games I want, and ignore the siren call of $.99 games. Warhammer Quest is a perfect example. Fan of both Rodeo Games and Warhammer universe. Bought first day, played one dungeon to confirm it was the game I thought it would be, and immediately bought all available extra content. $19 all together, and I feel like I am cheating the dev at that price.
