I avoid launch sales. Some would say they reward early adopters; IMO it's a morally bankrupt marketing ploy to spur impulse purchases and punish people who think that doing a bit of research on a product before being suckered into the salesmans's pitch is a positive thing. I reserve the lowest chambers of hell for marketing departments. Besides, pricing structures nearly everywhere else are the inverse of what is found on ios. Ya know, stuff goes on sale or drops in price as time goes by. Maybe some developers would earn more if they didn't charge the same price on a game which pushed the limits of the platform when released, but isn't quite the standout 2 years later.
...THAT, and if you javen't bought a game that's gone free a week or a day after you bought it, you have't been making many purchases. Hell, I bought one of the Sky Gamblers games THREE HOURS before it went on sale from 4 or 5 bucks to one buck. EDIT: and I don't care because it was worth what I spent. Save your anger for a game you buy thet gets updated to insert adds and change the gmae model from premium to freemium. before you ever got a chance to install it.
Me? Anger? I'm like 200% content with my purchase at full price. Perhaps you confuse me with someone else?
Slight logistical problems, but at least your problem is easy, just go to the Apple store. I don't have much disk space, with over 25 games I bought around xmas time and thanksgiving in que. it is really hard to figure out which to load. Where does this game factor in? I dunno. Plus I'm trying to reload a lot of games to see if they run on tv, so much loading, unloading, and deleting, it's making me dizzy.
//slightly off topic: Only 25? In the last month alone I have accrued about 40 games I am yet to play. A few are on Steam, but still!
I'm sorry but this same old excuse is just not good enough. It would be good enough if you developed games in a vacuum. It would be good enough if the app store existed in a personal alternate reality for you alone. It would be good enough if there wasn't already a multitude of precedents and market research information available to you for minimal effort. All your excuse amounts to is: "we didn't do our homework. Sorry." These sorts of price drops are simply running the app store into the ground. More so than just about anything else at the moment. It's like some sort of demented mass suicide pact by developers; nothing will destroy a market faster than undermining buyer confidence, and this is exactly what these sales are actively doing.
bitSmith didn't create this problem, and not every developer is as "up-to-snuff" on the inner the workings and evolution of the app store economy, nor on what will satisfy your expectations as to what defines "fair" play. I think if a first time dev says lesson learned, then that's fair. Ill give them a second chance, especially as their game merits the original $4 purchase. Just how much $$ do you think they've pulled in with this game? I'd venture to say that it's under $500. After a year of work, for peanuts? They're allowed to change their pricing structure as they like. We as gamers just need to get used to the fact that price drops happen, even 2 days after a game's release. That being said, gamers' rejection of buying anything over "$1" and the resulting pricing structure is more at fault for the implosion of the App Store economy than a temporary price drop.
Personally, as a honest advice, I think bitSmith has killed any hopes of a long-term success of their game (financially at least) by putting this out for $0.99. Many people, if they ever get interested, will simply follow the popular mentality that presides in the members of TouchArcade by waiting for another $0.99 sale by virtue of studying price-tracking apps. Correct me if I am wrong here. bitSmith, all hatred aside, you should have priced this at $1.99. You just killed the long-term game by dropping down to $0.99.
I don't get all the anger. If you want a game right away, pay full price. If not, wait for a sale. The AppStore will survive either way and you'll get over the devastating loss of $3 (assuming you think getting a $4 product for $4 is a loss because someone else got it cheaper).
Just for clarity, the current price is a short term launch week sale - that will not be the price forever. ps. none of us are marketers.
That's crazy. TA probably makes up 0.00001% of people who buy games on the AppStore. The huge majority of buyers don't follow price drops and freak out over $3.
Hey its the internet ! Everyones right !! If a game drops in price its not the end of the world, they havent 'killed' the app, if anything they may generate more sales as its cheaper, thats the whole idea. If i buy a game for 3 dollars and a week later its 1 dollar i dont cry myself to sleep. Thats the way of the app store. Now if games were 40 dollars and then dropped a week later to 10 thats something different. But we're talking tiny amounts, yet everyone seems to get upset by a sudden price drop.
Oh, you'll' be surprised. Then how does a game suddenly get an explosion in sales when they drop its price? If not for price-tracking apps, how can they know about such sales? Huh? Try explaining that. From what I know, MOST iOS users who pay for apps/games regularly religiously follow price-tracking apps. So yeah, that's that.
Well, money is relative. From where I come, the price in USD is multiplied by 3 times over. So I am actually paying 12 bucks for a 4 dollar game and just 3 for a 0.99 game.
Wheres that ? Surely its relative, eg your 12 bucks still equals 4 dollars ? Its not like youre paying 3 times the price as 1 dollar might be 3 bucks in your country ? I thought Apples prices were all relative, eg a 99c game is 69p in the UK and the equivalent in other european countries (Say 0.8 euros). So its all relative, we all pay the same for a game, its not like xx country pays more
Yeah, but you see we do not earn in USD. Why is everything just arbitrarily x3 or whatever the exachnge rate in a given country? A teacher here and in the US earns similar wages. A lawyer, accountant and engineer...same case for all. Heck, they might even earn more in USD than the local currency. So I don't get why do they have to x3 the price. If everyone earned x3 here than the US, then I could understand.
I meant its to do with the exchange rate A game is 1 dollar, in England currently one dollar is 'about' 69p. So thats the equivalent. If 1 USD in your country is worth 3 of your own dollars then that game will be 3 dollars. 1 USD might be 3 australian dollars so a 1 USD game will be 3 australian dollars (guessing on an exchange rate) Whether you earn more/less than a job in America doesnt really matter. Apple apps cost the same all over the world. A job in the UK might earn less than in the US but i still pay the same for an app. Think thats fair though. So a country which is poorer than the US should get apps for less ? If they did that there would be 100000000 fake accounts created in say Cambodia so people could get apps cheaper. Never will happen What i used to hate was when say a console in America is $99 but in England it was £99 (or more !). Not a fair conversion at all and i see that time and time again. Photoshop in the US is $800, in the UK £1000 (way more).
