Banner Saga Dev Says Apple "Frustrated" With Cheap Mobile Gamers

[StewShearerOld]

Banner Saga Dev Says Apple "Frustrated" With Cheap Mobile Gamers

Stoic's John Watson has said that mobile users are only willing to "pay as little as possible" for video games.

Much ado has been made in recent years about the expansion of gaming beyond the clichéd demographics of nerdy shut-ins living out of their parent's basements. In today's world video games are everyone and played by just about everyone. Kids, adults, parents, grandparents; a majority of people in the United States have at least tried one sort of video games or another.

That being the case, a trend has emerged from the spread of game-dom that is leaving many developers a tad on the miffed side of things. Namely, while mobile and tablet gamers are becoming an increasingly prominent demographic in the game industry, the audience as a whole has demonstrated a remarkable unwillingness to pay for things. It's an issue Stoic Studios, the developers behind The Banner Saga have been facing down as it moves forward with plans to bring the RPG to <a href=http://www.shacknews.com/article/85120/the-banner-saga-coming-to-ios-and-android-tablets>iOS and Android.

"People don't want to pay anything," said Stoic co-founder John Watson in <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5931351/why-banner-saga-is-avoiding-the-budget-price-pitfall-of-the-app-store>a recent interview. "They want to pay as little as possible. They think that four dollars is an exorbitant amount to pay for a game, which is very illogical considering most people's lifestyles. They'll spend $600 on an iPad, and $4 on a coffee, drop $20 on lunch, but when it comes to spending four or five dollars on a game, it's this life-altering decision."

It's an issue that Watson says has left many developers wary of mobile and "frustrated" companies like Apple that want more premium priced content to take off on their respective platforms. "They're telling us to go higher-end with our game," said Stoic's Arnie Jorgensen. "We're still making those decisions."

Whatever the company's final price tag for the mobile editions of The Banner Saga may be, it's clear that the mobile gaming market, for all its potential, still has some dents to be hammered out. What remains to be seen is just how much hammering is needed before companies like Stoic can sell more expensive titles to mobile gamers without fear of abject failure.

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5931351/why-banner-saga-is-avoiding-the-budget-price-pitfall-of-the-app-store>Polygon


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[Super Cyborg]

The price of the actual product to play on it, as well as the amount of time spent on it is the problem. My parents both have I Pads that they use for various things. If they play games on it, they play a few minutes a day at most. They don't want to spend money on something they are barely going to play. Also, when paying $100's of dollars for the I Pad alone, being able to recoup the cost of it by getting as much stuff on it for free or almost nothing is what they will want to do. A few dollars spent here in there can be a lot for a person, especially with families that need to be fed and taken care of. The games you are giving out are for little bit's of time, and aren't being played hours a day like dedicated gamers.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

It goes both ways though, I'm sure gamers are frustrated with skinner box tactics and microtranscations in their mobile games. You get careful with your money after being burned multiple times, I don't think people are unwilling to pay for a good game, rather they really just question if the game has value in it.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

And to be told, Apple can only blame themselves in the end, because they made the "cheap gamer" with their free and less than $2 apps. One has to be extremely out of touch with the market when they create said market and are mad at the consumers that enjoy that market.

 

[Kuala BangoDango]

What? I just don't understand.

Why would ANY consumer base expect mobile games to be cheap? It's not like the mobile industry has TRAINED them to expect cheapness by selling tens of thousands of trash games for $0.99 for the last many years.

It's not like the glut of all the f2p mobile games (w/microtransactions) has given non-savvy consumers the impression that their mobile games SHOULD be cheap.

It's not like these mobile game makers have more than made up for the cheapness of their mobile sales by porting their trashy $0.99 mobile game over to PC where they then try to sell it for $10-$20 just because "We can charge more on PC because PC players are used to paying more" even though the product is the same (or worse) version as their mobile counterpart.

I agree whole-heartedly with Apple here. Just because Apple helped make their cheap, trash-filled bed the way it is doesn't mean they should actually have to lie in it. Like all large corporations they deserve to be protected from any and all negative consequences of their business practices.

And for anyone not catching on to the tone of my post I am actually making fun of Apple and other mobile game sellers. They helped make mobile gaming what it is today, they don't get to complain about the consequences.

Edit: And Insanity beat me to the punch.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Is this really a shock to them? Most people who game on mobile devices use it as a tertiary activity. Heck, as a hardcore gamer myself, my mobile devices service a primary function (phone calls and e-reading) and I only game on them as an aside when I have a little time to kill. They aren't my primary source of gaming entertainment, so I'm not likely to sink much money into them. Meanwhile, people who don't even view gaming as their primary hobby are even less likely to want to sink much money into the hobby, especially if they just view it as a minor distraction next to the primary reason that they have the device.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

For second there the title made me think Apple was thinking about going into the AAA blockbuster field. That would be surprising and good/bad depending on the view.

Anyway yeah when you offer the app store, a market where almost everything is designed to be cheap, expect people who go there to want stuff cheap.

 

[UberPubert]

This issue comes primarily from the fact that the majority of the population still aren't "gamers" as we've come to know them. To many of them, video games are still only just a distraction - a browser-based little chore like farmville or something to give to small children to keep them from complaining when they have to wait in the dentist's office, like angry birds. The idea of games as something to be thoroughly enjoyed on the same level as books or movies is still a very foreign concept to the public at large, the idea that they could be priced at something similar will also be scoffed at and ignored.

Though I'll personally say as a PC/Console gamer I simply ignore mobile titles because compared to my regular gaming experiences they come up incredibly short, especially in the area of controls. That said, I pre-ordered The Banner Saga, thoroughly enjoyed it, and am anxiously awaiting the sequel.

 

[camazotz]

Not even thinking about all the freemium cash grabs on the android/ioS market, I suspect most people find that their enjoyment of games on tablets is really limited and very specific. When I first got my Nexus 7 I downloaded all sorts of stuff, and focused mostly on games I was sure I'd like and which had a set price or minimal buy-in. Two years later and I think I've spent maybe 10-15 hours in all that time actually playing games (and keep telling myself one day I'll play Baldur's Gate on my Nexus, along with Shadowrun Returns). When the actual time:enjoyment ratio is so low even for otherwise decent games, $4 for a cup of coffee starts to look like a seriously smarter investment than clogging my tablet up with yet another game I'll ignore.

Bottom line....when I have time to game, it's going to be spent on a console or PC where I can get a rich experience that doesn't strain the eyes and piss me off with annoying touch screen controls. Literally the only time mobile gaming comes in handy is when I am on vacation or traveling....and guess what, my PS Vita is more useful because I can actually play games on it without a wifi connection; next time you're on a trip without a wifi point to connect to, try out your tablet games and see how many of them actually work....it's so bad on my Nexus 7 I don't even bother bringing it along on trips anymore except for reading.

 

[thiosk]

I play a select few games on ios. I have baldurs gate, chronotrigger, and that one good version of pandemic.

I tend to prefer high quality games and damn the price point, which is similar to my interaction with steam.

What apple needs to wake up about is that their store is non-functional for pushing anything except that weeks most popular viral drivel.

 

[Kyogissun]

WE WANT MORE MONEY! MORE MONEY TO MAKE OUR APPLES DEVICES!

WE WANT OUR MONEY! NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!

This is bullshit logic, the mobile gamers aren't cheap... I'm a mobile gamer and just dropped 35 bucks a few weeks ago on Tomodachi Life... Or what about when TWEWY Solo Remix came out?! That shit was twenty dollars!

No, fucking mainstream consumers are CHEAP because YOU'VE ALLOWED GAMES THAT COST LESS THAN FOUR DOLLARS TO BE RELEASED ON THE MARKET. IT'S YOUR OUTLET, TAKE MORE FUCKING CONTROL IF YOU WANT.

I'm so fucking sick of these higher ups bitching and moaning about shit like this... It's as bad as EA's bullshit about Dungeon Keeper innovating too much or Sims 4 Premium being announced before the game is out.

 

[octafish]

$25 is a very good price to pay for The Banner Saga. A very good price.

 

[StriderShinryu]

As others have said, I think this is at least partially a miscalculation of the sort of experiences desired by the mobile game market at large. Just because mobile hardware these days can play more fully fledged games, it doesn't mean that that's what the majority of mobile gamers want in the games they do buy. We're talking mobile gamers who buy maybe only a few games a year and who buy them on a market place where most games cost in the neighbourhood of $0.99 and who are just looking for time wasters. That's your market writ large.

It's sort of like picking a convenience store or dollar store as the location to try to sell a $300 romantic evening set up with champagne, steak, lobster and all of the extras. Sure there may be some takers, and your product may be absolutely great, but it's pretty silly to blame the average shopper at those establishments if they turn their nose up at what you're offering.

 

[omega 616]

It's 'cos touch screens are crap for gaming on, you can play shit like bejeweled (I am not mentioning the other similar game) or a TD game but anything that requires more dexterity or accuracy is impossible!

Plus, look at free to play games, they expect you to pay a significant amount of money for things that don't exist/exist infinity. Warframe on the PC has £15, £30, £30 and a £75 ... I am pretty sure the PS4 version has a £100+ one as well. I wouldn't spend £100+ on a game! I wouldn't even spend £75.

Half those prices and you will get a lot more money.

 

[JET1971]

I am not touching the valid points about how the same companies created the market to be what it is so....

Obviously they are not thinking about volume sales and instead are thinking of individual sales. If they think volume they will make plenty of money, this is why there are so many cheap apps available. sell for a low price and get plenty of customers. Sell for a high price and get far fewer customers. When you sell for the low price you may get very little per sale but it is the volume of sales that makes the difference. If it is affordable and sounds like a good product it will get enough sales to be profitable and even more profitable than a high priced product selling a fraction of units.

In this case they create the product and forget about it. Apple hosts the product on it's servers and runs the store. What does the studio need to do? advertise a bit to get the name out and forget about the product since there is no manufacturing and packaging to deal with. So 4-5 months later the game has started to make a profit, from that point on it will continue to make a profit. If it takes a year to hit profitability they will make a profit. they can be like Campbell's Soup and have dozens of profitable choices. Or they can have a $20 mobile game that gamers will find to be pathetic and casual mobile users find to be too expensive and profit will be reached in say 10 years if the market suddenly freezes.

Biggest issue is the corporate mentality of big profits right now and sell fewer units for more money rather than more units for less money. They forget that 10 sold at $100 is $1000 and 100 sold at $10 is $1000 and the $10 will get far more customers that that ratio comparison because it is fucking affordable.

 

[Grabehn]

"Stoic's John Watson has said that mobile users are only willing to "pay as little as possible" for video games." This has to be the biggest... HUGEST "YOU DON'T SAY" phrase I've seen since I started reading "game news".

It's kinda funny to me how this guy seems completely baffled by how people "got used" to paying the minimum price (99c) or nothing at all for games, considering how that was a thing Apple brought on itself.

I completely loathe the idea of not having actual keys, since all I've ever used my phone for is, you know, texts and calls, and the sole idea of having to deal with how bad these "touch-screen keyboards" are is just completely upsetting, but even then, I know a good amount of people with these, and to date, none of them has actually played a game that's not free.

 

[Story]

I'd happy buy Banner Saga for $25, in fact, I can't wait to play it.
Then again I'm also someone who bought 20-30 dollar games on the IOS before, so I guess I'm in the minority.

This attitude mostly comes from Apple's own store front. If hundreds of games are sold for 99 cents then of course that's what most customers are going to expect to pay. IOS also caters to the more casual market since the IOS systems can be phones and internet browsers too and more people have them. These customers usually don't have a lot if experience with more expensive video games on consoles and PCs. They also don't care (much) about the studio that makes the game or the higher quality. AAA, AA, idie, they don't really care so long as it plays well.

I have friends who have this attitude as well. Why buy a console or a gaming PC when they can play games on the iPhone for a lot less?

 

[nevarran]

99% of the people who play on mobile devices are not gamers. You can't expect them to appreciate your efforts and your game.
It's like me buying music. I'm not willing to pay even a dollar for a song. Just because I know I'll listen to it twice and then forget about it's existence.
Yet, I'm more than willing to pay serious money for gaming.
You should know what to expect from every platform.

 

[SecondPrize]

Well maybe people don't want to drop down a fiver on something when it'd cost far more than the industry standard for AAA games on a console or PC to purchase the entire game? If you offered me a complete game for a fiver I'd be able to evaluate it against indie games and decide if I feel it is worth the cost. If I look at your business model and see that I may have to spend that five dollars again and again you can shove your game up your ass.