Casual Developers Boycott Amazon
Amazon's Reflexive [http://www.reflexive.com/index.php] casual gaming portal is causing controversy among many casual game developers, who feel that its $9.99 price point is too low and undermines the rest of the industry.
iWin [http://www.amazon.com], said he supports the $9.99 price point but that it should be held back for new games to give them the best possible opportunity to sell at higher prices first.
"We pulled all our games down from Amazon when we found out what they were doing," Hieke said, adding that Reflexive's current pricing policy is "completely unacceptable." That sentiment was echoed by executives from Oberon Media [http://www.sandlotgames.com/], one of whom described the pricing issue as "the elephant in the room."
But Reflexive Entertainment Chief Financial Officer Ernie Ramirez denied that Amazon was attempting to undercut the industry, saying, "It's our goal to bring a lot of new people to the space." And as App Store [http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/11/amazon-sparks-casual-games-pricing-controversy/], where games can be picked up for 99 cents or less.
That may be coming to an end, however; a rumor making the rounds at the conference suggests that Apple [http://www.apple.com] will begin setting its own prices for App Store products.
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Amazon's Reflexive [http://www.reflexive.com/index.php] casual gaming portal is causing controversy among many casual game developers, who feel that its $9.99 price point is too low and undermines the rest of the industry.
iWin [http://www.amazon.com], said he supports the $9.99 price point but that it should be held back for new games to give them the best possible opportunity to sell at higher prices first.
"We pulled all our games down from Amazon when we found out what they were doing," Hieke said, adding that Reflexive's current pricing policy is "completely unacceptable." That sentiment was echoed by executives from Oberon Media [http://www.sandlotgames.com/], one of whom described the pricing issue as "the elephant in the room."
But Reflexive Entertainment Chief Financial Officer Ernie Ramirez denied that Amazon was attempting to undercut the industry, saying, "It's our goal to bring a lot of new people to the space." And as App Store [http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/11/amazon-sparks-casual-games-pricing-controversy/], where games can be picked up for 99 cents or less.
That may be coming to an end, however; a rumor making the rounds at the conference suggests that Apple [http://www.apple.com] will begin setting its own prices for App Store products.
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