Telltale Rejects 99¢ Mobile Gamer Theory

[Marshall Honorof]

Telltale Rejects 99¢ Mobile Gamer Theory

Steve Allison believes that iOS gamers will pay any fair price for a good game.

The Android OS may be something of a pirates' playground [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118653-Unbelievably-High-Android-Piracy-Drives-Dev-to-Free-To-Play] these days, but apparently, developers can still turn a profit by charging for iOS games. Not only that, but they can often charge more than the standard 99¢ that seems to be the sweet spot for mobile games. Veteran adventure game company Telltale Games has been selling episodes of its Walking Dead episodic series on iPhones and iPads for $5 apiece, and has already seen a promising return on its initial investment.

"We've had good success selling episodes of our other titles on the App Store for $6.99 on iPad and $4.99 on iPhone," says Steve Allison, Telltale's senior vice president. "We've had a great initial launch as a top 10 title with no signs of slowing down." While the prevailing wisdom of mobile game pricing has been to sell massive quantities of cheap games, Allison believes that a sub-dollar price tag would not be indicative of the game's overall quality, or fair to players on other consoles. "The idea of a 99¢ gamer on iOS is more myth than fact, it's the quality and depth of each product that will drive the right price for consumers," explains Allison. "This is the right price for our game and it has not impeded our ability to get people interested in buying it."

This strategy stands in stark contrast to prices [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sonic-hedgehog-4-episode-ii/id511332635?mt=8] between mobile operating systems. However, both smartphones and tablets are much more powerful than they used to be, and their utility continues to grow at an exponential rate. If developers can program the same experience into a more compact platform, is there any reason why gamers shouldn't pay the same price?

Source: PocketGamer [http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Telltales+Games+news/news.asp?c=43748]

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[weirdee]

Well, if the port has retained the quality, then sure, but many developers haven't quite gotten there yet and resort to making a "lite" version for handheld devices.

 

[thethird0611]

I think the main reason for the $.99 price tag is because most games on the iOS are seen to be time wasters that you can boot up for 5 minutes, then quit. Its seen as something extremly shallow, and the lack of content thats put out just solidifies it.

 

[Strain42]

Speaking as an iOS gamer, it does send a weird feeling down my spine when I realize we're a fanbase that considers $2.99 to be overpriced...

But I do agree with this. I do think that a game can be worth the upped price.

I recently played a game called Nihilumbra that can be picked up for $2.99

It was a fun game with a beautiful presentation, a well told story that blended nicely with the gameplay, and a fairly kickass set of mechanics. I absolutely loved it.

Any iOS gamer who finds themselves going "Ooooh, $2.99? That's a bit pricy..." will probably find themselves missing out on a lot of games.

(Of course some games really don't deserve to be more than $0.99 but still charge more...)

 

[GAunderrated]

I have bought very few apps that were 5 bucks or more. Why? Well simple, while the console market is overpriced, I can get some great PC games for 5 bucks and under with steam sales. If the mobile market gets greedy and charges more, expect sales to decrease massively because i'm willing to go on a limb for a buck, but not 5. Thats a 500% increase.

 

[Bazaalmon]

*GASP!* People are willing to pay more for a quality product, and pay less for a crappy one?
In other news, water is wet.
I think the main problem is, as stated by previous posters, is that most of the games put out on mobile OS's are just time wasters. Simple puzzlers or action games without much substance. People would be willing to pay more for a good game, but when 90% of all the games available are basically the same as many free flash games, it's hard to tell when a good game comes along. I wouldn't pay more than a dollar for Bejeweled, or Mahjong, or Solitaire, or Sudoku, or whatever. When a game shows up that is unique and engaging, too often people just sweep it under the rug as another time waster. Until mobile gets more respect as an actual gaming platform, I doubt the price point will be changing.

 

[Rack]

Thing is a lot of people are saying water is dry. The 99c app phenomenon pulls the prices down to the level that $5 seems like a lot, but with something like Hector or Battleheart, still obviously great value. Even so people insist it's only possible to sell 99c fart apps.

 

[Richard Allen]

It's not a matter of how much something is worth to someone, it's a matter of free > any money at all.

Actually, a lot of companies have proved you can compete with free, you just don't go about it by screwing over customers which all the game publishers love to do these days.

 

[FalloutJack]

-What should normally be ovbious, but...-

If this were always true, there wouldn't be Wal-Mart, that fart in commerce and economy's faces. Not really arguing, just pointing out this awful truth.

 

[Dioxide20]

When I'm at home, and I have a choice between playing my computer or consoles, 9 times out of 10 I will drop my android phone apps and go straight for one of the other two. I just don't get as much enjoyment out of many of the mobile apps available. Upping the price drastically will greatly lower my chances of buying a game on Android.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

We are nowhere near getting games of the same quality as console/PC games. Just putting that out there. Mainly because the controls are limited to being able to do about 2 things at once. But yeah, I'd pay up to 5 dollars for an iOS game now. Any more than that I do consider a bit pricey.

 

[Baldr]

It's not a matter of how much something is worth to someone, it's a matter of free > any money at all.

Mad Finger games learned that the hard way. They got slammed with high piracy rate of their Android games that they stopped developing for Android. The sad part is they had free demos of some of the games, and it didn't matter.
http://madfingergames.com/

 

[GAunderrated]

It's not a matter of how much something is worth to someone, it's a matter of free > any money at all.

Mad Finger games learned that the hard way. They got slammed with high piracy rate of their Android games that they stopped developing for Android. The sad part is they had free demos of some of the games, and it didn't matter.
http://madfingergames.com/

Really sad when a group does everything they can to make their product cheap and accessible to the public, then people steal from them. Very aggravating. These people are trying to make a living and fund more games that you will like, but someone ruins it.

Selfish ;-;

I'm not disagreeing with your point at all but I would like to shed some light on the changing trends. Gaming is starting to go the way of the music industry to where you can make some good money off a good product (album or game) but it's not the golden egg million dollar break that most of these developers are expecting. Those days are pretty much numbered.

 

[Scrustle]

I've got plenty of games on iOS and hardly any of them are 99c games. The best ones are all way more than that, but they're usually worth it.