Square Enix Defends its Mobile Game Pricing

[StewShearerOld]

Square Enix Defends its Mobile Game Pricing

Square Enix producer Takashi Tokita believes customers are "content" with the premium prices the company charges for its mobile games.

Mobile games sometimes get an undeservedly bad rap, owing in no small part to the fact that many of them are simple, accessible and oftentimes just plain cheap. That being the case, many <a href=http://kotaku.com/5937592/square-enix-thinks-this-mobile-rpg-is-worth-30>take issue with Square Enix's standard practice of charging a comparable arm and leg for the mobile versions of its own library. It's not hard to see why some might be disgruntled. Angry Birds might be playable with just the flick of a finger but it only costs 99 cents. What makes Square Enix think it can charge <a href=https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-fantasy-v/id609577016?mt=8>$15.99 for Final Fantasy V? Speaking on the subject recently, the company attempted to explain the rationale behind its mobile pricing model.

"The new Final Fantasies we are releasing from the mobile phones are better in graphics, and a lot of work has gone into them to make them a pleasant experience," said producer Takashi Tokita. In turn, Tokita believes this work justifies a higher price point, even when compared to other versions of the same games that cost less on different platforms. The PlayStation Network ports, for instance, don't live up to same standard. "[They] aren't upscaled versions," he said. "They are basically migrations from the older systems."

That being said, the company hasn't been oblivious to consumer complaints. "In the beginning we did receive some concerns about the pricing," he said. Concerns that he claims were mitigated, at least in part, by the quality of the experiences being sold. "Customers have played it and saw the value and have been content with the pricing." A part of us wants to assume "content" may be a strong word, but that's just our opinion. What do you think? Is Square Enix correct to assume that the quality of its content earns it the right to charge a bit more? Or is it perhaps being greedy and <a href=https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-fantasy-all-the-bravest/id581058256?mt=8>leveraging its fanbase to earn more on products that might cost less if they were coming from a different company?

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/9/4821626/square-enix-defends-final-fantasy-mobile-pricing-not-ruling-out-more>Polygon



Permalink

 

[weirdee]

i could start complaining once they maybe finish releasing the games on actual gaming handheld systems

 

[drkchmst]

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

 

[StewShearerOld]

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

What I'd really love to see is a new version of 1 that retains the original game's difficulty. I've always been put off by how much easier the various remakes have made the game.

 

[Doom972]

They can explain as much as they want, but people who aren't FF fans or have too much disposable income won't buy mobile games for those prices. I assume an FF fan would already have a GBA/PSP/DS/3DS to play the old FF games on the go, making the mobile version redundant.

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

What I'd really love to see is a new version of 1 that retains the original game's difficulty. I've always been put off by how much easier the various remakes have made the game.

The remakes I played (PS1 and PSP) had an option for hard difficulty. I'm pretty sure that hard difficulty in those versions was the same as the difficulty of the NES version.

 

[hickwarrior]

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

What I'd really love to see is a new version of 1 that retains the original game's difficulty. I've always been put off by how much easier the various remakes have made the game.

Wait, the difficulty of 1 was so much harder than it used to be? How much harder are we talking about and why were they harder?

OT: SE might not be in a proper position to say those ports are of very good quality. Quality is decided by the customer, not by the company. If the company is satisfied with how their product turned out, it doesn't necessarily mean the costumer will be. The best finger I can point is at TW: rome II.

Also, they made all the bravest... Maybe not a port, but...

 

[kaizen2468]

As long as I'm getting more bang for my buck I'm fine with it. New dungeons, new content. New graphics to see, monster designs etc. A direct port for a high price is a rip off. Like PSN's version of FF6, laggy garbage.

 

[StewShearerOld]

They can explain as much as they want, but people who aren't FF fans or have too much disposable income won't buy mobile games for those prices. I assume an FF fan would already have a GBA/PSP/DS/3DS to play the old FF games on the go, making the mobile version redundant.

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

What I'd really love to see is a new version of 1 that retains the original game's difficulty. I've always been put off by how much easier the various remakes have made the game.

The remakes I played (PS1 and PSP) had an option for hard difficulty. I'm pretty sure that hard difficulty in those versions was the same as the difficulty of the NES version.

Really now? Was that in the GBA version as well? Cause I didn't think it had a harder mode and I'd heard the other recent ports were easy too. I'll be feeling like a rube if I missed that...:/

 

[OuendanCyrus]

I don't have a problem with them charging around £10 for an enhanced port of an old game that aren't super old. However, I do have a problem with them releasing atrocities such as All The Bravest.

 

[Charli]

I don't have a problem with them charging around £10 for an enhanced port of an old game that aren't super old. However, I do have a problem with them releasing atrocities such as All The Bravest.

A million times this. However they seem not to realize they're 'competing' in a market half the time... Square come on, you've got some hopeful contenders lined up, don't fall back on bad habits.

And if you ARE going to pretty the games in your previous library up, why not just go the full mile for some of them.
*Cough Final Fantasy 9*

Okay okay, that was self indulgent, but really you're charging that much in a market where dollar games are the norm, you either have to work magic and actually sell it rather than just sticking it up there and calling it a day, or no one but your most hardcore are going to want to purchase it on what is essentially their pocket change for the week, they're going to buy more big budget titles for their PC/Consoles.

This is why being arrogant about the final fantasy brand set you back so hard before SE. Stop it.

 

[Doom972]

They can explain as much as they want, but people who aren't FF fans or have too much disposable income won't buy mobile games for those prices. I assume an FF fan would already have a GBA/PSP/DS/3DS to play the old FF games on the go, making the mobile version redundant.

I dont buy their mobile games largely because of price. Also i dont need yet another copy of 1+2.

What I'd really love to see is a new version of 1 that retains the original game's difficulty. I've always been put off by how much easier the various remakes have made the game.

The remakes I played (PS1 and PSP) had an option for hard difficulty. I'm pretty sure that hard difficulty in those versions was the same as the difficulty of the NES version.

Really now? Was that in the GBA version as well? Cause I didn't think it had a harder mode and I'd heard the other recent ports were easy too. I'll be feeling like a rube if I missed that...:/

I never played the GBA version, so I don't know about that. Check it out if you have the game available.

 

[Abomination]

I'm not certain how I can complain any louder in a language you understand when the only sound I make is the sound of me not buying your product due to the price?

 

[Ritchian]

The price of their games is the main reason I haven't gotten any of them yet. That, and I own pretty much all of them in an environment that lets me use buttons and a directional pad. The one game I truly considered buying on more than one occasion was Final Fantasy Tactics, which I never got to play in the Playstation era and generally speaking, tactical strategy games work well on a touch screen. But the price is the big stumbling block there.

Cut the price dramatically, and we'll talk. Until then Squenix, you're not getting me to buy any of your apps.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

This is why smartphones and tablets will never kill the handheld market like many suggest.
Games cost money to make. Good games cost more money to make. You simply can't compare any mobile game to a bigger, project.
A handheld game like lets say Mario 3D Land or any Zelda game have big teams of people working on the games. That costs lots of money. Angry Birds can be made by a single person in less than a month.
You can't charge the same price for a big and rewarding title and for a cheap 1 minute game like Angry Birds. Smartphone user will never accept a $15 price point.
Handheld user accept a $20-40 price point because they know they get a game worth it. So as long as there are gamer, there will exist handhelds

 

[Terramax]

I don't know what he plans to achieve by these comments. Will people that have stayed put from spending ridiculous prices on such games now say "oh, well in that case, I'm happy to pay XX more than the average mobile games."?

I think not.

 

[Rack]

This is why smartphones and tablets will never kill the handheld market like many suggest.
Games cost money to make. Good games cost more money to make. You simply can't compare any mobile game to a bigger, project.
A handheld game like lets say Mario 3D Land or any Zelda game have big teams of people working on the games. That costs lots of money. Angry Birds can be made by a single person in less than a month.
You can't charge the same price for a big and rewarding title and for a cheap 1 minute game like Angry Birds. Smartphone user will never accept a $15 price point.
Handheld user accept a $20-40 price point because they know they get a game worth it. So as long as there are gamer, there will exist handhelds

That or core gamers are far too stubborn to even look at mobile games, and thus never notice you can get amazing titles for under a tenner on them.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

This is why smartphones and tablets will never kill the handheld market like many suggest.
Games cost money to make. Good games cost more money to make. You simply can't compare any mobile game to a bigger, project.
A handheld game like lets say Mario 3D Land or any Zelda game have big teams of people working on the games. That costs lots of money. Angry Birds can be made by a single person in less than a month.
You can't charge the same price for a big and rewarding title and for a cheap 1 minute game like Angry Birds. Smartphone user will never accept a $15 price point.
Handheld user accept a $20-40 price point because they know they get a game worth it. So as long as there are gamer, there will exist handhelds

That or core gamers are far too stubborn to even look at mobile games, and thus never notice you can get amazing titles for under a tenner on them.

Well that too.
I found out about Anomaly Warzone only because I found it on my tablet. I enjoyed the game more than many of the latest AAA games.
Unfortunately, there aren't many such games and the extremely limited input device limits the amount of such games.
And this is another point of why we will keep handhelds.
The completely different way of controlling the games allows for many different games that aren't possible on both devices without stupidly oversimplifying them.
IIRC Extra Credits made an episode about touchscreen games and how you must have a radically different approach to making games than with a regular controller.

 

[Simalacrum]

Well, so long as they're not using micro transactions and pay-to-win tactics (*cough*Plants vs Zombies 2*cough*) I have absolutely no problem with a more expensive game. It's still cheap compared to dedicated handheld console games.

 

[Rack]

This is why smartphones and tablets will never kill the handheld market like many suggest.
Games cost money to make. Good games cost more money to make. You simply can't compare any mobile game to a bigger, project.
A handheld game like lets say Mario 3D Land or any Zelda game have big teams of people working on the games. That costs lots of money. Angry Birds can be made by a single person in less than a month.
You can't charge the same price for a big and rewarding title and for a cheap 1 minute game like Angry Birds. Smartphone user will never accept a $15 price point.
Handheld user accept a $20-40 price point because they know they get a game worth it. So as long as there are gamer, there will exist handhelds

That or core gamers are far too stubborn to even look at mobile games, and thus never notice you can get amazing titles for under a tenner on them.

Well that too.
I found out about Anomaly Warzone only because I found it on my tablet. I enjoyed the game more than many of the latest AAA games.
Unfortunately, there aren't many such games and the extremely limited input device limits the amount of such games.
And this is another point of why we will keep handhelds.
The completely different way of controlling the games allows for many different games that aren't possible on both devices without stupidly oversimplifying them.
IIRC Extra Credits made an episode about touchscreen games and how you must have a radically different approach to making games than with a regular controller.

There could certainly stand to be more great games on tablets, but my issue is more that they tend to represent certain genres more than others. Tablets are a great interface for strategy games and 2D shooters, but not really for racing games, FPS or fighting games.

Extra Credits did an episode on the subject, but I found it to be one of their rare misses. I think they said something like it would be impractical to play a hardcore shmup on a tablet, ignoring that tablets are absolutely unequivocally the best control method for hardcore shmups by a ludicrous margin.

There's one other reason handhelds will survive. If Nintendo keep making Fire Emblem and Advance Wars and can convince Capcom to make Phoenix Wright exclusive to their systems then I'm going to buy them just to play those games.

This sort of comes full circle, if you make something good enough then it can sustain a premium price. Square are just consistently missing the price/quality threshhold on ios. Slightly souped up ports of old FF games are not worth £14 on a system I can buy Pandemic for £5 let alone when I can get Summoner Wars and Clash of Heroes for 69p each.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I actually wouldn't mind buying a proper game or two for my Nexus 7 but it has to be at a proper price, not pay a little now and pay a bit more later type models or games that gate you off most of the game until you pay more over time.