Telltale Rejects 99¢ Mobile Gamer Theory

[wadark]

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...)

Here's where those 'higher priced' games kinda make me think twice about buying them.

I'm a gamer in many respects. I like several PC games, I have all the current gen consoles, I play games on my phone.

The thing about it is that I expect certain kinds of games from certain sources. What I mean is that, for example, I play games on my phone as a way to pass small segments of time between doing other things (waiting in lines, just before going to bed, etc.). Ergo, I'm not really looking for any kind of super-deep compelling game experience. I want a bite-sized type game that I can feel satisfied playing for less than 5 minutes and then move on.

The most expensive game I've purchased on the iPhone is FFI, for $5, and I barely ever play it. I haven't finished it, and I haven't touched it in months because its just not a game I can play for a short time, I have to dedicate lots of time to it and my phone isn't a comfortable thing to dedicate long gaming sessions on.

Its the same when I play flash games, I find some that are really deep experiences, and that's good, but that's just not what I, personally am looking for in those games, and those are free. But on iOS, many of those same types of deep games charge more for the product (not all, of course), but tell me its going to cost me $5 for a game that doesn't fit the purpose of the device, and I'm not interested at all.

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this way. I don't know. But it seems to me that iOS games are much better suited to lighter experiences in shorter times and at lower prices.