iOS (iPhone, iPod, iPad) / Mac App Stores -- Ongoing Sales

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ryanflucas

ryanflucas

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This is a continuation of this previous thread. Since it was getting very close to the 5,000 thread mark, I figured it was time for a reset.

Post any deals you find, recommendations, requests for deals, etc. Please keep things as civil as possible. There's no such thing as a bad deal post and reviews are opinions.


Games in the App store are constantly going on sale. While I originally posted games and prices in this post, it's become almost impossible to keep up with it all. Feel free to post in this topic on good deals and games you enjoy. Developers are also encouraged to join in, especially if they are running promos or sales.

If you want to check out a particular game, try the following review sites, or ask in here so fellow CAG's can assist you.

Price Drop Sites

• 148 Apps
• App Shopper iOS / App Shopper Mac
• Free App Alert
• Touch Arcade
• Free App A Day

App & Game Review Sites

• IGN Wireless
• MacLife iPad
• MacLife iPod/iPhone
• Slide to Play
• Touch Arcade
• Touch Gen
• TUAW Games

Free App offers from Developers
• Get a free copy of the Number Fill app for iOS by sending an email to [email protected] with subject "iOSApp:" (while supplies last).

YouTube Video Reviews

• iPad Game Reviews
• iPhone\iPod Touch Game Reviews

Apple Game Center
Apple Game Center allows you to keep a friends list, track your in game achievements, and compare with your friends. Many games are starting to support this. Currently this only runs on iPod & iPhone, but an update will be coming soon that enables this for iPad users.

Make sure to checkout the official CAG Game Center Exchange Thread. You can post your game center name and see the names of your favorite CAG'rs. You can also exchange OpenFeint & Plus+ names there.

ITUNES GIFT CARD SALES
Gamestop: 6/8 to 6/14, $25 iTunes gift card for $20

Important Notes:

1. Make sure to check for periodic updates either in iTunes or on your iOS devices. For each release of new firmware, there's usually a bunch of games updated right afterward.

2. Some applications also go on sale by their authors when they reach 1 million download and similar milestones.

3. Apps often have specials the day before, during, and after holidays, regardless if said game/app is related to the holiday.

4. Newly released apps will often have a % or dollar amount off for a limited period of time to gain a large following quicker. While browsing the app store you can go to a particular type or genre and order according to release date. This can make finding new app discounts faster.

5. Make sure to backup your purchases in iTunes to CD/DVD for safe keeping. You can do this by clicking File-->Library-->Backup to Disc. Then choose all purchases, applications only, and full or incremental backup. How often is up to you, but I do this monthly, or more often if I buy a lot of apps.

6. Apps can be re-downloaded without incurring an extra charge if you previously purchased it. This is good if you have a crash and forget to backup your purchases. I don't know if this is a permanent feature so backing up regularly is still important.

7. I strongly advise not to buy iTunes Gift Cards by 3rd parties unless you know they can be trusted. Retail stores, receiving cards as gifts, etc are the best ways. There are many credit card scams, stolen cards, hacked cards going around, especially on Ebay.

8. If you are the victim of a iTunes Card scam or get your account locked due to one not all hope is lost. Apple has been fairly lenient on these issues. Call Apple directly at 1-800-MY-APPLE or check the iTunes Store support page. Also going to your local Apple Store to discuss it can help. The account locking is an automated process and can be reversed. This can take time so be cautious if you use gift cards from 3rd party sources.

9. If you somehow break your iOS device, you have some options. If you bought the Applecare warranty it should be covered for most items. If your Applecare ran out or you don't have one, try using one of the repair guides on iFixit to repair it yourself. Apple Stores have been known to give discounts if you bring in a iOS device that they will not fix since it's not in warranty. This discount however is very small.

10. Using a screen protector can extend the life of your device. Most stores carry these, but they can be hard to install. The best I have personally used are made by a company called Power Support. They have both clear and anti-glare protectors. They are easier to install because the protector is a firm yet thin piece of plastic. Two come in a pack, average price I've seen is $20. Griffin Technologies and Zagg are also very good.

11. Universal Apps have a small plus sign in the upper left corner next to their price. They can be played natively on both the iPad and iPod/iPhone. iPhone games that are not universal can still be played on the iPad with a lower resolution. Non universal iPad games cannot be played on the iPhone.


Recommended Games by Genre
Feel free to add games, genres or move titles as needed. This list is to give CAGs a chance to catch up on missed high-quality games and to get new users started on "can't miss" titles to download for their new idevice. Underlined titles are universal (ipad and iphone/ipod touch). Italic are iPad only.

Casual - Tiny Wings, Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope. World of Goo, Osmos, Bird Strike - GOLD EDITION, Parachute Ninja, Pilot Winds, Depict, Flight Control, Time Geeks: Find All!, Bird Zapper!, Tapper World Tour, Amazing Breaker
Shooter - Tilt to Live, Galaxy on Fire 2, Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, Radiant, Warblade, MetalStorm: Online, Minotron 2112
F/TPS/Action - Shadowgun, N.O.V.A., N.O.V.A. 2, Infinity Blade, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus, Dead Space, Shadow Guardian
Dual-Stick Shooter - Age of Zombies, Minigore, Solomon's Keep, Solomon's Boneyard
Action/Arcade - Jet Ball, Super Mega Worm, Zombie Highway, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Plunderland
Adventure - Super Brothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Broken Sword: Director's Cut, Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror Remastered, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition, Sam & Max Episode 1, Scarlett and the Spark of Life, Back to the Future Ep 1 HD, Back to the Future Ep 2 HD
Platformer - League of Evil, Mirror's Edge, Kami Retro, Pix'n Love Rush, Soosiz, Fastar!, Frogatto, Rolando, Rolando 2, Creepy Caverns, :Shift:, Robot Wants Kitty, Perfect Cell, Beyond Ynth, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Hoggy, Edge
Endless Runner - Hook Champ, Super QuickHook, Hook Worlds, Monster Dash, Solipskier, Robot Unicorn Attack, Inspector Gadget's MAD Dash, Run Like Hell! Deluxe
Tower Defense - Plants vs. Zombies, Holy Moly Dragons, Defender Chronicles, iBomber Defense, The Creeps!, Geodefense, Geodefense Swarm, Epic War TD, Sentinel Mars Defense, Sentinel Earth Defense, Sentinel Homeworld, Guns'n'Glory, TowerMadness
 RPG - Zenonia, Zenonia 2, Zenonia 3, Battleheart, Dungeon Hunter I & II, Across Age, Chaos Rings, Sacred Odyssey, Eternal Legacy, Secret of Mana (yes, that Secret of Mana :D), 100 Rogues
Puzzle - Azkend, Sparkle, Bejeweled 2, Dungeon Raid, Drop7, Puzzle Agent, Trainyard, Puzzle Quest 2, Crosslogic, bitFLIP, Love Battle Princess, Heroes of Kalevala, Antrim Escape 1/2
Card/Dice - Sword & Poker 1 & 2, World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend
Sim - Game Dev Story, Hot Springs Story, Sims: Ambitions
Strategy - Civilization Revolution, Trenches, Crystal War, Legendary Wars
Sports - NBA Jam, Backbreaker Football, Backbreaker 2, Flick Kick Field Goal
Fighting - Street Fighter IV, King of Fighters-i002
Racing - Asphalt 6, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed: Shift, Real Racing 2, Reckless Racing, Disc Drivin', Jet Car Stunts, Death Rally, Tires of Fury
Time Management - My Kingdom for the Princess 1 & 2, Hotel Mogul, Airport Mania, Roads of Rome HD
Board Games -Small World, Carcassonne, Catan, Words With Friends, Reiner Knizia's Samurai, Neuroshima Hex
Trivia - MovieCat, You Don't Know Jack
Hidden Object - Little Things, Pictureka
Non-Game Essentials - Appshopper, Atomic Web Browser, Stanza, CloudReaders, Flipbook, TuneIn Radio Pro, Dropbox, Air Video+, Evernote, Video Stream, mBox Mail, Genius Scan, Urban Spoon, Documents To Go Premium
 
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This shows that the limit for app store prices has yet to be found. People will still buy an app even at $16. But I do wonder if a cheaper price would generate even more profit for S-E. Could a game like FFT dominate the top of the charts for months if priced correctly, or is there a limited demand for the game and a lower price wouldn't bring in enough extra sales to compensate for the price drop?
 
Any recommended card combat games? Played Kard Combat because it was free but it's sorta meh. Noticed someone from here playing Ascension as well.
 
[quote name='Hostile']Any recommended card combat games? Played Kard Combat because it was free but it's sorta meh. Noticed someone from here playing Ascension as well.[/QUOTE]

Shadow Era. Free MTG style game.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Square Enix's pricing for their iOS apps makes me sick to my stomach - but not as sick as the idea that some of you support them at that price.

It might be more palatable if they were universal; since they aren't, that's an additional layer of insult.

Infinity Blade is $5.99 and has generated $10 million in revenue for Chair.

Square is using their narcissism to price themselves out of the market.[/QUOTE]
There's gotta be premium games for a premium price sometime. This game originally retailed for $50 and $40 in its two releases, and was worth it at either. Does the price really need to be cut to $5 just because the iOS market is used to it?
 
[quote name='doodofdoods'] But I do wonder if a cheaper price would generate even more profit for S-E. Could a game like FFT dominate the top of the charts for months if priced correctly, or is there a limited demand for the game and a lower price wouldn't bring in enough extra sales to compensate for the price drop?[/QUOTE]

Don't forget the third option, where they can gouge all of the first adopters at $16 and then when sales trail off they can drop the price and get all the CAGs that are waiting for $10 or lower.
 
Don't get me wrong, the game is selling. It's "top grossing," but it also came out yesterday. Early adopters and all that, right? So they're getting quick sales from people who will impulse buy at any price, and then denying themselves further sales from people who won't spend that kind of money on an app.

[quote name='pete5883']There's gotta be premium games for a premium price sometime. This game originally retailed for $50 and $40 in its two releases, and was worth it at either. Does the price really need to be cut to $5 just because the iOS market is used to it?[/QUOTE]

I can go buy a new, sealed PSP copy today for $10. So yeah, I think so. It was $50 in the mid-1990's.

Simply put, I look at it this way: Square Enix could have had $5-10 from me *many times over* for their software. Secret of Mana*, FFIII, Chaos Rings Omega, and now FFT. Instead they're getting $0 from me for all 4. That's $35-40 they don't have in their pocket. How many people are in the same boat as me, saying "wow, I'd love to have that, but there's no way I'm spending that kind of money on it"?

* SoM is $9 typically, but I'm not going to pay that much to upscale an iPhone game on my iPad.
 
[quote name='keithp']Don't forget the third option, where they can gouge all of the first adopters at $16 and then when sales trail off they can drop the price and get all the CAGs that are waiting for $10 or lower.[/QUOTE]

Square enix knows that they have a cult following for the "classics" and gouge the diehard fans for $16 because of the loyalty this group has. If the game went on sale for $1 it would not stay anywhere near the top 50, after the diehards all purchased the game it would sink like a stone.

That strategy has really pissed me off with Square. Instead of rewarding your loyal fans you take advantage of them. I have no problem paying premium prices for quality games but the fact that they did nothing to this port outside of slapping some touch controls on it. While leaving the framerate issues is just absurd.
 
[quote name='keithp']Don't forget the third option, where they can gouge all of the first adopters at $16 and then when sales trail off they can drop the price and get all the CAGs that are waiting for $10 or lower.[/QUOTE]
Seriously, I mean, what they are doing will probably make them the most money. Right now there is enough of a market of people that will buy this game for $16, and once sales slow, they will lower the price. SE is a business, and like any business, their primary goal is just to make as much money as possible. It's just frustrating that there are that many people willing to give them $16, for a re-re-re-re-re-release. People that like FFT, reeeeeallly like FFT. And they will pay/play it over and over again.
 
[quote name='Hostile']Any recommended card combat games? Played Kard Combat because it was free but it's sorta meh. Noticed someone from here playing Ascension as well.[/QUOTE]

Ascension is really good with excellent asynch online play, however I'm not sure it qualifies exactly as "card combat" game as you aren't attacking your opponents. It's a deck building game like Dominion, but different from that. You are attacking monsters and buying other cards, but you're not attacking each other. The goal is to end up with the most victory points, earned both by killing monsters and simply buying cards that have victory points, all the while trying not to have your deck filled with filler that prevents you from getting/killing other cards. it's a great game and a great version of it for iOS. I highly recommend it.

Kickin' Momma has already dropped to 99 cents: http://appshopper.com/games/kickin-momma

It came out two days ago at $1.99 and dropped to 99 cents yesterday.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Don't get me wrong, the game is selling. It's "top grossing," but it also came out yesterday. Early adopters and all that, right? So they're getting quick sales from people who will impulse buy at any price, and then denying themselves further sales from people who won't spend that kind of money on an app.



I can go buy a new, sealed PSP copy today for $10. So yeah, I think so. It was $50 in the mid-1990's.

Simply put, I look at it this way: Square Enix could have had $5-10 from me *many times over* for their software. Secret of Mana*, FFIII, Chaos Rings Omega, and now FFT. Instead they're getting $0 from me for all 4. That's $35-40 they don't have in their pocket. How many people are in the same boat as me, saying "wow, I'd love to have that, but there's no way I'm spending that kind of money on it"?

* SoM is $9 typically, but I'm not going to pay that much to upscale an iPhone game on my iPad.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. If Square had sold these games at more reasonable costs id have picked up SoM, FFT and Chaos Rings. This is not just an IOS problem either, Square does the same thing everywhere. Their games almost never go on sale on PSN or XBL and whenever steam does sales on Square games they are always among the worst deals. You can get critically acclaimed games like Mass Effect 2 that were a year old at the time for like half the cost Square tries selling their crappy third tier games for.
 
Japanese companies don't seem to understand digital content. See Sony Corporation, Nintendo Co., Ltd.

I feel a little bad about bitching about Square's iOS pricing as I do want to see higher quality games (and therefore not .99-priced) come out on this platform. If they'd just make these apps universal I think I'd have a lot less problem with the price-point.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']Are there plans for an iPad version of FFT?[/QUOTE]

The FFT page says an iPad version is coming in the fall.
 
[quote name='envelopes']yes, it's supposed to be out this month[/QUOTE]

It was delayed until fall I believe, probably September at the earliest.
 
[quote name='emokid9963']Can anyone recommend this game? I have been looking at it for awhile, but not to sure.[/QUOTE]

I played it. It was fun for a few levels but then it became difficult (I have to admit though that I suck at these games)
 
not sure if i am allowed to post this but there's a massive indie iOS games giveaway happening on Twitter with #iOSAPPALOOZA

Check the following link for more info
http://www.iphonegameruk.co.uk/iosappaloozagiveaway.htm

The organizers for this massive giveaway are iPhoneGamerUK, iFanzine & appsjp and the main man behind is @Doomfan!

and here are the names of the indie devs involved: @cascadiagames @Pixeleap @Appy @BigBadBrush @Bansheesoft @AztlanGames @FloydianSpiral @Canupa @tribasestudios & @SmallGaming

and here are the names of some of the titles being given out!
Requiem
Parallax
Vermes On Mars
Cavorite
Big Sticky
Zeke In Orbit
Up To The Top
Mission Europa:Collectors Edition
Trucks & Skulls
Candy Rush
Terror And War


all you have to do is TWEET CREATIVELY using #iOSAPPALOOZA and tag any of the hosts and any one of the indie devs to stand a chance to win (tag all 4 hosts to multiply your chances)
so do check out #iOSAPPALOOZA if you can :D
 
I'm sure it's been said before recently, but I think this thread should become it's own forum and each topic should be the name of a game on sale or sale event. It would be easier to see what CAGs say about the different games and what deals get more posts and thus are (sometimes) better.
 
[quote name='ianoid']I'm sure it's been said before recently, but I think this thread should become it's own forum and each topic should be the name of a game on sale or sale event. It would be easier to see what CAGs say about the different games and what deals get more posts and thus are (sometimes) better.[/QUOTE]

There is an iOS forum, someone even made a FFT thread.
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=95
 
Free app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

I am giving away copies of my app (Sudoku Crossword, a puzzle game that merges concepts from 'Sudoku' and from 'Crossword' fill-in puzzles). For information,

For iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sudoku-crossword-puzzle-game/id446065756?mt=8
For Mac: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sudoku-crossword/id451057470?mt=12

To get a free copy, send an email to [email protected] and use subject "MacApp:" or "iOSApp:" (without quotes, but with colon).

Thanks!

- ClintonW
Log[iCL] Games
 
Free puzzle game app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

I am giving away copies of my app (Sudoku Crossword, a puzzle game that merges concepts from 'Sudoku' and from 'Crossword' fill-in puzzles). For information,

For iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sudoku-crossword-puzzle-game/id446065756?mt=8
For Mac: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sudoku-crossword/id451057470?mt=12

To get a free copy, send an email to [email protected] and use subject "MacApp:" or "iOSApp:" (without quotes, but with colon).

Thanks!

- ClintonW
Log[iCL] Games
 
Space Inversion is free for this weekend.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/space-inversion/id386777620?mt=8
mzl.pydwmdoo.320x480-75.jpg
 
[quote name='gage006']My friend has an iPhone and I have an iPad. What are some fun games we can play together that aren't " with Friends"?[/QUOTE]
Minigore. Dual stick shooter.
 
[quote name='ianoid']I'm sure it's been said before recently, but I think this thread should become it's own forum and each topic should be the name of a game on sale or sale event. It would be easier to see what CAGs say about the different games and what deals get more posts and thus are (sometimes) better.[/QUOTE]

I disagree this thread should stay right here where it is.
 
[quote name='z3razerviper']I disagree this thread should stay right here where it is.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, there are so many sales, it would be a mess.
 
[quote name='gage006']My friend has an iPhone and I have an iPad. What are some fun games we can play together that aren't " with Friends"?[/QUOTE]


NBA Jam
 
[quote name='Troll']^^^ why would you even post that?[/QUOTE]

Is there something wrong with it? Or are you just living up to your username?
 
I might have missed any impressions of it ITT, but it looks like Guardian Saga has been reviewed pretty well. I almost just bought it, but decided to wait for it to go on sale for a buck. Looks good.
 
[quote name='EYEL1NER']I might have missed any impressions of it ITT, but it looks like Guardian Saga has been reviewed pretty well. I almost just bought it, but decided to wait for it to go on sale for a buck. Looks good.[/QUOTE]

Yea, it looks like a good old school JRPG. I will have to pick it up soon.
 
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