[quote name='LuisRM']As to the first question, I agree that they need to do a focused marketing campaign on gaming. It would be nice of them to highlight some top tier developers and remove the .99c expectation on quality games. The race to the bottom is tough on high-quality developers I'm sure. On the flip side, I love the consumable cheap game. If I don't like it, it's only .99c wasted.
My main complaint is that games aren't optimized for size. Take Oregon Trail for example. The game is 1gb. That is totally insane. That is 1/8 or 1/16 of your device in many cases. What is there incentive to reduce the size though? It's .99c and it's selling just fine. I understand when games like Dead Space, Infinity Blade or other high-quality games run that big though.
I'm a mid-core gamer and really like the unique experiences that the iPad/ipod touch games give me. Certain games can give you an experience that you really can't get on any other console. That being said, gaming wasn't what I was going for when I bought my iPad, because I think $500 for a gaming machine is too expensive. But that is for me to figure out how to best utilize my purchase, not Apple.
I wouldn't mind seeing a tiered gaming system, where established developers had a $4.99 minimum, or $9.99 minimum for premium titles. But would really casual gamers (your Angry Birds crowd for example) spend that money? Would they need to though? Are there enough mid-core and hard-core gamers to support those titles alone?
I think we're still in the early stages of iOS gaming, I'm interested to see how it progresses, but so far, we're heading in a positive direction.[/QUOTE]
I think the game Galaxy on Fire 2 proves that there is a hardcore market that is willing to pay $10 for a quality title that is full depth, innovation, and well done graphics (until recently it had never gone on sale). Same goes for Chaos Rings and some of the newer Gameloft titles (Starfront, Eternal Legacy, Gangstar, etc...). I think it just comes down to money. You need to spend LOTS of money on your iOS game in order to constitute a well selling $5-10 game. Most (Secret of Mana, some crappier Gameloft games, etc...) don't deserve to be sold in that margin. However, if you do spend a ton of money on an iOS game, you are taking a HUGEEEE risk that it doesn't just flop. There is a lot of measure that can be taken into account in sales on the console platforms, but I feel like with the iOS, it's all very rickety and even a great, high budget iOS game can fail since it requires a high price to make up costs. Of course I can't prove this because people don't really release sales numbers on apple titles, but it's just a feeling I have as a developer.
However, it doesn't help the $10 developers when EA and Gameloft drop their $5-10 games down to .99 cents. It gives people no reason to not wait it out and get them at .99 (unless you realllly want them). Then there's the Angry Birds and Tiny Wings games that are just too popular for their own good. Because of their success, people think ALL games should be .99 cents and equal their quality. The bar has been set by those games and I think that's partially why more expensive games get shunned, even if they are good.
I do believe Apple has done a number on the gaming industry with their .99 cent apps. They are good and bad. Good because gamers can get a solid game which they can play just as long as any retail title, for next to nothing. Bad because developers aren't really allowed to take risks because we need to pay the bills somehow and at .99 cents a pop, we don't have much incentive to not play it safe.