Why are games so expensive?

[Bballbenb]

I am sure this has been asked before so i appologize, but why are games like fruit ninja 2 bucks more on wp7 than iphones?

 

[TheWeeBear]

Because they are in Microsoft's eyes premium, as they contain achievements that form part of the XBox live service.

Sad as it is, i would in preference buy an XBox Live game to raise my gamer score as I enjoy that feature.

Many though, do not care a jot about achievements.

 

[textomatic]

I believe that Microsoft feels that it can charge a premium price for the gamer point feature. This is one trend I am not happy about. Heck, I wish games like Fruit Ninja would offer a non-gamer points version at a price point equivalent to those on other mobile devices. I'm just guessing here so take it for what it's worth.....

 

[lumic]

Can't Microsoft just cut the price anyway? Who the heck cares if Windows Phone users are getting achievements too easily - there's a reason to jump on the platform!

 

[icstars989]

Also there are many more iPhone users than WP. They have to sell it higher to make the development pay off. I remember Android being like that too for a long time.

 

[Terrin]

Its not just the xbla "premiuim service" being a xbla game is just saying its soppose to be a high quality game (not defending that they all are) its that compared to the amout of iphone users we have a extremely small user base so with development costs to transfer to xna companys need to charge the extra to make money plus a bit of profit for what they expect to sell (sometimes they sell quite a few more units ala fruit ninja and doodle jump I heard blew way past the expected sale numbers) if we see a massive jump in phone sales you will see the price of xbla games come down by a dollar or 2

 

[1jaxstate1]

They day people start complaining that 3 bucks is too much for a game is the day when they shouldn't be gaming anymore.

 

[Winterfang]

They day people start complaining that 3 bucks is too much for a game is the day when they shouldn't be gaming anymore.

On the console gaming but is hard when iphone has the same game for a fraction of the price and much much much better quality.

 

[1jaxstate1]

More available customers means more opportunity. i can see them charging more due to the smaller market. I'm only assuming, but I think they make more money by charging less for iOS and Android. But for WP7 they have to charge more, due to the lower customer base.

On the console gaming but is hard when iphone has the same game for a fraction of the price and much much much better quality.

 

[TaliZorah]

They aren't THAT expensive and they come in all shapes, sizes, and prices.

It's not a big deal to me. I can afford a maximum of $5 a week lol.

 

[a box of fish]

Because they are in Microsoft's eyes premium, as they contain achievements that form part of the XBox live service.

Sad as it is, i would in preference buy an XBox Live game to raise my gamer score as I enjoy that feature.

This, it does suck having the same game as my GF but she gets some for free on Andoird.

 

[s0ftimage]

I spent like 6 months building my game El Cagao (part time). I didn't even know c# when I started. I surely would like to make some money for my effort and I dont think I am asking too much at $1.99. Since I had no sales, I just lowered the price to 99 cents... price update after the new version is approved. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[jalb]

The market is smaller. Just like buying cough drops at a gas station costs more than buying them at Wal-mart.

 

[lumic]

I think many more developers should look at offering free, ad-supported versions. I personally despise ads, but it has come to my attention that it is hard to make money off a cheap, once-off payment. When the sales volumes are much lower as it is with Windows Phone, it's much better for a developer to get a stream of cash from every time the app is running.

That said, there needs to be a robust ad system which allows you to skin the ads so they work better with your game. It's so terrible to see the dos-style ad space in colourful games.

 

[phantomlightgames]

I think many more developers should look at offering free, ad-supported versions. I personally despise ads, but it has come to my attention that it is hard to make money off a cheap, once-off payment. When the sales volumes are much lower as it is with Windows Phone, it's much better for a developer to get a stream of cash from every time the app is running.

That said, there needs to be a robust ad system which allows you to skin the ads so they work better with your game. It's so terrible to see the dos-style ad space in colourful games.

I have to agree as a developer my first game had ads! As much as it will generate revenue i hated the way the game looked. At the end i removed all ads. The game was downloaded over a hundred times. Sadly i'm not getting any of that revenue but knowing people are actually playing it is good enough for me!

 

[cgk]

Because they are in Microsoft's eyes premium, as they contain achievements that form part of the XBox live service.

Sad as it is, i would in preference buy an XBox Live game to raise my gamer score as I enjoy that feature.

Many though, do not care a jot about achievements.

Then it's simple, they should do cheaper "non xbox live" versions, as many of us don't have xboxes and don't give two hoots about achivements! :happy:

 

[TheWeeBear]

Then it's simple, they should do cheaper "non xbox live" versions, as many of us don't have xboxes and don't give two hoots about achivements! :happy:

Yes that sounds a good idea to me, just remove the achievements for non carers and make them cheaper cgk1.

 

[1jaxstate1]

But at the end of the day, $3 bucks isn't expensive. I think devs are going to start having problems with making money since this attitude is becoming more and more wide spread.

 

[wizll]

many of you have already touched on great reasons why games cost more on the wp marketplace. as I see it, games being free or cheaper on the other app stores have a lot to do with visibility. There's so much junk in those stores now, the way they market their games/apps is only by slashing the price down to a dollar, which will generate buzz via apps/sites notifying about these sales, which in turn causes people to buy it, and as a result bump their game up to the top 10/20/50/100 list on the marketplace, which in itself will market to people who are looking at the top games/apps to buy something cheap. With the larger user base, they can afford to do that. When WP gets there, it'll probably be similar.

my personal experience, I have invested in windows phone developers way more than I have ios developers. I know I can just wait for ipad apps/games to become free. On the other hand, I see myself donating 10 bux to jeff wilcox for a great foursquare app.

 

[jalb]

But at the end of the day, $3 bucks isn't expensive. I think devs are going to start having problems with making money since this attitude is becoming more and more wide spread.

I agree. I'm always kind of dumbfounded that people will pay $200-$300 for the phone and two to three thousand bucks for the lifetime of the dataplan, but if an app costs more than ninety-nine cents, all of a sudden they get all frugal.