Thoughts on Square Enix's iOS game pricing
One thing that’s been on my mind recently is the cost of gaming; specifically the pricing of digitally-distributed games. The reason I’ve been thinking about it is because one of my favorite PlayStation games, Final Fantasy Tactics, was just re-released for iPhone. I was excited about this remake, simply because I always have my iPhone on me, so any iOS game is much more accessible. It’s much easier to play a quick game before bed when the phone is sitting on the nightstand right beside me. However, when the game was finally released yesterday, I was a bit disappointed to see the initial price set at $16.
Now, don’t get me wrong, $16 is not too much to pay for a quality game. However, I decided not to buy the FFT remake for a number of reasons.
- $16 is too much for an impulse purchase, which is what most iOS apps target. Final Fantasy Tactics is a 15 year old game. I would say that the majority of customers those who have already played it on the PS/PSP (and they probably own it for one of those platforms as well). It rankles to pay what is viewed as a “premium” price for something you already own in a different format.
- Like it or not, game prices are trending downwards. Look at the average buying price for the Humble Indie Bundle to see what many people will pay for games given the ability to set their own price. In some cases this downward trend is mitigated by increased distribution scope, but not always. I appreciate the effort to show that some games have more content, and therefore can command a higher price. However, riding the nostalgia wave off the backs of loyal players probably isn’t the best way to go about it.
- I feel like I can pay more when I get some sort of physical artifact to add to my game collection. For instance, $16 for a Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV? I can do that. Digital distribution still feels too ephemeral to me.
- From what I’ve seen of previous Square Enix iOS releases, it seems that their development staff doesn’t have a very good understanding of touchscreen input. Instead of re-working an older game’s UI, they keep it the same and have some awkward touch controls. In the reviews for FFT, there were a number of comments about non-Retina graphics as well. I can’t decide if they just don’t take the platform seriously, or don’t know any better, or don’t care.
I’m appreciative of Squeenix’s entry into iOS publishing, but I think that they need to get their act together a bit more before I’ll consider (re)purchasing games from them.
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