Jul 22, 2010
interesting article on game pricing
Posted this to my Twitter earlier: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/PG.biz+Opinion/feature.asp?c=22308
An interesting article about perceived value in app pricing. For me, the most interesting bit in this article is near the end when the author is talking about In-App Purchases. I wrote something recently in the comments on this post from Games From Within which basically said I think what the author is getting at, that by using in-app purchases, you let your app’s user decide what the app is worth to them, and pay accordingly. A casual player may pay nothing or pay 99 cents, but if your app is compelling/useful/cool/whatever enough, you will end up with users who are happy to more, who are HAPPY to pay more. Here is my comment pasted in here, it may make a bit more sense in the context of the (excellent!) blog post it was replying to:
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I definitely think that free+IAP is an incredibly strong model for apps that fit it (and Flower Garden seems like one of the best fits).
I think sometimes people forget that a lot of people WANT to spend more money, and IAP lets them. There are games out there I would spend much more than $1-$3 on if I could get more enjoyment from them. I bought all 5 IAPs for Ramp Champ for example, and if they released 20 more I’d buy all of them and be ECSTATIC about it. The IAP model allows people who WANT to spend more money to do so, without having to raise the price of the app and shut out the people who just want to spend 0.99 or 1.99.
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