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Why does he sell it so cheap? Couldn't he easily charge 5$ or more?

by yread 16y ago

alxp 16y ago
IIRC id's first game on iOS was Wolfenstein 3D which originally cost $9.99 when I bought it. They are probably aiming for the left-hand side of the price / demand curve for Rage to gain new fans, where Wolf3D was targetted at people who already were fans.
chandler55 16y ago
I remember John specifically saying at Quakecon that he wanted the game to be an app that people use to show off their iOS device.
muhfuhkuh 16y ago
If id can sustain the 1.99 price point and stay in the top 10 (and there seems to be price sensitivity the higher in ranking you go in the iPhone app store; not so much so in the iPad app store, oddly), there is a chance id could make between $2 to 10 million in a year, post-30% Apple's cut (assuming traditional sales breakdown goes that #1 on the app store is ~20,000 units a day and #10 is ~5,000 units a day). That's on one game, on mobile. It doesn't consider the fact that Rage on mobile was more of a marketing vehicle to give everyone a taste of Rage coming for the PC, OS X, Linux, PS3, and XBox 360. Now _that_ is where id makes it's mark.
davidppp 16y ago
It's a fairly short game, much shorter than their Doom Resurrection which sold for $9.99 on release. I also recall JohnC saying that the iPhone game offers a fantastic marketing channel for their bigger Rage console game, so they wanted to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if id seriously considered offering the iPhone game for free.
petercooper 16y ago
I think it's a generational thing. A key generation using the iOS platform as a gaming device now is young - the under 25s. I suspect id has almost no penetration or brand recognition into that demographic. For id, the void between 1999 and 2009 merely contains Doom 3 (and Quake 4, sort of), a game that was not targeted at or appreciated by young gamers at all, who were all busy on their consoles. id seriously needs to bring the younger generation on board and get known among that group, since the older gamers will naturally drop off over time (I'm 29 and was a huge id fan in the day but already have stopped buying and playing games on most platforms). Stocking it high and selling it cheap is a great way to do this, especially as many under 25s are living on gift iTunes store credit bought by parents.
- zachinglis 16y ago
  I think you are part right. It was mentioned in a review that this is the first of many episodes in the series. I suspect that if this is true; the next ones will be higher priced.

Why does he sell it so cheap? Couldn't he easily charge 5$ or more?

by yread 16y ago

Why does he sell it so cheap? Couldn't he easily charge 5$ or more?

alxp 16y ago

IIRC id's first game on iOS was Wolfenstein 3D which originally cost $9.99 when I bought it. They are probably aiming for the left-hand side of the price / demand curve for Rage to gain new fans, where Wolf3D was targetted at people who already were fans.

chandler55 16y ago

I remember John specifically saying at Quakecon that he wanted the game to be an app that people use to show off their iOS device.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago

If id can sustain the 1.99 price point and stay in the top 10 (and there seems to be price sensitivity the higher in ranking you go in the iPhone app store; not so much so in the iPad app store, oddly), there is a chance id could make between $2 to 10 million in a year, post-30% Apple's cut (assuming traditional sales breakdown goes that #1 on the app store is ~20,000 units a day and #10 is ~5,000 units a day). That's on one game, on mobile. It doesn't consider the fact that Rage on mobile was more of a marketing vehicle to give everyone a taste of Rage coming for the PC, OS X, Linux, PS3, and XBox 360. Now _that_ is where id makes it's mark.

davidppp 16y ago

It's a fairly short game, much shorter than their Doom Resurrection which sold for $9.99 on release. I also recall JohnC saying that the iPhone game offers a fantastic marketing channel for their bigger Rage console game, so they wanted to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if id seriously considered offering the iPhone game for free.

petercooper 16y ago

I think it's a generational thing. A key generation using the iOS platform as a gaming device now is young - the under 25s. I suspect id has almost no penetration or brand recognition into that demographic. For id, the void between 1999 and 2009 merely contains Doom 3 (and Quake 4, sort of), a game that was not targeted at or appreciated by young gamers at all, who were all busy on their consoles. id seriously needs to bring the younger generation on board and get known among that group, since the older gamers will naturally drop off over time (I'm 29 and was a huge id fan in the day but already have stopped buying and playing games on most platforms). Stocking it high and selling it cheap is a great way to do this, especially as many under 25s are living on gift iTunes store credit bought by parents.

zachinglis 16y ago
I think you are part right. It was mentioned in a review that this is the first of many episodes in the series. I suspect that if this is true; the next ones will be higher priced.