3 ms·

You seem to gloss over micro transactions, and pricing. 0.99$ is the standard app price, but its not the only price. Square Enix puts out premium priced games,

You seem to gloss over micro transactions, and pricing. 0.99$ is the standard app price, but its not the only price. Square Enix puts out premium priced games, and I've bought Indy games in the 2 to 5 dollar range. Why exclude microtransactions? That's simply the nature of the market. People don't experience mobile games in large blocks of time, so why should they pay for them in the same way? I don't think every game needs to be a slot machine, but something closer to telltale games walking dead makes a lot more sense. Especially on mobile.

potatolicious 14y ago
Telltale is doing what one normally understands as microtransactions - we're talking about credit-based gaming, as opposed to episodic like Telltale. I haven't dismissed microtransactions completely, though I'm doubtful that they are sustainable in the long run. What we've currently explored in the game industry when it comes to that really amounts to the gaming equivalent of Groupon - a surge of interest due to novelty, followed by apathy or downright aversion due to well, how un-fun it is. And this isn't just mobile specific - look at Zynga and how their player numbers are dropping off a cliff. I have serious doubts about the sustainability of microtransaction-based gaming. So, leaving aside microtransactions for a moment, this leaves us with "paying for content" (as opposed to paying for ephemeral virtual currency). I've included episodic gaming (e.g., Telltale) in this thought, and I don't believe mobile is better than traditional gaming platforms (PC, consoles) following this model. The mobile space has been conditioned to expect rock-bottom pricing. Where an indie game dev can move a game like FTL on Steam for $10+, their odds of charging that much on iOS or Android is basically nil. Advertising and conversion on mobile is also notoriously hard, adding to customer acquisition and marketing costs. I simply do not see this working out for the vast, vast majority of devs. If I were an indie dev right now I'd be gunning for the PC/Mac/console space hardcore. iOS/Android, in gaming and outside of it, is a gold rush with few winners and no economic sensibility.
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  Regarding zynga, I think the player base has spread outward to many different games vs all on zynga. Zynga had the initial numbers because of their Facebook game success. Now you see rage of bahamut, etc. It seems like most of these games live or die for their 1% of customers that pay the most. In the future I see traditional vs mobile as TV shows vs movies. They are functionally the same media, but they are produced to be consumed in different ways. Right now we're wondering why made for TV movies are not doing as well as their theater counterparts.

potatolicious 14y ago

Telltale is doing what one normally understands as microtransactions - we're talking about credit-based gaming, as opposed to episodic like Telltale. I haven't dismissed microtransactions completely, though I'm doubtful that they are sustainable in the long run. What we've currently explored in the game industry when it comes to that really amounts to the gaming equivalent of Groupon - a surge of interest due to novelty, followed by apathy or downright aversion due to well, how un-fun it is. And this isn't just mobile specific - look at Zynga and how their player numbers are dropping off a cliff. I have serious doubts about the sustainability of microtransaction-based gaming. So, leaving aside microtransactions for a moment, this leaves us with "paying for content" (as opposed to paying for ephemeral virtual currency). I've included episodic gaming (e.g., Telltale) in this thought, and I don't believe mobile is better than traditional gaming platforms (PC, consoles) following this model. The mobile space has been conditioned to expect rock-bottom pricing. Where an indie game dev can move a game like FTL on Steam for $10+, their odds of charging that much on iOS or Android is basically nil. Advertising and conversion on mobile is also notoriously hard, adding to customer acquisition and marketing costs. I simply do not see this working out for the vast, vast majority of devs. If I were an indie dev right now I'd be gunning for the PC/Mac/console space hardcore. iOS/Android, in gaming and outside of it, is a gold rush with few winners and no economic sensibility.

hayksaakian 14y ago
Regarding zynga, I think the player base has spread outward to many different games vs all on zynga. Zynga had the initial numbers because of their Facebook game success. Now you see rage of bahamut, etc. It seems like most of these games live or die for their 1% of customers that pay the most. In the future I see traditional vs mobile as TV shows vs movies. They are functionally the same media, but they are produced to be consumed in different ways. Right now we're wondering why made for TV movies are not doing as well as their theater counterparts.