2nd August 2011, 8:13 PM
Yeah, I entirely agree -- the one full-price game is almost certain to be better than the 40 $1 games, provided that you put some thought into what to get.
And yes, while smartphones are a threat to handheld consoles, I think the Apple devotees are wrong when they say that iOS and Android devices are going to kill handhelds. They aren't. There is a place for buttons, and for games that aren't $1... you can't make a major, expensive game when you're only selling it for a dollar or two, it's just not possible. There are some larger iOS games, but they're usually ports, like SFIV, the DS version of FFIII, GTA: Chinatown Wars, FF Tactics, etc. Those games couldn't have been iPhone/iPad-first games, they just wouldn't have made enough money that way to justify the cost of development.
And "well just increase the price of the cellphone games" isn't going to work, people expect very low prices from cellphone games. The average price for a paid smartphone game is something like $1.50...
And yes, while smartphones are a threat to handheld consoles, I think the Apple devotees are wrong when they say that iOS and Android devices are going to kill handhelds. They aren't. There is a place for buttons, and for games that aren't $1... you can't make a major, expensive game when you're only selling it for a dollar or two, it's just not possible. There are some larger iOS games, but they're usually ports, like SFIV, the DS version of FFIII, GTA: Chinatown Wars, FF Tactics, etc. Those games couldn't have been iPhone/iPad-first games, they just wouldn't have made enough money that way to justify the cost of development.
And "well just increase the price of the cellphone games" isn't going to work, people expect very low prices from cellphone games. The average price for a paid smartphone game is something like $1.50...