I have been thinking for some time: is 60 US dollars sort of price limit for a game or have there been more expensive games? I'm more interested in the cases where the price of the game is determined by the merits of the game itself and not by the price of the necessary stuff (controllers, pricey distribution media etc.) that the game needs to operate, so I'd like to factor that out. But It's still interesting to know: how much did they sell for those games that need special controllers to run (i.e. guitar) or those games distributed on cartridges with pricey ROMs and ASICs?
When iPhone App Store came along, it brought with it its own price conventions i.e. it's normal to sell games for $0.99, or $9.99 tops. Does anyone sell games for $60, or at least $30 on iPhone? Form a developer's point of view I see no reason for iPhone games to be priced cheaper than PC or console counterparts. Development of any game doesn't become 10x cheaper because it is for iPhone, does it?
The reason I'm interested in it is the following: I am thinking about how can indie game developers get compensated for their work? There's the notion that if the game is "big and good" ("AAA" titles released by major publishers) it deserves to be paid top dollar for ($60 currently, I assume; though $60 seems to be "very top" by todays standards); indie games from obscure developers deserve much less. I don't see why the opposite couldn't be true; "big" games, though require big budgets for their production, will sell many copies anyway, while indie ones appeal for much narrower audience (that needs them nevertheless), for which they have to compensate with higher price, which said audience will have to pay. Does history have any examples of this kind? If not, maybe, as PG noted[1], we're not actually paying for content in games, not just in music and print?
When iPhone App Store came along, it brought with it its own price conventions i.e. it's normal to sell games for $0.99, or $9.99 tops. Does anyone sell games for $60, or at least $30 on iPhone? Form a developer's point of view I see no reason for iPhone games to be priced cheaper than PC or console counterparts. Development of any game doesn't become 10x cheaper because it is for iPhone, does it?
The reason I'm interested in it is the following: I am thinking about how can indie game developers get compensated for their work? There's the notion that if the game is "big and good" ("AAA" titles released by major publishers) it deserves to be paid top dollar for ($60 currently, I assume; though $60 seems to be "very top" by todays standards); indie games from obscure developers deserve much less. I don't see why the opposite couldn't be true; "big" games, though require big budgets for their production, will sell many copies anyway, while indie ones appeal for much narrower audience (that needs them nevertheless), for which they have to compensate with higher price, which said audience will have to pay. Does history have any examples of this kind? If not, maybe, as PG noted[1], we're not actually paying for content in games, not just in music and print?
[1] Paul Graham: Post-Medium Publishing http://www.paulgraham.com/publishing.html