What's old is new again

[wildweasel]

Yeah, and even for really big titles from big name developers, twenty dollars is my typical cutoff. The last time I spent more than that on anything, I'm reasonably sure I regretted it after a month due to the inevitable price drop and DLC gouge.

[Kinsie]

Arcade culture also differed around the world. Japanese games are typically less random/more "learnable" so as to allow the ability to impress onlookers by beating the game on a single credit (1CC!) after spending hundreds of credits learning and practising all the game's tricks.

Weasel probably knows people who could explain this in a deeper and more accurate form, what with being part of HG101 and all.

You know, before I actually read that article, I honestly thought it was an actual arcade style format ie pay 20p and get one go at the game. Perhaps the current state of the industry is making me bittercynical.

There have been a number of iOS games, typically direct arcade port collections, that do this alongside a "buy it outright!" option for free play. Namco Arcade, for example, does 10 credits for 99c and freeplay for a single game for $2-3 alongside the whole "wait 24 hours for a free credit or two" thing.

[Peter Bark]

it's the hipsters.. there is a market for them now.

[NeuralStunner]

(I recently spent $3 just to have a damned Solitaire game on my phone that wasn't loaded with interstitial ads and stupid cash-shop nonsense. It's debatable whether that was worth the investment.)

Isn't it sad when a selling point for free-to-paid is "not being annoyed"? Same with every site that says "register to get rid of ads". (And of course that's going to be a reasonable loss of ad revenue if their TOS says, very stealthily, that they can sell out the email you registered under.)

DLC gouge

An article I recently read pointed out that there's a time window in which DLC is a cool thing to do. That period shortly after you've bought the game, where you would be looking for new stuff for it. If it's released late, it doesn't land as well. (But of course, "DLC" that is clearly re-adding things in that they cut from the base game specifically to make more money from, well that's just uncool.)

hipsters

What does that even mean?

[demo_the_man]

ive probally found the best free game on the app store to be metal slug defense, as by beating stages , you get premuim currency, and around download milestones they give free currency, and even though it has a recharge timer, it recharges fairly quickly allowing constant play ,recently though they have been forcing adds and capping unit strength for premuim currency.
It started good, but has started to suck

[Graf Zahl]

An article I recently read pointed out that there's a time window in which DLC is a cool thing to do. That period shortly after you've bought the game, where you would be looking for new stuff for it. If it's released late, it doesn't land as well. (But of course, "DLC" that is clearly re-adding things in that they cut from the base game specifically to make more money from, well that's just uncool.)

Well, these greedy bastards are slowly but steadily killing their own business. DLC to patch things that got intentionally omitted from the game to rip off the customers comes close to fraud, if you ask me.

But if it's a new campaign to a game I liked, I'd view it differently. And you can sell that stuff even when the game has be come a bit older, but its true fans are eager to get some new content.

But the entire development clearly shows that there's far too many people without control of their spending habits. Just be sneaky enough and they voluntarily pay 10x of what the game is actually worth.

[NeuralStunner]

Well, these greedy bastards are slowly but steadily killing their own business. DLC to patch things that got intentionally omitted from the game to rip off the customers comes close to fraud, if you ask me.

Yep. It's generally pretty obvious when it happens, too. (Does the game seem wildly unbalanced and too hard without the addon?)

But if it's a new campaign to a game I liked, I'd view it differently. And you can sell that stuff even when the game has be come a bit older, but its true fans are eager to get some new content.

Also yep, as long as they don't do stupid lazy crap like "supergun found in first level". (Does the game seem wildly unbalanced and too easy with the addon?)

Some publishers (like Paradox Interactive) have an interesting system where new DLC content and features are added to the base game immediately, and buying the DLC allows you to play as the new characters (etc.) and support developers who are responsible toward their players.

[Gez]

"Apple Promotes Strange New Game Type In iOS App Store, 'Pay Once And Play'"

I honestly expected this to be an Onion article, but the URL is actually forbes.com.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

"Apple Promotes Strange New Game Type In iOS App Store, 'Pay Once And Play'"

I honestly expected this to be an Onion article, but the URL is actually forbes.com.

Glad I'm not the only one who had that initial reaction.