Indies 'must sell endless amounts of games to survive' with standard 69p pricing
Mobile developers should not be scared of charging more for iOS and Android games, a developer from Vlambeer has said.
Speaking in a Reddit Q&A, developers from the Super Crate Box studio said that indies needed to be sell a countless number of titles at the standard $0.99 (£0.69) price just to survive on the platform, and encouraged more developers to start charging more.
The developer said a race-to-the-bottom had resulted in the prevalence of the free-to-play market, and stated Vlambeer would rather charge upwards of $3 than go F2P.
“We're not upset - it's just the way the market works at the moment,” a developer from the studio said.
“We do believe that developers shouldn't be scared to charge $3 for a game.
Advertisement
“The problem is that at $0.99, you'll need to sell endless amounts of copies to be able to survive as an indie developer. Most games don't even get close to that. A direct result of the whole race-to-the-bottom in prices is the prevalence of Free to Play on iOS - it seems to be a safer bet.
“But since its almost impossible to do F2P in a non-evil way and without sacrificing the elegance of your game design, we'll prefer to charge $3.”
$99 (£0.69) -> I think that should be $0.99 (£0.69)
Our iOS games sell for up to $19.99 each. Battle Academy also includes 3 expansions at $9.99 and another about to release. We still get the know it all customers telling us our business model is wrong and we'd sell 1 million times more apps at lower prices but we know that is not the case. You just need to know your market and not believe all the hype out there and be prepared to follow your instincts. People are prepared to pay for quality games. We have the stats that prove it and have a range of $20 games coming to the app store.
The advice I give most often is "go free or go expensive, but avoid the middle ground".
If I had to pick, I'd go free. If you want to make meaningful money, you need to have IAP. But if you are fundamentally opposed to IAP, 99c/69p is not the answer.
