I’m in my 30s and you said exactly what I mean.
“Because they were in the mind set that they had to get it right.”
Before the internet where you could release a half baked game with heaps of patches you had to get it right!
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Rovio Renames Angry Birds Classic on iOS Due to 'Impact' on Wider Games Portfolio
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“Because they were in the mind set that they had to get it right.”
Before the internet where you could release a half baked game with heaps of patches you had to get it right!
Red's first flight? After years of being launched from a slingshot, he finally decided to spread his wings and fly solo!
Yes I've gotten games I love on Steam for free or a few bucks. Some with no IaP. Some with IaP but not required to get anywhere. Even the higher priced ones like CiV and Disgaea, I play plenty to make them worth it.
I started with Everquest with no expansion, and saw how the IaP changed.
At first it was just the game + sub with nothing making you better except stuff in game or your group. Then the junk came when people started auctioning high level chars, but at least that was outside the game. Then the store came and the free sub with paid tiers to give you benefirs. The only thing I buy within reason is permanent fast travel. Never cosmetic and absolutely never loot boxes. And the first I remember people being upset about DLC for was when Dragon Age came out, and the next day there was already paid DLC. Why wasn't that in the base game??
What stank about this though is you didn't know about bugfixes and patches. This happened to me with Alternate Reality where there was a bug where you couldn't transfer a character from City to Dungeon, or two overpowered enemies called Long Arm of the Law wiped the floor with you. Much later I read there was a way to contact them for a bugfix disc
Yeah, it's crazy. It's almost as if developers like making money or something.
I mean, the market is giving them all the clues and they still say no. If you need to rename Angry Birds Classic to something completely unrecognizable because it's taking away focus from you micro transaction games... THATS THE MARKET TELLING YOU THEY DON'T WANT YOUR MICROTRANSACTION GAMES.
The full Affinity suite for a C-Note was a sweet deal. For that you got all three apps on three platforms (Mac, Win, iPadOS) Previous version I paid $150 just for the Mac apps another ~$60 for the iPad and never bothered with my PC.
A stat about 6 years back showed that 86% of the profits on the mobile markets are via free-to-play game. Sad to hear, but I just didn't see consumers paying $20 to $50 per game, on a regular basis (which is what would be needed at minimum to circumvent the model we have now)
Precisely. Show me a market willing to pay $20 -$50 for a mobile game, and then a business might be able to exist around it. But it doesn't. Same goes for all other forms of software. It is simply not sustainable (let alone profitable) without ongoing revenue.
While this is true, the other side of the coin is that for every Monument Valley out there, there were plenty of other games that don't make it. As in they couldn't even make enough money to get back the $143 per year required to break even on the iOS App Store (after Apple takes their 30% but, but before taxes).
Also worth pointing out that consumers are to blame as well. If we could collectively stop buying these games in enough numbers, then the companies would shift their paradigms. But, that ofc. wasn't the case. A podcast mentioned that whatever we think "premium pricing" is, it would have to be 5x as much in order for us to perhaps avoid the f2p fate we have today. However, I doubt people would be willing to pay $20 go $50 for mobile games. :\
Some of the games aren't too shabby. Tried (but never beaten) Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 4: The After Years on iPod Touch 5 and iPad Air (1st gen, from 2013) and had a lot of fun with them. IIRC, prices range from $13 to $25 apiece, but you can always try to catch some sales. They can be as low as $3 off, to 50% off. People complain about MTX... well, put some of your $$ where your mouth is, and buy a premium game from time to time (I suppose [shrug]).
I got a Switch as a gift a few months back, and already way ahead of you there! My original plan was to do annual subs on Apple Arcade ($45 per year at Costco). However, when my free trial ran out, I ended up putting it on hiatus (didn't have the time then due to work and travel). Found some other games to keep me occupied in that meantime (Android and non-AA iOS), which ended up being enough (although don't get me wrong, I do miss AA from time-to-time). Another nail in the coffin was my 9th gen ipad is only 64 GB of storage. It's something that could've been managed, but I just didn't want to deal with it then. The Switch came much later. I still use the iPad sporadically, but nowhere nearly as much.
I have been buying some "premium games" FWIW, like INKS, Slice & Dice, and Isle Of Arrows. There's a good # of indie titles to keep mobile gaming a nice gaming platform. You just need to wade through all those awful ones.
I would still be wary about actual gambling. Since "the house always wins", you should be gambling only for entertainment. Winning is merely a bonus. You want to make money, do that at your job, or some other similar endeavor.
I did dabble in a few f2p mobile games myself...
--Plants Vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
--Castlestorm: Free To Siege (you know it's bad when the game title is telling it's free to play
. My suggestion is to pick up the Stea or console versions for $15, before any sales, to do away with the premium curriencies)--Bloons TD 6
... I can post my experiences about these in more detail upon request.
IAP shouldn't be automatically evil. It's the MTX for "gems", and other in-game consumables that are designed to really heavily get you to buy these is what I loath. If a indie game wants to charge extra money for more content, I'm fine with that. For example, the extra level pack for both Monument Valley 1, & 2.
I think 'X' time nowadays is about 5 years? I wish that figure were higher, but it's been "good enough" for me. I learned one day that when some businesses buy PCs from Dell, they pay millions of dollars in service contracts to Dell to ensure they'll have support for some longer haul. So Dell would be under contract to maintain a supply of parts and services for a certain set of hardware. They can make clear out and make them obsolete, lest they get fined heavily. However, the vg isn't willing to pay those sorts of costs.