iPhone Gaming: Quality over Quantity
In the dawn ages of the App Store people spent, and spent big. Most of the Top 100 apps were expensive $9.99 games like Cro-Mag Rally [App Store], Crash Bandicoot [App Store], Super Monkey Ball [App Store], Brain Challenge [App Store] and Asphalt 4 Elite Racing [App Store].
Now that there are over 45,000 apps on the App Store it is interesting to see if the amount of quality is still obvious on our iPhone’s. Let’s take a look shall we?
For many months we wanted good games on our iPhones and were willing to pay for them. Soon after these games started falling and were forced to radically drop their prices to still sell well and many “Krapps” started appearing on many peoples iPhones. The silly stage in the iPhone history was filled with Prank Calls, Farts of every sound, Wobbly girls and loud Sound Grenades for cheap prices. These sold surprisingly well and many imitations were brought onto the App Store before they all died down with an emphasis on games once again.
People seemed to be lacking in funds due to the recession with many cheap casual games at the price of $0.99 or $1.99 being successful. These weren’t bad games with many gems being bought and in large quantities due to the pricing. Flight Control [App Store], Pocket God [App Store], iDracula [App Store], Stick Wars [App Store], iShoot [App Store] and iHunt [App Store] are a few examples of these success stories.
The ‘Facebook Apps’ were also making their mark on the App Store with iMob and many others to follow that sell you respect, mafia, playmesh, racing and mob points for ridiculous prices. These amazingly are selling well. People were craving quality again and a resurgance let by a few big developers were slowly pushing their way onto the Top 100 list once again.
On June 2nd 2009 there were 56 games featured in the Top 100 apps with the other 44 being made up of all other catergories. 32 of the 56 games were priced over $2.99 with 23 of the 32 games being over $4.99. This shows that approximately 50% of the most downloaded games are in what I would define the ‘premium price range’ with many of these in the Top 50 apps.
Once again people are wanting quality games, with titles not only from the big hitters Electronic Arts and Gameloft but also original titles from smaller developers on the App Store like Gamevil, Capcom, PopCap Games, Sega and Glu. You will notice that many of those developers are well known but on other devices. Large developers are bringing their best games onto the App Store to share a bit of this success with the hype over large titles taking over forums such as TouchArcade.
Gameloft and Electronic Arts are still going strong with titles such as The Oregon Trail [App Store], Assassin’s Creed [App Store], Terminator Salvation [App Store], Tiger Woods PGA Tour [App Store], Need for Speed [App Store] and Sims 3 [App Store] all doing extremely well in the Top 100.
Electronic Arts have brought out probably the three best games onto the App Store with Tiger Woods, Need for Speed and Sims 3 which are the only games doing well at the highest game price of $9.99. Sims 3 is the biggest success story on the App Store since iShoot. After just under 24 hours the best selling franchise managed to get to the No.1 spot on the App Store while selling for $9.99.
Not only is this the biggest ever selling for a game except maybe Super Monkey Ball [App Store] and various others at the launch of the App Store, but it is has become the first $9.99 game to reach the No.1 spot since the big games of Mid 2008.
Peggle [App Store], Zenonia [App Store], Resident Evil [App Store], Sonic [App Store], Need for Speed [App Store], Assassin’s Creed [App Store], Tiger Woods [App Store] and Myst [App Store] are all premium games that had huge hype and great sales, but none have been as good as the start for the lovable Sims.
Hopefully this is a sign for things to come and quality can be brought onto the App Store once again. Many large developers have already announced a great games list for the rest of 2009 with 10 Capcom games, various Gameloft games and over 15 Electronic Arts games currently in the mixer. The iPhone could again have the chance at becoming a big player in hand held gaming devices.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 4:49 PM and is filed under App Store, iPhone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Damon
Damon a.k.a iPhone_Reviews has been reviewing iPhone games since January 2009. He started on a free-hosted site he created at http://ifonereviews.blogspot and still reviews for it. He had a short stint at ThePortableGamer but doesn't review for them anymore except on special occasions. Damon writes for TheAppEra on a weekly basis and is looking forward to the changing of writing for another site, Razorianfly.
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It’s kind of frightening on the ridiculous amount of iMob apps in the app store. Actually, it’s downright scary. I check the Top 25 paid and free sections of the AppStore daily, and am severely disappointed each week as another iMob app invades the top and just has a different theme. Ugh, it makes me sick. Games like iDracula, Flight Control, and Zenonia are really the titles that I enjoy the most. Why? Because they feel like there was actual effort put into creating these games. They are not another Fart app, Flashlight app, defend your castle app, or a copy of anything else. This is probably why reviewing sites such as AppVee, 148apps, and others exist.