There was a post late in the week on TheSixthAxis illustrating that, once again, the supermarkets are scrambling for your cash as yet another high profile console game hits the straining shelves – this time it’s Electronic Arts’ FIFA 11, the annual update to one of the most successful series in gaming. I think the cheapest you could grab a copy without spending extra on lettuce and cling film was around £30, which is great, right?
Well, that’s not strictly true – the cheapest you can get FIFA 11 for is actually £2.99, on the iPhone.
And before those with Apple’s version start banging their keyboards in disgust, hear me out. FIFA’s a great game, always has been, but it doesn’t need to be played on a huge television to be a better game than it is on a portable platform – in fact, size aside if you’re playing it on an iPhone 4 chances are you’re playing it at a higher resolution than a lot of gamers picking up the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will be. Still, it’s the game that counts, right?
Interestingly, the iPhone version of FIFA 11 is actually rather good. The ‘floating thumbstick’ does away with any issues regarding missed controls, the on-screen buttons display the move rather than the usual ambigious alphanumerics and it plays just fine, and I’m not talking fine as in ‘for an iPhone game’ – this is FIFA 11, on the move, for 10% of the price it is on the two main consoles. Sure, there’s no Manager mode, and multiplayer is ‘coming soon’, but that’s not the point.
The point is that gaming away from the PlayStations and Xboxes of the world is getting cheaper, but nobody seems to want to admit it.
There’s a certain price point on the iPhone platform where a purchase becomes a no-brainer, an impulse, and it’s 59p. That’s the lowest a game can be without being free of charge, and publishers and developers play a very tactical game with their pricing to attract attention: a previously £1.19 game can suddenly garner a fair amount of extra sales by dropping to 59p for a few days, thus climbing the ‘paid’ charts and being much more visible to those that don’t ever trawl deeper than the App Store’s highest level.
Despite this, so-called AAA titles from well known studios (such as the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Gameloft and Chillingo) will sell at higher prices. At the time of writing FIFA 11 is the third top selling game on the App Store, behind a new to the market reaction game and the evergreen Angry Birds, both of which are at that aforementioned sweet spot of 59p. However, sitting underneath the football sim are a set of EA games reduced in price: Need for Speed Underground, Tiger Woods and Madden.
All of the above EA titles are real, ‘proper’ games, and they’re selling for peanuts.
It’s this notion that’s starting to make me feel that full price ‘console’ games are locked into perpetually being overpriced, and in danger of losing favour as these mobile titles start selling in their millions. iPhone gaming is maturing, thanks in no small part to the centralised multiplayer achievement hub that is Game Center, and it’s clear that the larger publishers like those mentioned above are starting to take notice, and it’s paying off.
With smaller development teams comes lower costs and although Apple’s cut is still considerable, the ability for iPhone developers to patch in complete modes such as multiplayer for FIFA 11 (in addition to the frequent bolstering of new levels and bug fixes seen across the board) must be a godsend. Sure, it’s frustating having to download the whole game each update (and FIFA’s almost a gigabyte in size) but most successful iPhone games see regular updates from the developers.
And when they do, such updates are generally seen alongside fresh reviews and new sales, and possibly even a temporary reduction in price, something that retailer led shelf space can’t afford – the high street needs to pay for rent and staffing, something that’s built into App Store sales as a percentage, not a fixed value, something that’s even more frustrating when the majority of PSP downloads are offered at the same price as the store bought ones.
The next generation of consoles needs to take a serious look at the behemoth Apple have created with the App Store – the PSP 2 needs to start attracting developers now and Microsoft need to push their Indie games project to consumers in a much more organised and user friendly way. But most of all, publishers need to find ways to get those retail prices down, after all, FIFA 11 on the PS3 might be a bargain at £30 but I can get most of the App Store top 25 for that…
X_Yoshy_X
What 2.99 it’ll be like 29.99 on dowload for psp!!
X_Yoshy_X
My mistake its £31.99 on the ps store and it dosnt have manager mode ether…
What a rip off!!
>:( <—angry face
teflon
The iPhone’s ecosystem is very much the exception rather than the rule. At the start of the app store, there was this sudden crushing and rather damaging rush to 99 cents on the US store. All just to try and remain in the spotlight long enough to get some sales…
If you then look at iPad versions, they’re all much more expensive. Flight Control is £3 or £4 rather than £0.59…. The developers realise that the low pricing on iPhone was a huge and massive misstep, but there’s really nothing they can do about it now. They’ve screwed themselves.
Tuffcub
Yeah but Iphones are crap for anything other than to fil in ten minutes on the tube. You’re never going to get Bioshock or MGS4 on an iPhone for 59p. You pay for what you get – most iphone games are very simple, dont have cut scenes, star actors etc. Idont want to play games on toddy screen thats why i have a 52″ hd tv thanks.
nofi
Rubbish. See: FIFA 11.
yogdog
Fifa 11 is more an exception than the rule, most games on the store are, well, lets face it, downright rubbish.
Sure, there are a few good games on ther (e.g. plants vs zombies), but you can quite often get better versions on the console or pc. Yeah, they’re more expensive, but you do get what you pay for.
And nofi, regarding your comment, fifa isn’t a game with great cutscenes and actors. Tuffcubs comment isn’t rubbish, it’s on the mark.
skibadee
have to agree I use it for 10mins at the most to play a mini game.
Tuffcub
Angry Birds has no cut scenes, not CGI, no voicework, it looks lovely but lets face if the graphics didnt take a team for 20 to design it and they didnt use a full orchestra to create the soundtrack That’s why it costs 59p. You can’t compare that to a full price game like Bioshock with it’s team of 100s working on it.
That’s not to say Angry Birds is any less fun than Bioshock – it is, but it’s fun on a budget. And let’s not forget, Angry Birds has sold 4 million, Bioshock has sold more than that and it costs sixty seven times as much as Angry Birds.
solidsteven
that i would pay to see. if mgs4 was on the iphone they would have to release a phone that has 1tb storage
Topgearsam
In order for sony to compete with the app store they have to be strict with games on the ps store, they need to stop publishers putting psp games on the ps store for £25-£30 and drop the price accordingly when the price drops in a real store.
Psp essentials is a step in the right direction but really most games should be the price of the psp essentials (£8)as some games on the ps store are more expensive than the ps3 version of the game for Eg Fifa and UFC which is bad for psp go owners like myself.
solidsteven
and not charge £32 for an expansion pack
gazzagb
I don’t think anyone would use an iPhone as their main gaming device. The games on there are time-fillers that you play for 10/15mins and then go and do something else. I don’t know of anyone who would pull an all nighter playing Angry Birds.
I’d much rather play a decent game on a big screen and have the whole game package; the cut scenes, the re-playability and most of all the immersion that is offered by a console such as PS3, PC or 360.
TSBonyman
Seriously, do people actually buy ipod games? I’ve tried many of the Lite versions but nothing has appealed to me enough to want to buy one. I did buy Peggle for my ipod but that was because i got the PSN demo from US store and was too impatient to wait for the full game to come to eu PSN. Even so i had completed all the levels in Peggle and Peggle Nights on PS3 long before finishing the ipod version. Actually i still haven’t completed it on ipod.
I could never rate mobile games anywhere near as highly as anything on a console. Even the mobile versions of many of the console games make too many compromises in gameplay and controls for me to consider purchasing.
Putting virtual thumbsticks on screen is an applaudable attempt at fitting the type of control scheme necessary if the mobile version is meant to play anything like it’s console equivalent but it just goes to show that the devs aready know these games require proper input/buttons. Virtual buttons give no tactile feedback and you are blocking a significant part of the already small screen.
If ipod games were priced anywhere relative to their console counterparts the sales would be only a fraction of what they are.
bunimomike
They do indeed (for the touch and for the iPhone). The iPhone gaming market is bigger than the PSP market. Made for sad reading, recently, but it’s so true it smarts a little.
TSBonyman
In time, and with more minis the psp market might take back a slice of that market and i think the apple store is a bit tedious to navigate, something the PS store has an advantage over imo.
AG2297
I dont really want these sort of games on a phone though, or even any form of smaller portable device. I like the idea that you have big console games like COD, MGS, GT, GoW etc etc to play on your home console and PC games such as Diablo, Starcraft, The Witcher and then games for phones like Angry Birds. Now I know a lot of the games I just mentioned are now swapping between platforms such as the next Witcher coming to consoles and MGS, GT and GoW has PSP versions but would I want any of them on a phone? No. I think putting these series on the PSP was stretching it a bit. Console and PC ports or releasing on both I dont mind, but moving it to a phone is something I dont like no matter what the price point. I only want to play a game on my phone when im bored and there is no other form of entertainment around.
As for pricing of console games, I think they need to lower their costs first before they sell them any cheaper. Its likely the next generation of consoles will be HD still, and likely that Sony will have learnt to make their console easier to develop for. opefully publishers will have a good amount of knowledge from this generation to develop on the next more efficiently and by spending less money. In some areas of course costs will rise, but im sure they could lower it in others. Then there is always the fact the gaming industry has been growing and made a much much larger market which should hopefully increase sales revenue allowing them to sell the games cheaper. Whatever happens, raising the price of games will be a disaster.
aerobes
I’m actually pretty grateful that we have videogames at tiered prices. On phones there’s the quick one button press style (or touch) games.
PSN has simplistic retro style games or new ideas which typically turn out to be wonderful (ie: Flower, Noby Noby Boy, Riff: Everyday Shooter.
Then there are obviously the behemoths … I’m thinking FFXIII, Bioshock, U2 and RDR. They just wouldn’t work at a more limited level of technology.
I, for one, am extremely grateful to be around to witness this level of love for games and the potential it could possibly be in future, It’s a great time for us and despite the dissenter’s it’s also looking good as time goes on.
TSBonyman
No way! Never! :) Actually i quite like your comment. I know many people do enjoy mobile gaming but it’s just not for me based on my experience with ipod and psp… but who knows what the future will bring.
grogy86
mine cost £26 so i dont mind
DJ-Katy
I would rather pay £30 for FIFA 11 and play it on my plasma TV in surround sound on a DS3 then £2.99 for the same game on a cramped little screen.