This is an editorial article by John, the founder and a contributor to http://iphone-experience.com. You can follow me on twitter @john_in_scunny. I wanted to write an article about a recent release

Yesterday (05/08/11) after a few delays Final Fantasy Tactics was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Many (including myself) had been waiting for the release but not many were expecting the price tag of £10.99 ($15.99).

The game has previously been a hit on the Playstation, GBA & PSP and is without doubt is a great game, although the iOS version is little more then a port of the previous versions, the quality of the game play is not in question.

Traditionally iOS games have a low price tag, the majority cost less then £1, some are free, and even the top titles rarely cost more then £5, so to see a game costing £11, which isn’t dissimilar to the cost of a budget console game, has come as a shock. But surly the developers are able to charge a higher rate for premium games, especially when the compare in quality to games released on traditional consoles, aren’t they.

There definitely seems to be 2 separate camps here.

On one hand, the developers, Square Enix, should be able to turn round and say that the development of mobile games doesn’t cost them any less, especially for a big block buster of a game, and as the mobile market grows they are in danger of loosing revenue due to the shrinking market for games on physical media.

Everything in life has a value and in the case the developer has chosen to value the game at £11, which is still significantly cheaper then most console games. I’m sure they would argue that raising prices allows for greater investment in future projects, so everyone benefits right?

..but on the other hand…….

The game is a revamp of a 10 year old game, without significant additions, certainly the graphics haven’t been upgraded and retina display support isn’t included.

The distribution chain for electronic media is significant less then that of physical media so games can sell for less and still make money.
Compared to other AAA titles on the iPhone Final Fantasy Tactics stands out as being very expensive, for example the big name FIFA by EA was less then £5 when launched and is currently less then £0.69.

For me Final Fantasy Tactics is a great game but it is priced to high for it’s Market place. Its price doesn’t fit with the Market price of it’s piers, and this presents a risk to the App Store. By artificially increasing the price of an app there is a real chance that other apps will increase their price, especially if Final Fantasy Tactics sells well. This will reduce the amount of sales in the Market and everyone will lose out.

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