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Forums - Gaming - Take Two: XCOM proves $20 mobile games can work - All Hail the Glorious Mobile Master Race!

NiKKoM on 02 August 2013

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-30-xcom-proves-USD20-apps-can-work-says-take-two-ceo

XCOM proves $20 apps can work, says Take-Two CEO

"Consumers are willing to pay a premium price for a premium entertainment experience," Zelnick explains

Free-to-play may be the dominant business model in mobile, but it's not the only one. In a post-earnings conference call with investors today, Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick seemed pleased with the decision to set the price of XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS at a comparatively whopping $20.

Zelnick said the game was not just critically acclaimed with a Metacritic average of 92, but commercially successful as well. In its first week of release, Zelnick said the adaptation was on Apple's top 10 grossing iPad app chart.

"The success of XCOM: Enemey Unknown for iOS illustrates that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for a premium entertainment experience on any platform. This bodes well for the opportunity to deliver profitably our most immersive new AAA titles to mobile platforms as they evolve."

Take-Two has previously experimented with bringing some of its AAA efforts to mobile platforms, most notably with older titles like Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto III. But with tablet horsepower beginning to catch up, Zelnick has said before he hopes to have mobile versions of AAA titles arrive simultaneously with their console or PC counterparts.

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All Hail the Glorious Mobile Master Race!

anyway awesome game... and it's on sale for 15 bucks right now!
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/xcom-enemy-unknown/id639544885?mt=8



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

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Panama on 02 August 2013

Well it's been fun guys.



NiKKoM on 02 August 2013
Panama said:
Well it's been fun guys.


Yes.. game quality is going up.. prices are going up for publishers making it a better investment, way better distribution model  and with iOS7 coming up and its gamepad support:

All hail the Glorious Mobile Master Race



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

anthony64641 on 02 August 2013

well final fantasy 3 (1 and 2 also, i think) is 15$ on the android app store and alot of people buys it




'Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.'
-Shigeru Miyamoto

famousringo on 02 August 2013

Obviously, not every game will be well-suited to tablets and mobiles, but if you're making a turn-based game, you probably should build it with a future downscaled touch version in mind.

Scuttlebutt is that Take Two's got a tablet version of Civ 5 in the works now.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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ishiki on 02 August 2013

didn't chaos rings and twewy already prove that... and the SE released deus ex for 7 dollars they're confusing.



famousringo on 02 August 2013
ishiki said:
didn't chaos rings and twewy already prove that... and the SE released deus ex for 7 dollars they're confusing.


Pretty much. But Chaos Rings and Deus Ex: The Fall are ground-up mobile games, and TWEWY is a handheld port. XCOM is special for being a PC/Console port that's less than a year old.

One or two games are easily dismissed as outliers. Some people need a body of evidence to be convinced.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

ishiki on 02 August 2013
RolStoppable said:
I came here expecting numbers, but all I see is vague information full of spin.

"Top 10 grossing iPad app chart", so apps sorted by amount of revenue. That's obviously an advantage for a $20 game.

isn't that a more important number regardless.  A lot of people argue that games should be prices less so more people will buy the cheaper games (I don't think that would happen).

But games are also generally have upfront sales (though maybe not on mobile with like angry birds, fruit ninja etc) while  a lot of apps aren't that way.



famousringo on 02 August 2013
RolStoppable said:
ishiki said:

isn't that a more important number regardless.  A lot of people argue that games should be prices less so more people will buy the cheaper games (I don't think that would happen).

But games are also generally have upfront sales (though maybe not on mobile with like angry birds, fruit ninja etc) while  a lot of apps aren't that way.

The issue is that we didn't get a number. As a rule of thumb, if a company doesn't mention hard numbers, we have to assume that the actual numbers aren't particularly good. All the information we got is that the game entered the top 10 for a week in a chart that uses a criterion which heavily favors the game.


I understand your skepticism, but there are terms and conditions preventing publishers on the app store from divulging hard numbers. Hence why they're usually released as ratios. The best we could hope for would be a revenue comparison with Steam or other platforms.

Take Two is pleased enough with the game's performance to boast about it publicly and to suggest that the publisher is looking to expand investment in the platform. There isn't much more that an iOS gamer could ask for.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

chapset on 02 August 2013

Xcom is shit, the impossible difficulty is freaking impossible



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