Taking a quick look at all the apps in the games category, there's certainly plenty of content available; even if much of it would be better described as entertainment i.e. uFart and numerous trivia card 'games'.
Cheap as chips
Indeed, one of the most surprising things about this content is just how much of it is available at the lowest price points of 79p and 99p.
Of 171 paid titles in the games categories (note this doesn't include Xbox Live enabled hardcore games), two thirds are priced at less than £1.
The average price of paid content in the game category is £1.35.
Mark of quality
When it comes to the separate Xbox Live game category, things are very different however.
For one thing, the biggest publisher is Microsoft Games Studios itself, with eight of the 19 paid titles. The likes of EA Mobile (3), THQ Wireless (2), and Gameloft (2) are also well represented.
The quality of these games, all of which are integrated into the Xbox Live online community service that Windows Phone 7 shares with the Xbox 360, is also reflected in the pricing.
For one thing, the lowest pricepoint used £2.49, while the others available (shown in pink above) are £3.99 and £5.49. In contrast, the most expensive non-Xbox Live game costs £4.99.
The result is that the average price of the 19 paid Xbox Live games is £3.52, or 260 percent higher than the average price of non Xbox Live paid games.
Taking into account all paid games on the Marketplace gives an overall average price of £1.57, due to the sheer volume of the cheaper category.
But, averaging price in this way might not be very sensible in the long term, as it looks like Microsoft will be running two very different Marketplace areas; a general jumble sale section full of cheap good, bad or random games, and a highly curated area of high price, high quality games.
