Data & Research

Average price of announced iPad games is $3.52

Price premium to exisiting iPhone versions is $1.42

Average price of announced iPad games is $3.52

A lot has changed in the world of mobile games in the past 10 years and that's something we will be looking at in our new initiative which will see us reposting PocketGamer.biz articles from the past decade.

This week we rewind to a period of time in which we (by which we mean Jon) were obsessed with the still-to-be-launched iPad. 

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As iPad's launch approaches, I've continued to keep track of announced games in the Pocket Gamer big iPad game list.

Deep within my bunker I've also got another spreadsheet which breaks out more details about these games; notably their prices and their price compared to iPhone games, in the case where the iPad game is based on an existing iPhone and iPod touch title.

My list isn't conclusive - big publishers such as Gameloft, EA Mobile and PopCap are yet to reveal their full plans.

However I've logged the prices of 88 announced iPad games so while incomplete, I think the data should be coherent.

Scores on the App Store

The most first and most obvious thing to consider is the price of iPad games.

Surprisingly the most popular price for an iPad game is 99c, although in many cases this is because indie developers are releasing Universal Apps and hence are maintaining the same price for their iPad games as for the existing iPhone versions.

More significantly there are almost as many games priced at $9.99 and $4.99 as $1.99. And $2.99 is the second most popular price.

Also, there's seems to be a move, if limited, to push prices higher, with one game launching at $11.99 and another experimenting with a monthly subscription. The emerging free-to-play sector is well represented too.

Overall, the average price of announced iPad games is $3.52.

Value of enhancement

How developers are dealing with the perceived premium value of iPad games can be more clearly seen when we break down the differential in terms of price for iPad games which are based on versions of existing iPhone games.

This is a smaller set (65 games), but stripping out those Universal Apps, we can see that the majority of developers are looking to price their iPad games higher than the iPhone versions, typically by between $1 to $2.

In fact, in this case, the average premium for an iPad version of an iPhone game works out at $1.42.

 

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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.