It's fair to say EA's Christmas sale on the App Store – which saw the publisher cut the price of the majority of its line up to 99c – didn't go down too well with the rest of the industry.

Objections centred around the fact that EA's price cut push was officially promoted by Apple, ensuring many of the publisher's games took root at the top of the charts just in time for the marketplace's freeze over Christmas.

Of more concern to Gameloft founder and CEO Michel Guillemot, however, is the long term effect discounting to such a degree will have on consumer perception of what mobile games are worth.

Christmas cracks

Speaking to IGN at CES 2011, Guillemot said the App Store had been devalued by EA's activities.

His objections focus on the nature of the game's included in EA's price-cut promo, with the publisher's big hitters – Need for Speed et al – making the line up, rather than just EA's casual releases.

"There is a high uncertainty for the future anytime somebody can steal the market at Christmas," Guillemot told the site, adding that driving down RRPs to such a degree will foster a "good enough" attitude from developers, innovation and quality stifled as they look to offer games at 99c.

Aside from such industry wide concerns, however, Guillemot arguably has a right to take EA's price-cut marathon a little personally.

As pointed out in December, EA's promo came at a time when major new releases from the publisher were few in number, yet the likes of Gameloft – amongst others – had big titles aplenty hitting the marketplace at full whack.

[source: IGN]