Square Enix's Ridiculous Mobile Pricing Platform

[0ctopusPrime]

I recently came to the conclusion that Square Enix (more specifically, its division that works with mobile games) is absolutely, mind-bogglingly evil.

After the recent release of their latest game for iOS, Demons' Score, Square Enix's Mobile Division has shown that they really don't care about their fans or people in general. Charging $7 for the basic application (which only contains 2 of the 10 levels) and then using in-app-purchases to sell the rest of the game is just ridiculous. According to articles I read on the web, it costs somewhere around $40 to be able to access the whole game!

Also, their recently released port of the popular DS game, The World Ends With You, as well as the Final Fantasy and Chaos Rings games cost anywhere from $15-$20! It just seems ridiculous that they get away with taking The World Ends With You (a 4 and a half-year-old DS game), slap a coat of slightly higher resolution paint on it, remove the dual-battles and then charge almost full price for what is essentially less than the original game came with.

In my opinion, Squeenix is not only screwing over their fans and people who want to enjoy their mobile games, but also themselves! I don't think it will be all that long before Square Enix becomes the new EA, hated by gamers and abandoned by their (ex)fans. /rant

 

[Darmy647]

Easy bro. Were already hatin on capcom and bioware. Lets try not to take on too many at once.

 

[distortedreality]

Square enix isnt evil, people are just fucking stupid

This. Is always the correct response when people complain about pricing.

 

[krazykidd]

Why is that stupid? They took the time to put it on IOS , don't want it don't buy it . Stop being so damn cheap . Plus the DS ports are full games , for 15-20$ each isn't so bad .

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well consider where they are coming from, PSP and DS held their prices at $40-50, you think they will now price things reasonably on other platforms?

And anyway it's a buyers market, as long as you keep buying they will keep selling.

 

[AndrewF022]

I honestly don't think the prices are that bad, they only look bad when surfing the appstore because the price is quite higher than average. Those games have a lot more too them then the average Appstore game though so I would say the price is justified.

However the price isn't an issue for me anyway since long winded 20+ hour JRPGs are exactly the kind of game I DON'T want to play on a mobile device. It'd take me a year to beat a single bloody game given what little time I get on the go to fire up a game, let alone in a place where I can concentrate on it.

 

[0ctopusPrime]

I admit, I was a being a little nit-picky about their mobile rereleases like the Final Fantasy games and The World Ends With You pricetags. But I still think that what they did with Demons' Score was a dirty tactic which essentially tricked buyers into thinking that they were getting a full game when, in actuality, they were charging players $7 for a glorified demo.

When people pay for games (especially on the app-store) most people expect more than just one or two levels. I wouldn't have been bothered at all if Square Enix had released maybe one level for free and then charged for the rest by way of in-app-purchases. Also, they could have just listed the game as $40 on the app store and I wouldn't care at all. What irritates me is that Square Enix treats the basic $7 app as if it were a full game and doesn't inform the buyer that they are essentially paying $7 for 1/5 of the game. Yeah, they mention that there are in-app-purchases involved but they forget to mention that these micro-transactions are ESSENTIAL to being able to play the full game. To me, it just seems like a dirty move on Sqaure Enix's part and that's why it upsets me.