The revolution in free-to-play games has brought with it a collection of high-priced in-game items of questionable value, but Glu Mobile has taken the idea to a new extreme with a Gun Bros. weapon worth nearly $500.
Touch Arcade notes that the company increased the price of Gun Bros. top tier Kraken weapon to 3499 of the game's warbucks currency, up from 1400.
At the most generous bulk conversion rate, that much virtual currency would cost a user $487.89 to purchase. Warbucks can also be obtained by watching advertising videos and downloading specific apps, but not easily in such extreme quantities.
The Kraken weapon provides an incredibly powerful spread of homing missiles and periodic laser blasts that easily annihilates most oncoming enemies in the dual-stick shoot-'em-up.
One YouTube user showed that, with the gun "you can just sit here and win, basically," adding that "it's really good but I don't know if it's worth $200 [the old price]."
Large single transactions are a major revenue driver for free-to-play games, with 30 percent of all mobile free-to-play game revenue coming from purchases worth $50 or more, according to a recent Flurry study.
An Inside Virtual Goods study from last June found that roughly 5 percent of Facebook game players spend at least $25 per month on at least one free-to-play title, with top spenders dropping tens of thousands of dollars total on the games.
it is things like this the next time a person wants to buy a in-app purchase they start to think twice. I strongly believe it is counterproductive in the longrun.
I agree with you to some extent. Games are made to challenge and intrigue people and this completely defeats the purpose. But on the other hand, this game is already free to play so now things are all of a sudden limitless. It's becoming a trend because now it's both sides of the extreme "we're free to play but your also free to pay how ever much you want!!"
Who knows, maybe the price was created purely on the balance of the fan base spending ( the mass % of players spend X amount of revenue so items are now costing Y). Or maybe it's a spontaneous gamble to see if anyone will bite...who knows.
I'd bet Glu's reasoning is that if only .1% of their users buy it, and in doing so, drive away a third of their remaining audience, it's still worth it. And besides, they'll probably go after each other.
Who knows, maybe the price was created purely on the balance of the fan base spending ( the mass % of players spend X amount of revenue so items are now costing Y). Or maybe it's a spontaneous gamble to see if anyone will bite...who knows.
Instead they sell items that enhance your gear slightly for a small amount of money. But max out your gear, and you're spending $100s...