The Banner Saga - Budget-Price & The App Store
 

Polygon has another interesting article this week about the the mobile version of The Banner Saga, and how Stoic avoided the budget-price pitfall of the App Store.

More information.

For anyone who uses a tablet, this would be a perfect game for it.
I recently got the saga on PC and although I wish it was much much longer, it does have replay ability.

i don't get any hits on banner saga on the appstore. just two other games with saga in the title.

This is the reason I didn't back it, din't buy it and will never play it.

But put that aside. That article do has a very important part and it's this:
Anything wrong with this picture?
I'd say - EVERYTHING.

First of all, if a product is good, people will buy.
Second, people will not buy if they believe something is overpriced.
Third, if someone didn't have enough of free2play scam in MMOs, phones will do the trick and that someone will just skip that crap or anything that smells like it.
Finally fourth, there is no way a phonegame should cost the same as a PC game. There are a few exceptions, but tell me, when was the last time you've seen a masterpiece on a phone? Hell, was it ever?

Sorry guys but tablet to me is just a phone with a bigger screen and I'm not paying a dime for that crap. I'm spoiled with spectacles on PC. Your low quality products you can sell to apple fanboys. I wouldn't install them even if they were free.
What I did install and wouldn't mind paying for is Viber. That app offers something PC just can't do. So instead of trying to clean my wallet with worthless numerous phonegames, how about developing software that on a phone is used for - phoning.

And $4 for a coffee? Where?
Here it's $2 max - in exclusive hotels and restaurants.

Joxer… I actually think you will like Banner Saga on PC. For real.
Yes its only one or two mouse buttons, but given that I've watched you for almost 3 years discuss what you like and don't like, I'm pretty sure you will like it.

If it goes on sale, I'll gift the damn thing to you.

Just don't please.
Thank you, but please use that money to buy a game that was created by having no limits PC in mind. There are so many of those out there, each better than another.

I see no problem with the Banner Saga, and I love how it only takes two mouse buttons to play the entire game. In that aspect it's the perfect PC game.

Try playing the Assassin Creed games, or any other action game without a PC controller. It quickly gets frustrating very easily even with a customized setup.

They also just released a physical boxed collectors edition.:)

ROFL….I don't know crap about mobile devices, and likely never will, but Banner Saga is an awesome game on my PC. I'd suggest getting a real machine that actually can play decent games, not some ugly paperweight.

I dont see what's wrong with having both? Some people here reminds me a bit of pre-school (80's), how you either had to listen to hardrock or synth-pop, you had to pick a side, lol

Being able to play a game like Baldur's Gate on an ipad is really great, when travelling or just when sitting out on the balcony or whatever. I've really changed my mind about tablets, i thought it was going to end up as a paperweight, but i use it almost as much as my PC.. great for comics and ebooks too, feels good to have a gigantic library of books and comics wherever i go :)

Isn't that offtopic? :p
Didn't play any and probably will not. The reason? Repetitiveness. Grinding.

Right, the last news is that AC:Unity, concentrated on coop, should not be repetitive.
On the vid it looks gorgeous and there is also a fabricated scandal to make it sells better (no females).
And I'm still not buying!

Why not this time? First, sell season pass and DLC to your mother Ubi.
And second, I don't live in USA. Even if I did, I would want my friends who bought the game to have everything I have.
Instead, if I preorder it on Amazon, I'll get Pioneer Axe, fancy one to make Zagor te Nay jealous.
A friend who gets it from Gamestop will have Razorhead Spear which can pierce any armor. Um, an armor in french revolution? That's new.
Another friend who buys it at Walmart will make his way with Maple Hunting Rifle which is longdistance weapon. Snipers in french revolution? Neat!
And a friend who says screw us all and buys the game at BestBuy gets Under/Over Pistol which shoots two bullets at the same time. So, you shoot someone, but just to make sure he is dead, let's decorate his forehead with two holes.

But it's not really offtopic. Most games in appstore have the same or similar crap inside. Pay $x for the game. During the game, play $y for this or $z for that. And now, years after allowing scams, Apple is frustrated people don't spend money in appstore and pretends to be a victim.
Well, you're late Apple and I don't feel sorry for you. No buy!

I mentioned this on the other thread, but I've been playing The Banner Saga on my MS Surface and I've been really impressed with how well it plays on a touch screen.

I think they are right about the strange mentality of people when it comes to app purchases. A friend of mine used to be a senior editor at Reader's Digest. Like most print publications, over the last decade they've lost a lot of their print subscription base. The number one reason was that people said they now look online for the same info. However, most of these people would not buy their app, either in flat fee or subscription (which were $5.99 or $0.99 respectively I believe). The same people that would spend $20+ a year for a print subscription in the past wouldn't spend 1/3 of that for the online, even though most of the people polled said they still enjoyed the articles and wanted to read them!

I find myself falling into the same position. I often blow $20 on lunch or $1.50 on a candy bar, but ask me to spend $0.99 on an app? Hmm, not sure I want to spend that!

HOWEVER, one thing I found was that with Amazon, once I get a gift certification (which my parents and wife usually give me for birthdays and Christmas), I DO blow money on things like that. Instead of apps, its usually music of books on Kindle. Recently I was desperate for something to read and saw they had a Sci-Fi short story collection on sale for $0.99. So I bought it. I was enjoying it and saw that it was volume 8 out of 10. The rest were $0.99 too! So I just hit the 'instant buy' button on all of them and it came out of my gift certificate balance. I didn't think twice.

If I had no gift certificate balance though, I likely would have been more hesitant.

So maybe that is the key. Do it similar to the way my EZ-Pass works (EZ-Pazz is the electronic tag you use to pay highway and bridge tolls in New York). Everytime the balance gets below $5, it charges my credit card $25 and refills. I don't think twice about driving on tolled roads anymore (not that I usually had much choice). If offered something like that for app stores (and maybe give people a discount to get them to do it, so for $20, you get $25 worth of credit), people would be less hesitant about spending $0.99 on an app.

I agree 100%, you don't know crap about mobile devices.;)

You don't need a "real machine." Banner saga will run just fine on a tablet and is actually where I'd prefer to play it as it wasn't good enough to earn time on my real machine.

I'd be terrified wondering what would be good enough to warrant space on your real machine, if Banner Sage didn't merit that. Something along the lines of Hello Adventure Kitty Island, I suppose.

Nah, I'll wait for your review of that one.;)

I only tried banner saga for about an hour or 2 but it didn't grab me. Right now I have so many games on my backlog I'd rather play that banner saga just won't get time but on my ipad or android tablet it would be at the top of the list.

As for what games, I just finished DS1 and 2 and want to get through risen series, witcher series, demonicon, bound by flame, divinity:OS and watch dogs. By that time TW3, DA:I, risen 3, shadows of mordor, Styx and I'm sure others will be out.

Too many games, not enough time. So if I can play one mobile ( lunch breaks, etc) then I'm all for it.

I don't see how people having problems pay 4$ for a app game is so surprising to apple or anyone.
Most people that play on smart phones aren't gamers, they probably are looking for games they can play during a 15 minute bus ride or while waiting somewhere.
Obviously they don't put much value in that, add in that alot of the games on the app stores don't feel like they're even worth 99cents, it's not surpriing.

I'm pretty sure actual gamers on mobile devices have no problem shelling out 10$+ for games that are worth it.

The food/coffee comparison never worked, people put different values on different things.
Same with paying 600$ for an Iphone.

Oh and I didn't buy Banner Saga and don't plan to, has nothing to do with anything mobile, it's just out of principle because of how they handled the GoG release :P.

This.

I'm buying lots and lots of candy bars no questions asked. The price? Who cares, just gimme that candy bar!

Sadly, appstore is full of crapware, bloatware and scamware. It's not candy bars in there. And most of it is falsely advertised - what's supposed to be screenshots are small pics inside a bigger handdrawn nice stuff that is not a part of the software at all!
Stop selling bloody wrapping! Put some sugar in.

Um, couldn't you play Divinity:OS with just two mouse buttons? You don't NEED to use any quick keys at all.

This is such a silly argument.

Silly argument? It was Joxer just being his usual self.:biggrin:

He said The Banner Saga was designed for mobile devices, and I countered with the two button method. So have a nice day now Ovenall.:)

Pretty sure you could play BG2 with just two buttons.

Not if you use any of the save slots besides the quick save!

What happened to researching before you pay for something? that doesnt apply because it's the appstore for some reason? It's full of crap, so is Steam, so is the warehouse near where i live.

So people should be searching for a pearl in a pile of junk?
Sorry, don't have time to waste on that.

Steam links metacritic. Or publishers do, dunno. And while metacritic is not a perfect system, it's still independant and is not approved or censored user reviews with 1-5 stars.

Warehouses near where I live don't sell software.

You should stop using internet than. Besides, you have researched components for your new comp haven't you?

Sorry, I don't really understand why would I stop using internet?
Ah, you mean lonelyhearts social networks? Yea… I don't use those.

I did search, not research, for components. I did the search because prices vary. If I did research, maybe I wouldn't buy Gainward Phantom card but some other possibly even more spectacular card if such exists. But… Why would I waste my time on trivial things?

And again just as I've reasoned warehouses. Internet is not software. Neither of my components is software. And the topic is - software.

Nah, I meant that 90% of internet content is shit so searching for a pearl in a pile of junk is kind of necessary…