Publishers defend BlackBerry App World prices
£7.85 not a rip-off, apparently
When the BlackBerry App World launched on Wednesday, we got on our high horse about the £7.85 price point for some mobile games on the store.
Considering they're the same quality as Java games that sell for £5 on operator portals, and in some cases have iPhone version selling for a couple of quid, it seemed steep.
Research In Motion says publishers are free to set their own prices on the store, so we asked some what's up. They've been defending the £7.85 price point, which is $9.99 in the US.
"The pricing for smartphone games in the US is commonly at $9.99 today," Jill Braff of Glu Mobile tells PocketGamer.biz.
"The market pricing is consistent across many games (including different genres as well as branded and original IP) on Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices, and consumers appear to be content with the value-price ratio."
However Braff says that Glu will be monitoring how the App World goes, to see if gamers agree. Kyu Lee of Gamevil agrees with that, but also says $9.99 isn't too steep.
"I agree that $9.99 is expensive if you compare what you can get on the iPhone, but at the same time there are so many people who have already downloaded the game at that price off the carrier's deck," he says.
What do you think: is £7.85 a fair price for a BlackBerry game here in the UK? Comment and let us know your views.
It's not the highest price you can pay on RIM's app store, though: Guitar Hero World Tour costs £9.39 at the time of writing! See the screenshot above for proof.
