I will admit that paying like $15 four years ago for Stardew Valley on iOS felt a bit weird, but $15 is pretty cheap considering that it's the full game. It doesn't make you buy gems every twenty minutes, or watch an ad every time you plant six crops, or spam your friend to share your status for some extra gold.
It's a full game, and you pay a nominally-high-but-ultimately-reasonable price for it.
Similarly, The Binding of Isaac is also a pretty good iOS game. I don't remember how much I paid, but it was slightly higher than average, but it doesn't spam me with any microtransaction crap.
I imagine that a lot of people would retroactively pay $100 (i.e. future-you would be able to easily convince past-you that paying $100 is worth it).
I wonder what mechanisms exist for capitalizing on that retroactive price. You can obviously make the up-front price higher, but this obviously erects a barrier to people experiencing the retroactive value.
Some other ones that come to mind: paid DLC, "remastered" versions released N years later (Skyrim has famously done this. I think I've paid for 3 or 4 $60 versions of Skyrim at this point), and open "tip" jars / patreon style support. Any other ideas?
Yeah, honestly, for the amount of content you get in that game, it's insane. That's not even taking into account the fact that it still gets free updates.
It's definitely my go-to recommendation when people ask about good iOS games.
I will admit that paying like $15 four years ago for Stardew Valley on iOS felt a bit weird, but $15 is pretty cheap considering that it's the full game. It doesn't make you buy gems every twenty minutes, or watch an ad every time you plant six crops, or spam your friend to share your status for some extra gold.
It's a full game, and you pay a nominally-high-but-ultimately-reasonable price for it.
Similarly, The Binding of Isaac is also a pretty good iOS game. I don't remember how much I paid, but it was slightly higher than average, but it doesn't spam me with any microtransaction crap.