Over the last few months I’ve been moving away from buying all the so called triple ‘A’ titles and started looking into other markets such as the indie bundles as I discussed in We Are Missing a Trick with Indie Titles. I was also dragged into the 21st century with an iPod Touch at Christmas and needless to say, it’s already jam packed with all sorts of games.

Before venturing into the budget world I really didn’t have very high expectations. I mean, what do you want for £1.99, 69p or even for free? Surely there’s no way they can compare to games we’re spending £35 on, for example Batman Arkham City or Battlefield 3. Does a triple ‘A’ title automatically mean that it has to be on the latest generation of console or the highest spec PC?

Picture this: I’m sitting here after Christmas with a pile of Xbox 360 titles. I’ve managed to fight my way through Saints Row the Third and my current guilt building dust collector is Modern Warfare 3. What’s taking precedence over this epic game? Mainly Jetpack Joyride and Hard Lines with some Fractal on the PC thrown in. Sometimes I wish I discovered this world of treasures earlier. It could have saved me a fortune, or maybe just given me a larger pile of dust collecting epic games.

Big Price; Big Budget

So, I’m sitting in the office trying some title that I had been given and moaning about how some people expect to release titles on iOS and expect to ride on the back of the nostalgia train, pulling the money in behind them. I was then asked the question, ‘What do you expect from a game that cheap? Surely if you get half an hour out of it, it’s worth the money’.

It’s a valid point, after all it costs buttons to buy it. However, what about all the other games I’ve got that are absolutely top notch but for the same price. Are they under-priced or do developers simply strive for very high quality no matter what the price? A lot of development companies make up the money from having in-game purchases because after the initial spike of sales post-release it appears to be very difficult to get that back again. Unless you consider yourself a frugal gamer you could end up paying the same amount of money as you would have for a console title, or more.

Prices are being driven down too as time goes on. Top titles on iOS may go for 800 MS points on XBLA but only get 69p on Apple App Store because of the masses of games and applications being released on a weekly basis. Games get lost in the sea of madness and hidden treasures often rely on sites like Ready Up to get the exposure they need. With over 1 billion downloads from the App Store over Christmas it’s no wonder some titles disappear into the black hole.

Hard Lines. A great game with great gameplay and a low price.

I thought I would have been guilty of trying to compare games on iOS to my Xbox 360 but I never really find myself doing it. I suppose I’ve never really compared DS games to console games either. Mostly, PS3 and Xbox 360 games get put head to head but paths never cross the breakdown between console, mobile and handheld.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself the question, just because a game is free or cheap should you accept low quality? Personally, I don’t. I compare games around this price bracket and make my decision on that. Standards shouldn’t be low because the prices are low and if you look at the indie developers who are pushing boundaries and enjoying success and recognition, they’re breaking the mould and leading by example.

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