Giant Bomb makes an app (and, more importantly, a commercial)

Thank God for the Bomb?

while i agree that if u visit giant bomb enough, you'll probably dole out the money to pay for it, i dont think its justified in charging.

u cant watch cnn videos on safari either, u can on their app. they dont charge.

its not like the videos are stored on ur phone, they are just transcoded to h.264 mp4 format or something similar the iphone is capable of playing.

they could employ that tech just as easily on a mobile friendly version of their site, but instead chose to build a native app so they could charge.

i've been there a few times and its a good site, and 2 bucks really isnt a lot of money, but in this age of the app store where so many apps are only .99 and actually do something for u, besides just delivering content...i cant see myself spending it....but thats just MY opinion.

I have to agree with the other comments here that Mike is unfortunately a bit tone deaf on the value of the app itself (Nothing personal, I'm a fan Mike's and the WoW Insider Show). As others have said already, Safari on the iPhone is unsatisfactory for viewing many sites (Giant Bomb among them) and this app puts control of the content in a easy to navigate form.

I'll gladly pay a couple bucks to support a site I enjoy that comes up with better ways to deliver that content to me. Of course it is totally optional, you can still visit their website for free, so this isn't fleecing, its additional service options.

This app model when done right is good for consumers who want it, and if profitable for the sites to employ, a good thing for them as well.

Kudo's to Mike for giving them some additional press/attention, even if he doesn't agree on the value of the app.

Hey Mike, why do you assume that lots of TUAW readers don't read GiantBomb? Also, why do you use the editorial we when decrying the price? Does the entirety of the TUAW staff really feel this is unjustifiable?

Looking into it, it looks like GiantBomb.com gets about twice the amount of traffic that TUAW.com does, I think it is a fair assumption that plenty of your readers also read GiantBomb. Saying you can't justify the price because you don't read the site is fine, but bashing GiantBomb with the claim on Safari that access to all of the content should be free is infantile. The app doesn't have ads, while half of your website is designed for ads and cross-promotion. Safari doesn't seem to make browsing your website free.

I think they just used an iphone case in the shamwow parody. You have to look closely but at about 1:30 it looks like it's an empty case as he's pulling it out of the water.

I foresee great strife with the TSA...

It's not the greatest app ever, but Giant Bomb is easily the most entertaining videogame site around. If 2 whole dollars is what it costs to watch their videos on the go, so be it. Plus the smug feeling I get knowing I'm helping support the site so they can continue to make awesome videos like the one above is worth way more to me than anything else I could buy for $2.

If you're a fan of Giant Bomb then you know that they've been serving up as much amazing content as they can to their userbase at not cost whatsoever and with next to no advertising on the site from vendors. The price of the app isn't outrageous by any means, and really it's more about supporting these guys and encouraging all that they're doing than it is about anything else. Giant Bomb is an evolutionary take on what a gaming news site and community should be, and a single purchase of $1.99 is easy to justify when you consider all that they provide for free.

The app makes it possible to interact with the site in ways that Mobile Safari wouldn't be able to handle on its own (e.g. streaming of all GB's video content, which is ordinarily delivered via Flash Video), and it makes searching their database much faster and easier than could be accomplished via Mobile Safari.

If you frequent the site then the $2 price tag is nothing. The main reason they are charging for it is because there are limited adds on the site and this is a good way to bring in revenue. Its a quality site for game information.

i'm a fan of giant bomb and it's actually a pretty nice app. Yes the iPhone has safari, but if you like giant bomb, you know it's primarily a video site not a text site. You also would know that these videos are all flash and thus un-viewable on the iphone... until now.

TUAW I like the site but you act like 2 dollars is a lot of money because you can get the same functionality through the web. You can not view giant bomb videos in safari and the videos are really what is the lynchpin of giant bomb.

anyway i'm sure very few people care about this app and the commercial is very funny (and also not watchable on an iphone without the giant bomb app ironically enough), but before calling an app not worth about the price of two packs of gum be a bit more careful to understand what you're talking about.