iPhone TCG to charge $9.99 for in-app purchases

I hate to be nitpicky, but the quote "for $9.99, almost ten times the price of the actual game" is incorrect.

$0.99 * 10 = $9.90

Should read "more than 10 times the price of the actual game"

:)

If you read the fine print from apple, for a app to be able to use in-app purchases it has to have a price tag (eg Free apps may not have in-app purchases.) So comparing the initial price of the game to the cards you buy later is silly, as I bet that the developers would have made the game free if they could. I have been facing similar problems in my in-app purchase developing in apps.

Apps are just going to become advertising platforms. We'll be paying a buck to watch ads.

Most Free-to-Play MMORPG games have purchasable items and clothes and account services ranging from a few cents up to $30. Most of the games that use that model are Korean, and the F2P market is now the most profitable in the industry, from what I've read anyways. Blizzard might make alot of money on those WoW subscriptions, but there's alot more money to be had in the F2P market. I think the Free to play, pay for some optional, non-essential, exlusive items, is great, it opens the game to a wider audience, and the die hard people that make up 10% of the userbase, will spend more money on the game they love then the total userbase's subscription fees would bring in. Why? With subscription, you get $9-$15 from each user, once, per month. With the free to play model, you get more users because it's free, and the dedicated ones, will gladly spent $5-$15 here and there, perhaps many times in a single month if theres some good things that they really want.

This is not much different than the plays for Magic: the Gathering Online. They run the Online game just like the paper game and packs cost the same (retail $3.99) on both sides. In their online game you can even "cash out" your online cards for real ones when you complete full sets (oh the gottchas)

Like this game they have the ability to buy "pack credits" used for playing in tournaments with rewards and they allow them to be traded between players for cards.

This game seems to be following nearly the same model, but with lower entry prices. Of course iPhones were born to play TCGs anyway... especially if they have a method for matchup games between players at the same location... whip out the phone and play some rounds without having to carry around pockets full of cards!!! This is begging for a Penny-Arcade strip!

The prices will sky rocket when devs realise how lucrative the app store can be look at the price of the gameloft games.

How expensive do you think GTA:CTW will be when it comes out, considering the other versions cost £20-30, its going to be pricy and this will drive the average price of apps up.

This isn't new look at the crap Playmesh creates.

The initial app is free. But more of the ingame currency costs between $1 and $100 dollars