GM Of Square Enix Mobile Hints At Price Cuts

Square-Enix is no stranger to the App Store. The gaming company has plenty of titles out there and they all sell reasonably well. But, like a number of other Japanese titles, they can be quite pricey compared to a lot of their freemium brethren. However, this might change a bit soon.

Thanks to Gamezebo's Jim Squires, who attended Casual Connect Kiev, we have this quote from Antony Douglas, the Square Enix GM of Mobile for Europe.

I think that the Japanese view of this is that we have built quality games, whether they’re for handheld or for mobile… the business model is not set in this world. Everything is free-to-play right now, tomorrow it could be different, [and] it’ll change the day after that. I think Japan wanted to try things – bear in mind that game sells incredibly well at that price, [and] I think there’s something honest about it, because it tells you how much the game is going to be. $20 for something you can play for 30 or 40 hours is still cheaper than what you can get on a handheld. [Square Enix] Japan are trying that and seeing how it works, and it works very well in Japan. It has been commented on quite a lot in Europe in the West, [and] they’re responding to it. They’re seeing the feedback, and there will probably be changes in the way that it’s structured.

If this means that Square would be open to permanently altering some of their price points to more of the $10 range, we think this would do a lot to boost their sales. There's always going to be a hardcore market out there that will pay top dollar for nostalgic and premium titles.

But if Square wants to introduce games like Final Fantasy Dimensions to more of the casual gaming market, they are going to need to re-evaluate their price points. $30 is way too expensive a price to pay for any game on iOS.

How cool would it be if Square took the Lucasarts/Monkey Island route and offered versions of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI, complete with new and retro mode options, for 4.99 each? We think they would sell, literally, a bazillion copies.

We want Cecil! We want Cyan!