The folks over at Square Enix Europe are charging a whopping $28.99 for upcoming mobile RPG Final Fantasy Dimensions, they revealed this morning.
Presumably Square Enix USA is using the same price scheme, as the Europe blog lists prices in U.S. dollars too. Here's what they have to say about the game, which is out next Friday:
Final Fantasy Dimensions is delivered as episodic content. The prologue will be free for everyone to enjoy. You can purchase the first chapter for $2.99 / £1.99 / €2.39, chapters 2-4 for $9.99 / £6.99 / €7.99 each, or the entire collection of chapters for $28.99 / £19.99 / €22.99.
$28.99. Twenty-eight ninety-nine. Twenty-nine dollars.
Final Fantasy Dimensions, remember, is a game for Android and iOS. Games for Android and iOS do not normally cost this kind of money. But this is Square Enix, a company whose pricing decisions never fail to baffle us. $16 for Chaos Rings. $18 for the iPad version of Final Fantasy Tactics. $17 for Final Fantasy III.
Even by Square Enix's outrageous standards, $28.99 is an obscene price point for a mobile game. Let's go over the pros and cons of this decision.
Pros:
- Umm... I guess it could be a really good game? It looked decent enough when I saw it at E3.
- Square Enix will make lots of money?
- At least there are no microtransactions.
Cons:
- Square Enix wants you to pay $30 for a game that looks like it was pulled straight from RPG Maker.
- Not that there's anything wrong with RPG Maker games. Some of them are excellent. They're also free.
- Looks like some of the assets are even ripped from Final Fantasy IV. (That mountain and doorway are straight out of Mt. Ordeals.)
- In fact, this whole game kind of resembles Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, which was an absolute mess.
- Are they joking with this dialogue?
- It costs thirty friggin dollars.
- Thirty dollars.
- THIRTY DOLLARS FOR AN IPHONE GAME.
"But wait a minute," you might be saying. "What if this is worth $30?"
Maybe it will be! But for $30, you can buy almost every one of our 12 favorite iPhone games. You could buy a whole bunch of awesome indies on Steam. Or you could go to the movies (twice), then download a bunch of awesome free RPGs like Barkley, Shut Up And Jam Gaiden or Exit Fate.
In other words, Final Fantasy Dimensions had better blow our friggin' minds.