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Revered iOS game Monument Valley "bombarded" with 1 star reviews after paid expansion

Dalek

Member
One Of The iPhone's Most Beautiful Games Is Flooded With Terrible Reviews After It Starts Charging $2

monument%20valley-2.jpg
"Monument Valley" is one of the most beautiful iPhone games out there, but its newest expansion has fans up in arms.
The issue isn't with the quality of the game, according to Touch Arcade, but with the game's new expansion, which costs $1.99.

"Monument Valley," which won an Apple Design Award this year, has you responsible for guiding the lost Princess Ida through a gorgeous environment of winding structures filled with impossible geometry and hidden passageways.

The game has received mostly five-star reviews, but "Monument Valley" fans started freaking out when they learned that the game's expansion, "Forgotten Shores," which offers eight new chapters, cost $1.99, even though the expansion almost doubles the size of the game.

Angry fans began flooding the App Store with one-star reviews.

This reaction is a bit strong considering that "Monument Valley" never promised the expansion would be free and the new chapters are still half as expensive as the original game, which costs $3.99.

The creators of "Monument Valley," ustwo games, took to Twitter to discuss the odd behavior, which was then picked up by Touch Arcade and Daring Fireball's John Gruber.

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The most confusing part of all of this is the double standard expected by the fans of "Monument Valley."

"Monument Valley" is not free to play, so it doesn't offer microtransactions or other pay-to-win features that can annoy players. Instead, "Monument Valley" relies on sales from its game, which it sells for $3.99, and sales from its first expansion, which costs $1.99.

The double standard comes into play when users expect the game to be free, offer no microtransactions, and release expansions free of charge. Unless "Monument Valley" featured ads or sold customer data, there would be no way for the game's creators to make any money.

Luckily for the developers, the added exposure appears to be slowly turning things around, with other "Monument Valley" fans rallying and adding positive reviews.

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You can purchase "Monument Valley" over at the App Store, or watch a trailer for its new "Forgotten Shores" expansion below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me4ymG_vnOE

Monument Valley is a tremendous game and everyone should check it out. The entitlement that some people feel is just sickening.
 

epmode

Member
iOS pricing is out of control.

For as much shit as I give people for trotting out the ENTITLED GAMERS garbage, I think it might actually apply in this case.
 

OldRoutes

Member
Monument Valley is a tremendous game and everyone should check it out. The entitlement that some people feel is just sickening.

Is it, though? However great the game is, the PR they did obviously did not work. You have to be careful around the pricing structure of a game, especially when it's considered 'premium' on this market place.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
F*ck mobile gaming culture. Seriously. $1.99 is too much for a good amount of content for a great game? Two dollars?! What is wrong with people.

The idea that $4 is a premium price point leaves me scratching my head.
 

Alx

Member
People are cheap. "I know you need to be paid, but $2 is too much !".
I don't know how development for mobiles can be viable...
 
Most of the time when people call gamers "entitled" because they're complaining about something it's bullshit, but every once in a while it's completely and totally accurate.
 

Nugg

Member
Bought the addon and put a 5 star rating because of this. This is disgusting and those people should be ashamed.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Huh, never heard of this game before. I'll pick it up on Android. :)
 

antitrop

Member
F*ck mobile gaming culture. Seriously. $1.99 is too much for a good amount of content for a great game? Two dollars?! What is wrong with people.

I'm imaging these people typing these 1 star reviews with a can of Monster Energy Drink that cost $2.25 in their other hand.
 

TheMoon

Member
Remember how everyone laughed during GDC 2011 when a certain someone warned developers of this trend?

Race to the bottom is real and we're almost at the finish line.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
...WHY.

It doesn't make sense this outrage. At all.

...WHYYYYYYYYYY
 

Unison

Member
I felt ripped off for the full game at $4 given how short and simple it was.

I didn't give it a one-star review, but I certainly don't think it was a good value before the expansion was released.
 

Rakthar

Member
iOS pricing is out of control.

For as much shit as I give people for trotting out the ENTITLED GAMERS garbage, I think it might actually apply in this case.

I felt throwing out the ENTITLED GAMERS over people unhappy about expansion pack pricing was in fact really ridiculous and kinda killed the discourse from the get go.

If you are simply dismissing what's happening as ENTITLED GAMERS with no attempt to understand why people feel that way or what might have happened, then there's no analysis or discussion there from my perspective.
 

ConceptX

Member
This is incredibly sad.

It's not even a freemium game, it's a PAID app with a PAID (And cheaper) expansion.

The fuck is the problem?

Think I might go and buy it now.
 

taco543

Member
This is terrible this is one of the few mobile games I've played and actually loved because of how beautiful and how fun it is. I'm ashamed of this planet sometimes.
 

Dalek

Member
I felt ripped off for the full game at $4 given how short and simple it was.

I didn't give it a one-star review, but I certainly don't think it was a good value before the expansion was released.

The length of a game shouldn't determine it's price. The game is a creative and unique puzzle and deserves it's price tag.
 

oti

Banned
"They" destroyed the mobile market.
"They" have to deal with it now.

It's incredibly sad but that's just the way it is as long as the platform holders won't interfere with their marketplaces.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
The game almost doubles the content for half the price and people are furious? Holy crap. There are plenty of highly rated games that are lousy with IAPs that have high ratings. An actual expansion isn't the same as what most of these apps do.
 
Casual gamers ladies and gentleman. They want champagne on a boxed wine budget.

Some console gamers can get similarly stupid regarding DLC, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see a reaction quite this bad if a console game released an expansion that offered 50%+ as much content as the original game for 50% of the price of the original game.
 

Sir TapTap

Member
UGGGHHHH fuck mobile. These assholes would eat it up if it was $2 to reduce a timer to play a far worse game. Entitled bullshit.
 

chris121580

Member
Absolute joke. The entitlement of some of this generation's gamers is so ridiculous. I happily purchased the expansion to one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year and wrote up a 5 star review. This game has earned every cent thrown at it
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I felt ripped off for the full game at $4 given how short and simple it was.

I didn't give it a one-star review, but I certainly don't think it was a good value before the expansion was released.
How long did it take you? $4 is such a low amount for a game of good quality regardless of length.

The race to the bottom IS real.
 

GulAtiCa

Member
Over $2? That is nuts.

But, I've seen people go nuts over console $2 games too my my own personal experience.. Sadly a whole lot of people seem to feel entitled and stand behind very stupid principles when it comes to cheap games.
 

Unison

Member
The length of a game shouldn't determine it's price. The game is a creative and unique puzzle and deserves it's price tag.

Like I said... I didn't feel it was $4 worth of content... That's in terms of the experience all around, including the game length, the aesthetics, and the game mechanics.

You might have. Terrific.

I'm not stunned that people are annoyed that the extra levels cost more given that this is not the model for popular games like Angry Birds, which gives add on levels for free.
 

nynt9

Member
Monument Valley is incredible. And I just bought and finished the expansion today. It was totally worth it. These people are nuts.

edit: just wrote them a 5 star review, hopefully it will help counteract the stupid negativity.
 

Faabulous

Member
Considering the content and price, this game was fairly expensive in the first place (if you take into account the quality of the stuff you can get for lesss), and I did feel kind of ripped off for paying 4 bucks for so little, but honestly this response is really not the appropriate way of criticising this.
 

Dalek

Member
These are the same people I see in forums hemming and hawing over buying a 1.99 game. "Can anyone tell me exactly what this game is like? How long is it? Is there going to be a sale? Is there any chance it might be free?"
 

Kyuur

Member
Never heard of it, will now buy it thanks to this article and how gorgeous it looks.

If it's good, I hope it inspires more people to do the same.
 
$2 for almost doubling the orginal content and they're crying? Pathetic


I'm assuming they're supping their $5 latte while they change their reviews
 
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