XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a $20 iOS port of a current generation console/PC game
Mobile gaming has changed a lot in recent years, with improved hardware opening up for more and more advanced games. Ports of console and PC games from about a decade ago have become fairly common, but now a game has been released that actually released on consoles and PC as late as last year. With a $20 price tag, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is in many ways an experiment to see if mobile platforms can really compete with more traditional gaming platforms.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn based strategy game. That makes it perfect for a touch based platform, since you don’t need the quick and precise controls of hardware input methods that often make mobile games a pain to play. You control a group of soldiers through various missions, carefully planning your moves to make sure that you don’t make fatal mistakes. It got a lot of positive reviews back when it first came out for PC and consoles, and with the exception of some changes to graphics and removal of multiplayer, this game is otherwise identical. That means you’re getting the full experience of a highly praised game right there on your iOS device.
The price tag of $20 has however caused a bit of a stir online. It’s not unprecedented, but it’s still not the most common price point you’ll see for games. In fact, a lot of people are complaining that it’s too expensive, while others are defending it saying that you’re getting a $70 game for $20. I’ll have to agree with the latter point of view, and the reason I’m posting this to begin with (I don’t have nor plan on getting the game) is that I find this to be a really interesting experiment to determine the future of mobile games on a scale larger than what we have today. For mobile platforms to be included in the range of platforms that games are normally released on, in their full form, the market has to show that it’s actually willing to pay for quality games.
The game just came out, so the jury is still out on whether or not this will pay off for the company behind the game. In the mean while, the game is a $20 bill away from taking up 1.86GB of space on your iOS device by following the link below.
Download: iTunes
