At first glance, paid mobile gaming seems like a bad pricing model. But it’s not just games: people don’t like to pay for apps in general. This trend can be mostly explained by a psychology concept called price “anchoring.” In other words, we’ve been trained through experience to expect certain prices for products. Usually, price anchors are set by a lack of options over time (see: the 90’s Microsoft monopoly on PC products). While we won’t get into the nitty-gritty of consumer psychology here, the outcome is easy to grasp. App stores started low — in a range of $0.99 all the way down to $0. So, we expect modern apps — including games — to follow suit. Paid apps just simply aren’t that attractive to most users.
