Square Enix defends its mobile games pricing, looking into universal compatibility

Square Enix has defended its mobile games pricing to Kotaku, stating that games such as Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy Tactics, and The World Ends With You, are worth $16 - 20 each due to being console quality titles.

According to the representative, the several of the firms' mobile titles were "originally intended for the consoles."

"We've reconfigured and optimized them for the mobile platform, releasing them at a lower price than their original console or handheld versions," said the Square Enix representative.

"Square Enix does provide other casual titles in the lower price range, and as the market evolves, we'll take all different price points into consideration on a game-by-game basis."

Final Fantasy Dimensions and Demons' Score, both for iOS, cost $30 and $44, respectively, with the later in the US costing $6.99, or $37 in additional paid content.

"Final Fantasy Dimensions feels and looks like a nostalgic 2D title that offers dozens of hours of gameplay," said the representative. "We're very proud of the game and feel that is has the same high quality of a console or handheld platform title.

"We wanted to provide players flexibility in the way they experienced Dimensions by letting them download the prologue for free, and then offering each chapter as an incremental in-app purchase. If players did not want to invest the time and energy into completing the game, they were able to make that decision at no cost.

"However, if they wanted to experience the full game, they could either purchase the chapters individually as they progressed or as a bulk download at a reduced cost.

"We wanted to offer U.S. players the opportunity to purchase and experience Demons' Score at a lower price than the Japanese version. This allowed U.S. players the opportunity to play the game and decide whether or not they wished to proceed by purchasing additional IAPs as they progressed within the game."

The representative also said in the future, it will be looking into whether its games can be made universally conmpatible, that way, users won't have to pay $20 to buy The World Ends With You on iPhone, and then $20 again for their iPad.

"Depending on the device, some games may or may not be universally compatible," said Square. "Moving forward, we plan to do our best to accommodate games that are universally compatible."