price drop

Yesterday, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop took the stage to unveil two important new Lumia phones powered by Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 8 OS.  Despite positive reviews of the hardware, the stock collapsed by 16%.  

What does all this mean?  Why did the stock collapse and what does it mean for the future of Nokia and Windows Phone?  Is there a real message here, or is this simply panic and depression on the part of investors?

For those looking for one heck of a deal, you may want to consider heading the online Microsoft Store for that Nokia Lumia 800 entertainment bundle. We first reported on this a few months ago where the four-part package fetched for $899.  No doubt a bit pricey but how does $599 sound?

To refresh your memory, the Nokia entertainment bundle comes with a Lumia800 (black or magenta) which is unlocked and tuned for AT&T’s 3G frequencies. You also get the Play 360 which is a portable, high-fidelity speaker that will allow you to stream your Lumia’s music via Bluetooth (and it has NFC for the future too). To top it off, you get a swanky Nokia Purity HD headset by Monster which for home use is an outstanding choice (they’re over the ear, so not as portable as the in-ear solution) and a Nokia Luna Bluetooth headset (reveiw). 

The Play 360 ($150), Luna BT headset ($79) and Purity HD headset ($200) means you’re getting an unlocked Lumia 800 for just $170 which is pretty awesome if you ask us. We of course have a few Lumia 800s here but they have Euro bands making them less than optimal for use on AT&T. Because of that, we’re seriously contemplating throwing down some cash on this bad boy package. We do dearly love our Lumia 900 but the 800 is really the apex of design with the curved screen—truly a great phone.

The Lumia 800 features a 3.7” Super AMOLED screen with ClearBlack, 16GB of storage and an 8MP camera. It’s a solid phone and if 4G LTE is nowhere near you and you don’t use the somewhat gimmicky front-facing camera, picking up the 800 contract-free is a solid option.

We think this drop actually happened a few weeks ago but regardless, head over to the Microsoft Store to take a look. Remember, only black and magenta are available. For those curious, the "magenta" for the Lumia 800 is much more red than pink--it's okay for you guys too. And no, Amazon surprisingly has not yet matched this price but we’ll keep a watch if that happens. Thanks, Blitz_Empire, for the tip

The illustrious club of 99 cent Xbox Live games on Windows Phone has a new member this weekend: Super Monkey Ball from SEGA. The game rolled out at $4.99 on April 6 last year; dropped to $2.99 only a month later; and has at last settled on the rock-bottom price of less than a dollar.

Should you buy the first Super Monkey Ball right now when a much-improved sequel is due later this summer? Sure, if you can tolerate some truly terrible tilt controls. The awful, non-customizable controls and sadistic stage design are really the only things holding SMB back. The core gameplay itself always makes for a good time. The graphics feature very appealing art and color design, and the music isn’t bad either.

On top of the general difficulty issues and nearly impossible final level, there is a ‘semi-broken’ Achievement which does not match its description. ‘Crowned Champion’ actually requires players to earn a crown on every single level rather than just one world - a super tough feat. For more details, check out our review.

Super Monkey Ball now costs 99 cents and there is a free trail. Get it here from the Marketplace. Follow this tag to see more 99 cent Xbox Live games.

Prior to its release, I was enthusiastic about Pac-Man Kart Rally for a number of reasons: it’s a kart racer (fun genre), it features Pac-Man and other Namco characters, and it’s the first mobile Xbox Live game with wireless multiplayer (local Wi-Fi only). Then it launched to mixed reactions – the poor frame rate and repetitive music seem to be major turn offs for many gamers.

Frankly I find the negative reactions largely hyperbolic, as it’s still a competent and accessible racing game, light years ahead of the only other Xbox Live kart racer, Cro Mag Rally in quality. In any case, it seens someone at Microsoft may have noticed the tepid Marketplace ratings and reacted quickly. For whatever reason, Pac-Man Kart Rally has dropped from $4.99 to $2.99 just two or three days after its release.

Is this a price drop, random sale, or simply a marketplace glitch? We won’t know for sure until next week, when Microsoft will hopefully respond to our queries. It’s mostly good news, as gamers who were turned off at the relatively high five dollar price point now have more incentive to snap the game up right away. It’s probably wisest not to price a game with so many rough edges above three dollars, regardless of brand recognition or a novel multiplayer feature.

On the other hand, many gamers like me bought Pac-Man Kart Rally at the original price only to see it costing less a few days later. We’re rather unlikely to receive refunds – heck, I never managed to get refunds for all the delisted games I’ve bought, a far worse situation (and I did try!). The lightning fast price drop, sale, or whatever will surely leave a bad taste in the mouths of early adopters.

In the long run, the increased sales from a more reasonable price point will probably outweigh a bit of temporary negativity. WPCentral has contacted Microsoft for comment on the price change and will update should we receive clarification.

Get Pac-Man Kart Rally here on the Marketplace.

Update: Microsoft has confirmed this is a permanent price drop.

Thanks to Nima Heravi for the tip!

Remember that huge Easter sale on Xbox Live titles we were so enthusiastic about a short time ago? It took a little while to receive confirmation on this, but we’ve learned that the seven featured games have permanently dropped in price to 99 cents. That’s good news to Windows Phone gamers as it means we have a new (and more competitive) price point for games!

The seven games that dropped in price from $2.99 to 99 cents:

• Angry Birds - Review
• Burn the Rope - Review
• De Blob - Review
• Doodle God – Review
• IonBallEX - Review
• Max and the Magic Marker - Review
• Toy Soldiers: Boot Camp - Review

Wondering what prompted the change in prices? The obvious answer is that Microsoft timed the drops in accordance with the release of the Nokia Lumia 900 (review). With the much-vaunted handset producing a flood of new Windows Phone owners and potential gamers, the big MS probably thought it important for these new customers to be able to pick up a few Xbox Live games on the cheap. Angry Birds in particular really needed to come down in price due to it being offered for free on a few other platforms already. In case the hubbub over Rovio passing on bringing Angry Birds in Space to Windows Phone (and their subsequent one-eighty) didn’t cue you in, it’s very important that the masses have their Angry Birds.

In Angry Birds’ case, platform equity is most likely reason for a price drop. And certainly most of the seven games cost 99 cents on iPhone as well – but not all. De Blob Revolution actually sells for $2.99 on iTunes at present. Something tells me it simply wasn’t a hot seller on Windows Phone, perhaps due to the weakness of the De Blob brand or the game’s lack of post-release updates. As for Toy Soldiers: Boot Camp, why that’s a Windows Phone exclusive! But the game is a bit content-light, a factor that may have led to its price shedding a few dollars.

Wondering whether the game makers had any say in their titles’ new prices? “We had the opportunity to drop our existing games to the new price point, so we decided to do so and test the water, so to speak,” one Xbox Live developer told WPCentral. The same game maker expects to drop the price of another title in the future.

The new price offers advantages to everyone involved. Developers now have a little more control in the pricing of their games, and gamers can pick up titles more affordably. Of course, for a game to be more profitable in the 99 cent range than $2.99, it needs to sell over three times as many copies. Initially, the Windows Phone user base simply wasn’t large enough to sustain such low prices. Microsoft could have still launched with the sub-dollar price, but games would have been loss leaders until more people picked up handsets. Now that Nokia is fully onboard and actively advertising the Lumia 900, the user base has either grown enough or is expected to grow enough in short order to make lower game prices viable.

How many of these seven games have you picked up since they got cheaper, dear readers?

As if the Nokia Lumia 710 wasn't already cheap enough, the phone has received a nice price cut of about 3300 Rs to 15699. Available through Flipkart.com now, the 3.7" device with a ClearBlack LCD a 1.4GHz CPU is quickly becoming the most affordable smartphone on the market.

Of course, we could wonder if the price drop is because Nokia wants to be more competitive or perhaps the 710 is not selling as well--hard to say at this point. But for those interested in a new smartphone, it seems a great deal.

Source: Flipkart; Thanks, Mohib, for the tip!

Last week, the tilt-controlled Xbox Live game Super Monkey Ball received a nice price drop. Today a game with similar (but better) controls just dropped its price too: I Love Katamari from Namco. It’s down from $6.99 to the far fairer $4.99.

I Love Katamari is the mobile version of the Katamari Damacy series. Players control the tiny Prince of the Cosmos and his sticky Katamari ball. The goal is to roll up various objects into the ball, from small things like gum packets and books to giant objects like cars and planes. It’s a quirky good time. Players will need to play four different game modes on each of I Love Katamari’s 6 varied levels in order to earn all the Achievements, including a crazy 110 point Achievement for rolling up every single item in the game.

Sega’s Super Monkey Ball is frustratingly hard due to utterly abysmal tilt controls. I Love Katamari’s tilt controls aren’t perfect, but they are far more manageable. As I say in our review though, it is still a fairly challenging game due to strict time limits on some levels. With practice, most players should be able to roll their way to end of the game.

I Love Katamari is now $4.99 and there is a free trial. We've been told this is a temporary price drop, so don't wait too long to try it. Roll it up here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

We're big fans of SPB Brain Evolution 2 (see full review), which was bumped to v2.2 in March. But one issue we had was the price was quite high at $4.99--a pricing tier which even Xbox LIVE games struggle at.

So it's nice to see the app get its price slashed more than 50% off to $1.99--a price we think is definitely more in line with expectations and the market at this point (can't blame SPB for trying though--they did get our $5). No word if this is a permanent price drop or just temporary, but if you had reservations before, you may want to grab the app now. Link the Marketplace for a trial.

It’s been a while since we saw a price drop on an Xbox Live game for Windows Phone 7 (the last one was a temporary price drop for Rocket Riot). Now Glow Artisan has dropped from $4.99 to $2.99. The ~$3 price point is the most popular price for Xbox Live games, so Glow Artisan may see a significant jump in sales.

Glow Artisan is a unique puzzle game that centers on the use of colors. Players must recreate a pattern at the top of the screen by mixing colors on a grid of squares. Our review praises its simplicity, underlying depth, and range of gameplay options. Glow Artisan was developed by Powerhead Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Grab it for the new low price of $2.99 or give the free trial a spin here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

The last Xbox Live price drop didn’t last forever, so don’t drag your heels!