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If the $21 price point for the current PC and Mac versions of Mojang’s Scrolls has been a big obstacle to checking the game out, then listen up.
has been a big obstacle to checking the game out, then listen up. In a Thursday blog post published on the Scrolls website, Mojang developers Owen Hill and Mans Olson explained that the game would be getting a substantial price cut.
As the post explains, Scrolls will soon be getting ported over to tablets for easy mobile play. Because it takes lower price points for games to remain competitive in the mobile environment, the Mojang teamhas decided to avoid any issues and cut the price for Scrolls from the get-go. The new price will be $5, 76% big drop from the current $21 tag.
A $16 price drop is certainly dramatic, especially considering the fact that the new $5 price point will be applied not only to Scrolls for mobile, but also to every version of the game. As Hill and Olson explain in their blog post, they felt that there was no other course of action that would have continued to provide Scrolls players with the best possible gaming experience.
“Cross-platform play is extremely important to us, so creating separate communities for tablets and PC/Mac was out of the question. We’re also determined to maintain a one-off cost for Scrolls and not pressure our players into spending extra cash in order to be competitive, or to have a good time in both the early and late game.”
If that statement sounds like a thinly-veiled criticism of free-to-play platformsand in-game payment interfaces, that’s because it is. The post went on to say that the Mojang team considered a free-to-play option, but was “not keen on the way that form of monetization can affect gameplay.”
So what does all of this mean for existing Scrolls players? Don’t worry: Hill, Olson, and the rest of the Mojang team have also gone out of their way to make sure that existing customers see benefits from this new price point. For one thing, the blog post states that existing customers will be gifted the Scrolls $20 shard package “at no additional cost.” Whether a gesture of good will or an apology for making players pay $21 for a game that now costs $5, the gift is something that Scrolls veterans will certainly appreciate.
In addition, the new price will simply give Mojang the competitive edge they need to launch Scrolls in the tablet market, which will in turn lead to larger Scrolls communities as mobile gamersdiscover the title. Since the tablet release will promote full cross-platform play, all Scrolls players will be able to take advantage of the game’s growing worlds.
There is no concrete date set for when Scrolls will be released on tablet, but the Mojang blog post stated that the release would be coming “very soon.” That being said the developers also joked about the “technical issues of porting a game of such awesomeness to portable devices,” so it could still be a couple of weeks.
Source: Scrolls.com