Pre-order 'Resident Evil 4' for iPhone, iPad, or Mac today, pay $60 at launch for full unl...

AppleInsider

Apple's push into AAA gaming included an announcement that "Resident Evil 4" was coming to iPhone, and it is now available to pre-order for free.

'Resident Evil 4' coming to iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Capcom's Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Village are coming to iPhone and iPad later in 2023. Both games have popped up on the App Store as free downloads, but an in-app purchase will be required to unlock the full game.

There is some good news for Apple fans. The in-app purchase appears to be a universal unlock for the Apple ID. That means users can buy the game on iPhone and then play the game on iPad or Mac without paying again.

However, since it is an in-app purchase and not a subscription, there is a chance it won't be shareable with family members. So, if multiple family members want to play, they will have to pay up -- but that depends on the developer.

Hopefully Capcom will make the IAP shared across family members, but that won't be known until launch.

A section of the game will be playable for free. Resident Evil 4 is $60 since it is a new game, and that's the same price as on PlayStation and Xbox.

Pre-register for Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil Village was originally released in 2021, so it's priced a little lower at $39.99. However, that's a little more expensive than the Mac version, which currently costs $29.99 as a separate purchase.

There is a slight oddity with the Resident Evil Village listing. It only shows the iPad version and doesn't list the iPhone or Mac versions.

Pre-register for Resident Evil Village on iPad.

Those devices could be added to the listing at a later date. It isn't yet clear if a universal in-app purchase will also be available for Resident Evil Village.

Resident Evil 4 is due sometime in 2023, but no release date has been shared -- the current App Store date of December 31 is a placeholder. The iPad version of Resident Evil Village shows October 30, which was previously announced.


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jSnively

Soo... shareware. We are back at shareware ; )

Marvin

AppleInsider said:

A section of the game will be playable for free. Resident Evil 4 is $60 since it is a new game, and that's the same price as on PlayStation and Xbox.

Resident Evil Village was originally released in 2021, so it's priced a little lower at $39.99. However, that's a little more expensive than the Mac version, which currently costs $29.99 as a separate purchase.

I think they will struggle to sell at that price on mobile but it's understandable why they'd price it like that. Mario Run had over 300 million downloads and they said about 5% of people paid, which is a standard IAP purchase rate. The price was $10 so they get $7 = $105m (over multiple years). For Nintendo who makes $10b+ per year, that's not much. Capcom makes around $1b per year so that result would be ok for a port.

They won't get 300m+ downloads for Resident Evil because it's only compatible with newer phones. By the time it launches next month, there will only be around 10m iPhones capable of playing it and only a fraction of those will buy it. If half those devices download it with 5% paying x $60 * 0.7 = $10m.

Over the course of a year, it will grow to around 70m capable of running it, 35m downloads x 5% x $60 * 0.7 = $73m.

iPads and Macs capable of playing it will be around 100-200m so they might drive more sales than iPhone initially. 1m purchases on both would be $120m x 0.7 = $84m.

In general, I think big publishers should price mobile games at half of what the desktop/console version is and if people want to cross-purchase, charge the difference. If someone buys on iPhone, charge $30, then if they want to play on Mac, deduct $30 off the $60 Mac price. The mobile gaming audience is much bigger than other platforms at 3 billion and are more willing to buy in-game items than upfront items. They can have purchases for the in-game currency for weapons, health etc, $1 = 10,000 credits.

Maybe they will launch with a half-price Halloween sale just for that launch week to see what the numbers are like. Hopefully they won't be put off by the low initial sales on mobile due to the limited amount of hardware capable of running the games. In a couple of years, the capable iPhone devices will reach over 250m.

beowulfschmidt

I can see playing such a game on an iPad or a Mac, but I don't see people willingly paying $60 to play even Resident Evil on a phone screen, especially since most games on iOS are a few dollars at most.  Or at least not in numbers that make it profitable.  Of course, RE on iOS is a port of the console and/or PC version, so it's probably already recovered its development cost.

I just don't see phones as a AAA game platform being any more than, "yeah, we'll see what we can do after we make all our money off of consoles and PCs.  Maybe."

foregoneconclusion

beowulfschmidt said:

I can see playing such a game on an iPad or a Mac, but I don't see people willingly paying $60 to play even Resident Evil on a phone screen, especially since most games on iOS are a few dollars at most.  Or at least not in numbers that make it profitable.  Of course, RE on iOS is a port of the console and/or PC version, so it's probably already recovered its development cost.

I just don't see phones as a AAA game platform being any more than, "yeah, we'll see what we can do after we make all our money off of consoles and PCs.  Maybe."

$60 for universal unlock on Mac/iPad/iPhone is a good deal if all your Apple hardware is capable of running the game. I can see myself trying it out even though the last time I played an RE game was the original Gamecube version of RE 4. 

beowulfschmidt

Yeah, like I said, "I can see playing such a game on an iPad or a Mac".

A phone though?  I consider myself a pretty mainstream AAA gamer, so maybe my perspective is different than someone who plays a lot of the types of games I see advertised in Apple Arcade or on the App Store.  I would be totally uninterested in playing most of the games I currently play (Baldur's Gate 3, Elite Dangerous, Call of Duty Zombies, Skyrim, Railway Empire, and other similar ones) on a phone; irrespective of the specs or how well the game will run on a phone, that screen size is a non-starter for me.

FileMakerFeller

jSnively said:

Soo... shareware. We are back at shareware ; )

I don't know that we ever really left. Developers were clamouring for IAP shortly after the App Store opened, because shareware is a model that works. Free trial, pay if you like it and get more of what you tasted.

comcastsucks

foregoneconclusion said:

$60 for universal unlock on Mac/iPad/iPhone is a good deal if all your Apple hardware is capable of running the game. I can see myself trying it out even though the last time I played an RE game was the original Gamecube version of RE 4. 

As someone who still has my GameCube RE4 discs, I'd just like to say that the remake is awesome and is totally worth the money.