Take-Two Interactive reported its earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014. The company beat expectations due in small part to the release of sci-fi strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown on iOS devices.
Now, the company is holding the game, which debuted on the mobile platform for $20, as an example that premium pricing can work on iOS.
Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games released XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS on June 20 for $20. That price shocked some gamers who are used to iOS apps weighing in at around $1 to $5.
During its conference call with investors, Take-Two revealed that the relatively high price didn’t stop it from selling. In the first week of its release, the strategy title was among the top-10 highest-grossing apps on Apple’s digital-distribution store.
“This proves gamers are willing to pay a premium price for a premium experience on any platform,” Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick said.
The CEO suggested that Take-Two and 2K Games are happy with the result and will likely follow a similar model for releasing its triple-A games on iOS and mobile platforms in the future.
Of course, at $20, XCOM doesn’t need to sell as many units to outgross popular $1 or $2 apps. We’ve reached out to Take-Two to find out exactly how many units it sold and whether the game continues to perform well.
XCOM currently isn’t in the top 1,000 in terms of daily downloads and is only barely in the top 500 in terms of revenue on iPhone, according to app-tracking firm App Annie. On iPad, it’s a bit better off. XCOM is hovering around the top 200 highest-grossing titles on App Annie’s charts.