Claimed another victim, has the mobile-gaming wars. </yoda-speak>
In all seriousness ... I am very saddened by this news. I few up playing Monkey Island, Indy Jones, etc. I was thinking of buying all the Monkey Island games again on my iPad but didn't have the time.
Even so, that's a huge difference compared to the previous $50-60 people were paying for games. Sure they can cut out the publisher, printing, etc... now, but I expect they were still making at least $10 per game in the past.
An equivalent game for PC (say a Telltale Games Sam & Max episode) costs U$ 9. The Sims 3 costs U$ 19.
You're comparing the adventure games to the massively expensive FPS or RPG or other stuff with awesome graphics and all that :) .
And, to be honest, I never paid U$ 50 for any game upfront (PC, console, boardgame, anything), and I believe 99.9% of the gaming population in my country (Uruguay) hasn't either :) . That's the realm of US and European teens that can afford them (well, their parents can).
I did buy secondhand console games and other stuff :) , and I've paid far more for my M:TG collection, but on 4 to 10 dollar installments :) .
There are a ton of games at $9.99 and $19.99, generally only the simplest casual match-three style games are $0.99.
Right now the #3 paid app is the $7 Minecraft, the second game on the list.
A lot of the games on the top charts right now are free or $0.99 games with in-app purchases that bring the price higher, or games that were formerly in the $7-20 range but are lower because they've been out for awhile.
They are and in fact you can get a version of SCUMMVM that runs on a jailbroken iPad and works with most (if not all) of the LucasArts games. It's just a hassle.
In all seriousness ... I am very saddened by this news. I few up playing Monkey Island, Indy Jones, etc. I was thinking of buying all the Monkey Island games again on my iPad but didn't have the time.