Angry Birds and six other Xbox Live games on Windows Phone get permanent price drops

99 cent Xbox Live games

Remember that huge Easter sale on Xbox Live titles we were so enthusiastic nearly 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'due south good news to Windows Phone gamers as it means we take a new (and more competitive) price point for games!

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

Aroused Birds - Review
Burn the Rope - Review
De Hulk - 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 exist able to choice upwardly a few Xbox Live games on the inexpensive. Angry Birds in item really needed to come down in cost due to it existence offered for free on a few other platforms already. In example the hubbub over Rovio passing on bringing Angry Birds in Space to Windows Phone (and their subsequent one-eighty) didn't cue y'all in, it'southward very of import that the masses accept their Aroused Birds.

In Aroused Birds' case, platform equity is nigh likely reason for a price driblet. And certainly most of the seven games price 99 cents on iPhone likewise – but not all. De Blob Revolution actually sells for $2.99 on iTunes at present. Something tells me information technology simply wasn't a hot seller on Windows Phone, perhaps due to the weakness of the De Blob make or the game'southward lack of mail service-release updates. As for Toy Soldiers: Kick Campsite, why that'southward a Windows Phone exclusive! But the game is a scrap content-lite, a factor that may have led to its cost shedding a few dollars.

Wondering whether the game makers had whatever say in their titles' new prices? "We had the opportunity to drop our existing games to the new price betoken, so we decided to do and then and test the water, so to speak," ane Xbox Live developer told WPCentral. The aforementioned game maker expects to drop the price of some other title in the future.

The new price offers advantages to anybody involved. Developers now have a little more command in the pricing of their games, and gamers tin can option 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 equally many copies. Initially, the Windows Telephone 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 take been loss leaders until more people picked up handsets. Now that Nokia is fully onboard and actively advert the Lumia 900, the user base has either grown enough or is expected to grow enough in short club to make lower game prices viable.

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

The AT&T version of Surface Duo is now getting Android 11

It'due south here

The AT&T version of Surface Duo is at present getting Android 11

After a very long wait, the original Surface Duo is now eligible to receive its over-the-air Os update to Android 11. Here is what is new and fixed with the biggest update nonetheless for Microsoft's start dual-screen Android device.