With the new version of Plunderland that's now available on the app store, we chose to update the game with Universal instead of releasing a second "HD" version of the game for iPad because of a number of factors. Here are our reasons and why we think it made sense for Plunderland.

Plunderland is a relatively expensive game for the app store, we know that and we recently read an article by Trainyard developer Matt Rix who came up with an interesting theory about perceived value, proving that $2.99 is only expensive because on the app store you have to go through a few games before you find one that's genuinely good.

"**$2.99 is not a lot to pay for a good game*, if a user knows it’s a good game. The problem is that with every App Store purchase, there’s a very high likelihood that the user is going to get a bad game. Over time, most users will have come to know and accept this about the App Store, and they’ll perceive a certain risk for every purchase. They subconsciously weigh the cost of the game against the chance that they’re going to be ripped off. We can use this knowledge to our advantage when we price our games, by figuring out the perceived risk."*

Excerpt from How to price your game by Matt Rix

We really agree with this theory which is part of the reason we have always tried to increase the value we give players, if we went and made Plunderland HD a separate app then we're spreading ourselves between two apps, when really it should be one that we can focus on.

We've always been bad at letting players know that the game is valuable, so we really wanted to make sure we promoted the praise others have been saying about Plunderland, I mean an 8.9 out of 10 score on IGN is amazing and people should know about it, it will probably persuade them a little bit closer to parting with their cash. So things like reviews help us get people to buy the game but the biggest thing for Plunderland is word of mouth.

Word of mouth for us is a huge seller, we don't have an advertising campaign at all, we'll always take the die-hard honest approach to selling because we believe in what we've created and we don't have the spare cash to flitter away on expensive advertising campaigns that might or might not work.

So we really just want to keep giving more to players so you'll keep talking about the game, keep playing the game and keep getting excited about what we're making. Universal makes sense because it encourages all of those things and it adds a ton of value making $2.99 seem like a bit of a joke price now that you get the iPad version as well.

Nobody gets burned, we made a game we love even better (and bigger) and everyone else gets more for their money and keeps talking about the game. It's really as simple as that.

Plunderland Universal is out now for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch