Bowling by Jason Belmonte: The mobile game money-grab

[jaypeesmith]

I don't know if anyone else has played "Bowling by Jason Belmonte" (I found it on the Google Play Store).

There are some positives. The mechanics seem very sound, they have different styles (Stroker, Tweener, Cranker and 2-Handed) and they even use real Storm balls. However, I don't think they understand what a micro-transaction is supposed to be.

They actually have game packs (in-game purchases) that cost as much as $50. Maybe I'm just too old or too much of a tightwad but, why would I spend $50 on virtual items when I could put that towards real bowling equipment? I am someone who has played video games all my life and make my living in I.T. but, there is a line. No thanks. For $50, I could get some time with a bowling coach and get some tips to help my game in the real world.

[chip82901]

I don't know if anyone else has played "Bowling by Jason Belmonte" (I found it on the Google Play Store).

There are some positives. The mechanics seem very sound, they have different styles (Stroker, Tweener, Cranker and 2-Handed) and they even use real Storm balls. However, I don't think they understand what a micro-transaction is supposed to be.

They actually have game packs (in-game purchases) that cost as much as $50. Maybe I'm just too old or too much of a tightwad but, why would I spend $50 on virtual items when I could put that towards real bowling equipment? I am someone who has played video games all my life and make my living in I.T. but, there is a line. No thanks. For $50, I could get some time with a bowling coach and get some tips to help my game in the real world.

I agree. I play the game pretty religiously and I don't mind spending $5 on some stuff, but if you want say, a timeless or drive in the game, it costs 1/4 of what the ball does in real life lol. That's a little much.

[ALazySavage]

The only justification I can provide (and it is a rather weak one) is I have seen other "freemium" games set up that early on prices are excessively high for purchases so that the early adopters of the game cannot get so far ahead that new people don't want to join in later on (SuperCell did this with Clash Royale). Granted the game is 6 months old so I don't know when they would expect to lower price (such a long lead time is showing that if this theory is true they expect the game to have a long life).

[HowDoIHookAgain]

Never tried it and probably never will. It's made by Belmo and that's probably the only reason why it's gained any kind of traction in the bowling community. Just seems like a big cash grab for him and Storm (because from what I've seen, only/primarily Storm balls are used in the game and like you've said, prices are ridiculous).

[ALazySavage]

Played it for a week, definitely a grind it out game that requires some fixes. Doesn't appear to have enough of a community in the game - causing you to potentially play against people who are no where near your level in regards to equipment. I think the small community and the lack of matchup control is why the prices are so high at this stage (so that newcomers have a chance to catch up) but I just don't see the game getting big enough to be able to make that shift to more reasonable micro-purchases.