We're well used to eShop sales these days; publishers often use a cheeky price drop to get their game to the top of the charts and give it some much-needed visibility, but SimFabric has taken this to new lengths by hacking the price of Tocana's Dev's action title Preventive Strike to just 2 cents.
The game launched in May of this year for $1.99 / £1.59, so it was hardly an expensive game to start with. Still, the publisher is clearly hoping that, by bringing the cost of entry down to such a small amount, many players who baulked at the original price will now take the plunge.
Is this good for the eShop, though? That's highly debatable, as it means this title – which we haven't played ourselves but can report scored a rather lukewarm 6/10 on Steam – will be suddenly catapulted to the upper regions of the eShop charts, where it will presumably gain more attention and more downloads.
Does it deserve this extra attention? Probably not. Should you rush out and buy it? Again, probably not – unless you're short on games to play or are shopping on an especially tight budget.
Still, it's easy to see why eShop publishers do this sort of thing; if your title has stopped selling, then you really do have nothing to lose by hacking the cost down and giving it a boost. In fact, you could argue that you have everything to gain in this 'race to the bottom', as you'll pick up sales – even if it's just 2 cents per copy.
Let us know if you've been suckered in by this tactic by leaving a comment below – who knows, you may even feel that Preventative Strike is worth a look.
Comments 60
Well, if you get gold points off it, therefore they are giving your account free money
Two cents?
So could I then also pay for it with just two gold coins?
I have a couple of similar games on PC, such as this one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/259320/Heli_Heroes/?
On the one hand, they're pretty average overall, but on the other hand, they're not all that bad, and can basically be seen as a valid alternative to the Neo Geo ACA shooters, so if you're into that kind of game, you'd get reasonably entertaining snack bite 3D bullet hell shooter, which can be entertaining in short bursts.
And for that price, it's almost a no-brainer...
Picked it up on release for a laugh, and a laugh I did get... but one of sadness and regret. Don't do it folks, this effort lacks everything we know and love about STGs.
@Bunkerneath Only 5% of 2 cents though
I fell for this when Superbeat Xonic went on sale for like 9 cents a month or two ago, but that’s genuinely a really great game
What can you buy for 2 cents though ?
Other then this.
Buy? Sounds like something almost everyone would have enough gold points for.😅
I took note of the game since release anyway, so if the discount shows up in my eShop as well (although the Superbeat Xonic mega one never did, so I don't hold my breath), I'll likely pull the trigger. I guess I'm a bit too sociopathic to care for people who blindly go by top seller lists alone and can't research a video game on the eve of year 2020. What other FWPs should we try and prevent?
Don't do it... wish I never bought this game.
@Shiryu That video only makes me more interested in it...
"Does it deserve this extra attention? Probably not."
Should NL do an entire article write-up on just this 1 game though?
Most certainly.
"Should you rush out and buy it? Again, probably not"
But please click on our links.
"Let us know if you've been suckered in by this tactic"
I think the only person suckered is the person writing the article. 🤣
Here's my ten cents, my two cents is free.
A nuisance, who sent, you sent for me?
The way I see it is if you would buy a big steaming plate of poop for two cents, go ahead and buy this game. If you would rather not have a big steaming plate of poop then you probably do not want to buy this game either. Or 99% of the games that drop down to this price point.
I mean, for two cents why not? speaking of deep sales, Hard West is on sale for 1.99 this week..
Came up as $0.01/1 gold coin for me, so I had to jump on such a deal. The Switch is honestly my shmup machine, so I don't mind giving this a spin at all. Had I known of this game's existence, even $1.99 seems fine for what you get, assuming everything technically works.
I'll put my two cents in.
anytime I see those super cheap games on sale I think about buying them because they are only cents, but then I ask myself how much I'd actually play it and the answer is "probably almost not at all" so I don't buy. That snowboarding game is currently on sale for a buck or whatever and I'm interested in it because I was interested in it previously, but even then, I dunno...
@DayOfLavos Superbeat Xonic is definitely a great game. The left joycon layout kinda made me want to stop playing it, but I'm use to it now and really enjoy it. More than the VITA version due to the much faster load times and extra content and such.
Aww, I was hoping for a spiritual successor to the Strike series.
Ordered. Nice find:
The link on the right didn't work for me so i've pasted it below;
UK Link:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Preventive-Strike-1552018.html
@ThanosReXXX It costed me 99 cents on release day but it took a piece of my souls alogn with it. There is nothing technically wrong with the game, it just lack soul... and it took a piece of mine I will never get back because eShop allows for no refunds (Is that even legal in het EU nowadays...?)
It's stil normal price for me .
...damn it.
I'd say a 6/10 game is more than worth two cents. I don't think there is really anything wrong with this kind of sales tactic. Sometimes a game like this can really find an audience when people don't have to second guess the purchase. More often than not, I'd bet this tactic is more about getting notoriety for the developer than to trick people into buy the game at full price later.
@OorWullie you get gold coins based on the standard price, not sale price, so if it’s a temporary sale and not a permanent reduction you’ll get 5% of $2, which is more than the 2 cents... game pays for itself!
Except in Europe, where it’s still £1.59.
@YANDMAN : That's so lame and yet I LOLed.
PRICES ARE NOW SLASHED 50%!!!!!! It's now a penny.........
It was .01 on my store so one gold coin. I did it. It sucks. There's an invisible something behind your helicopter that keeps pushing you forward towards the enemies and you can't kill them fast enough and just die. Delete.
@Silly_G
You mean you would't buy that for a dollar ?
So... who's gonna be the first game to go on sale for a cent? After all, there's no falling lower, so whoever does it first, gets all the fame!
It’s pretty bad, movement is slow and bullets are hard to see
@Thesharkfromjaws Dont. It got me because I had been interested too. Its crap. Not even worth the buck.
If I've never heard of the game, this just seems like a warning to me. Who would let a good game go for almost nothing?
I mean, it does happen occasionally. That Superbeat XONIC game was decent, and I paid less than a dollar for it, I think. But, in general, it signifies an experience not worth having.
Why'd you not bother to even give like a paragraph review of a game that costs only 2 cents, author? It probably took you more time just to type all of this out...
Looks like a very modern Thunder Blade style game except with none of the fun. Boring shooting mechanics, no power-ups, and a boring soundtrack. I would avoid it totally unless you really want to get rid of those two cents you had left on your eShop gold coins.
We've already seen the end result of race-to-the-bottom sales tactics. It's microtransactions. It's gatcha games. it's the triumph of factory designers and big box stores and Amazon at the expense of every boutique designer, locally owned brick and mortar shop and minority owned business. It's the closure of local game shops across the world. It's shoddily made FTP games that use every predatory tactic to earn billions in-game. It is not good for us.
These people specifically may be honest people looking to increase their earnings. But it's not a good idea to support this.
Going to happen anyway, though. Because what the hell, it's two cents, amirite?
After downloading the awful game "Bouncy Bob" for $.03 earlier this year I made a promise to myself that I would not buy crappy games just because they are dirt cheap. Bad is bad
@Silly_G Somebody had to do it.
No discount in Europe as usual.
@patphenom
I came in here to type this. Hard West definitely should have got an article as it includes all the dlc plus it's reviewed pretty well(haven't played it yet) plus it was on sale during Halloween and has a horror theme.
Yes that is quite the run on sentence.
the ultimate sale on the Switch eShop was when Mutant Mudds Collection was only $3
@CodyMKW In Europe Mutant Mudds is on sale right now for only 1,60€ . bought it yesterday - great game ^^
Here's the thing: I could get this game for almost nothing, but I would still be wasting my time on a sub-par game. This may come down to a lifestyle choice, but if I've legitimately run out of quality games to play, I should probably go do something else--not play worse games.
If the eshop had massive sales like steam, Sony and Microsoft have on a regular basis deals on crap games wouldn't be news worthy anymore.
I wish they did this with Catch'Em Goldfish Scooping - I always wanted to pick that up for ironic lols, but anything over a dollar for what amounts to a joke icon on my games list is just a step too far...
Looks like Tiger-Heli on steroids. For 2 cents, why not?
Looks cool to me. I got a couple lincolns i can throw at it. if it sucks, ill just uninstall. no harm no foul.
I wasted a coin, now I feel good. Thanks.
How can you not part with 2 pennies?? I’ve played worse games than this for $10 and even as high as $50!! And Even if you discover later that maybe in your opinion that this game sucks you Definitely didn’t get burned! How many times have we all found a penny or 2 on the floor/street??? Lol
@gaga64 That's not correct, the gold points earned are based on the price you pay,whether it be sale price or normal price.Take Outlast 2 which is currently on sale from $29.99 to $8.99, for example, at full price you would earn 150 gold coins but at its sale price only 45. Preventive Strike, which is actually 1 cent, not 2 cents, would earn you 10 gold coins at its full price of $1.99 but only 1 gold coin at its sale price. 1 coin must be the minimum so you are correct in saying the game pays for itself
NBA 2K18 or 2K19 was on sale a while back. Like $1. Was it worth it? It wasn’t for me and I didn’t buy it. My time is limited as is my Switch space. I’ve got other games I haven’t finished and want to play more. Bargain yes, but if I’m not going to play it they why buy.
@OorWullie oh, I stand corrected. My bad.
I think I was getting confused - if you register a retail game, you get 1% of the undiscounted eshop price, or if you redeem a download code you get 5% of the undiscounted eshop price. I must have assumed the same rule applied to discounted eshop titles too.
It's been on sale before for 50 percent off but I know switch with it's 25 cent and under games. I'm far less likely to spend a dollar on games when I know they will be pennies a month or so later for better or worse.
I got it for a gold coin. It's not a great game, but worse games have also been sold for much more money.
People paying 2cents will subliminally think they have got a better bargain than if the game was free. 🙃
I got it for 2 cents, but I haven't played it yet. Videos of the gameplay reminded of games like TigerHeli on the NES, so I figured I'd give it a try. But I'm in the middle of playing Luigi's Mansion 3 first, so I'll get to this soon enough.
I am waiting for the physical.
Here in the us its a penny.. take your penny and put it in your child's piggy bank if you like... take that Penny and use it on a scratcher ticket ..this game is absolute rubbish I need someone to post a video of them actually clearing the first level or even getting into the first level without any type of cheat if it even exists. This may very well be the worst attempt at a shmup I've ever seen in my lifetime of Gaming. And I'm all for indie games but this is complete garbage.
Brutal. Tough to dodge the ton of enemy projectile spam. One life but a lot of health and a lot of projectile sprays coming at you. The programmer never played a shmup before.
So if this sells a million copies we can expect more.
There's a decent amount of games to get for $5 or less. And Then with sales you can get $20 games for $2 and even less. U can build a set indie library for a reasonable cost....
Also picked up Mad Age and This Guy for $.04...
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