Geared is US App Store #1, while Alive 4-ever survives to make #5

The activity in the US App Store Top 100 has been focused on the top of the charts over the past week.

Three new entries shot into the top five.

Geared, a cog-based puzzle game from developer Bryan Mitchell thundered in at #1, while the iPhone and iPod touch version of PlayFirst's well known casual web game Cooking Dash was #3, and survival zombie shooter Alive 4-ever was #5.

All positions were recorded on Sunday 30th August, as part of PocketGamer.biz's weekly App Store Analysis report. The App Store chart itself is updated every three hours or so, using a special algorithm known only to Apple.

Significantly these three games are priced at 99c. Indeed, of the 12 new entries during the week, only one - Digital Chocolate's Jurassic 3D Rollercoaster Rush at $4.99 more expensive.

Other new 99c entries this week included Chillingo's side-scrolling shooter Inkvaders at #19, cute action-strategy game Aqua Globs 99c at # 26, while online robot shooter iMech 99c was at #47.

Good news for gamers certainly, this however lead to the average price of the games in the US Top 100 falling ten percent compared to last week.

It's currently $2.43, the lowest it's been seen we started our analysis in July.

The reason this could be a problem is that if developers can't charge any more for their games than 99c, they might be limited to making relatively simple games, such as Geared, Cooking Dash and Alive 4-ever.

For example, 49 of the Top 100 games are priced at 99c this week.

One developer, Nigel Little of UK studio Distinctive, told PocketGamer.biz that financially it only makes sense to release a game at 99c if it costs you less than $40,000 to make.

Now, $40,000 may seem like a lot of money, but when you think that the likes of Gameloft's Gangstar: West Coast Hustle is rumoured to have cost over $1 million, you can see the sort of games that might not be made in future.

Of course, Gangstar isn't priced at 99, it's $6.99. But after only having been released last week, it dropped five places to #33. And if games like Gangstar aren't reaching the top 20, developer and publishers will stop making them.

This week, other 'expensive' licences such as id's Doom Resurrection and Gameloft's Guitar Rock Tour 2 - both $4.99 - dropped right out of the Top 100.

You can check out our full analysis, which compares the average price distribution of the Top 100, as well as the frequency of price points, and the ranking of publishers, over on PocketGamer.biz.