Doing a Peggle creates a ‘false impression’ of App Store popularity

In an interview with Edge-Online, X2 Football 2009 developer Exient has been talking about pricing on the iPhone’s App Store. When asked what’s driving post 3.0 price fluctuation, technical director Charles Chapman bemoaned the practice of ‘doing a Peggle’: reducing the price of an app so that its sales increase and it makes it into the prominent Top 25.

“[T]his type of ‘dynamic pricing’ is a good strategy for creating a false impression of how popular your app is and gaining prominence really quickly,” Chapman says. “[U]sing a cheap price point to gain a high chart position and then upping the price means that newcomers will still see the app ranked high, think it must be there due to its quality and therefore worth the re-adjusted price.”

Some iPhone users will be more affected by this strategy than others, he goes on to say, with early adopters and readers of sites like Pocket Gamer likely to benefit from the price cuts “while an ‘average joe’ consumer, who relies solely on the App Store for guidance, is completely oblivious.”

So there you have it: ignore reviews at your peril.