Xverse10

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend! If you’re looking for something to do this weekend take advantage of all these game sales from Chair Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Rockstar Games and even with Apple’s new “Free App of the Week” promo.

Apple begins “Free App of the Week” Promotion - Apple is doing some new tricks on the App Store, and this week Cut the Rope: Experiments is free. It’ll be interesting to see how this program continues over the following weeks.

EA cut prices in Big Memorial Day Sale - EA’s entire catalog of incredibly recognizable (and good) games are on sale. Almost all iPhone games are 99¢, and almost all iPad games are $1.99.

‘Grand Theft Auto’ Games drops to 99¢ in Memorial Day Sale - For two bucks you can have both GTA games and load your phone up with countless hours of stupidly deep gameplay. GTA III is damn good.

‘Infinity Blade 2′ On Sale In Celebration of ‘Vault of Tears’ Release - The best technical showpiece for state of the art iOS devices is down to $2.99 to celebrate the new ‘Vault of Tears’ update that just landed which made this great game even… greater. Xverse10 Editor’s Choice

The ability that developers have to completely control the pricing of products they put on the App Store has really turned traditional software pricing models on their ear. Now 99¢ seems to be the price many game developers try to target, and finding any excuse to have a sale has proven a popular marketing tactic for the iOS developer (just look at the staggering number of games on sale for this Memorial Day weekend, as an example).

Also, making games temporarily free has proven to be an important promotional tool to gain visibility and increase a user base for your game on the App Store. This has created a whole new market of 3rd party free app promotion websites and services, but it appears that even Apple might be getting in on the free game bandwagon as well.

Cut the Rope: Experiments [Free / Free (HD)] is their “Free App of the Week”, which as far as we can tell is the first of its kind.

Cut the Rope: Experiments is an excellent game and you should go download it immediately if you haven’t already, no matter what the promotion is. But it will be interesting to see if this is something that Apple keeps doing each week, and I’d be curious to know how they decide on which games or apps to promote.

Also worth pointing out are a couple of changes to the App Store itself, like the disappearance of the Staff Favorites section, the changing of the iPhone/iPad Game of the Week banners on the front page of the App Store to “Editor’s Choice”, and the ridiculously large banner text denoting Cut the Rope: Experiments as the App of the Week right on the game’s App Store page.

I’ll keep our eye on the App Store to see how this free app promo works out, but it’s nice to see Apple exploring different promotional ideas on their own.

App Store Link:
Cut the Rope: Experiments, Free
Cut the Rope: Experiments HD, Free (iPad Only)

In celebration of Memorial Day, the EA has been dropping prices right and left. EA’s entire catalog of games are on sale. Almost all iPhone games are 99¢, and almost all iPad games are $1.99. The full list is an exhausting 49 games, all reduced to low as 99¢. The easiest way to check out everything that’s all sale is through this iTunes link.

 Burnout™ CRASH!, $0.99  - Burnout Crash is a little like pinball, but with cars. Inspired by a mode in Burnout proper, Crash is a delightful and goofy game that challenges you to smash cars into each other over and over. At this price, it’s recommended.

 Dead Space™ for iPad, $1.99  - Sharp visuals, smart control options, and play that stays honest with the franchise are the things that make us love Dead Space for iPad.

 NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™ for iPad, $1.99  - This new NBA Jam is a welcome return to the breezy, action-filled arcade basketball play many of us grew up with. If you enjoy over-the-top commentary and basketball at its most pyrotechnic “He’s on fire!”

 SPY mouse HD, $0.99  - Let’s be frank: most stealth games suck. Spy Mouse HD, on the other hand, doesn’t. A super intuitive control scheme and great level design keeps the action steady.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat™ 3 for iPad, $0.99  - Mortal Kombat on touch devices is a whole new experience. If you like punching things until they explode into pieces, Mortal Kombat at this price is hard to pass up.

Rockstar Games doesn’t do sales as often as most big publishers on the App Store, but when it does join the crowd, you see some deep discounts. Case in point: starting this afternoon Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars’ price has dropped by eight bucks, while the publisher’s other iOS GTA title, Grand Theft Auto 3, has seen a reduction by three. My estimate that you’re saving at least eleven bucks if you grab both right now. And you should — these games are really good.

Both Grand Theft Autos are on sale because of Memorial Day by the way, which means their sale prices will go up after the long weekend. Act fast! I’ve included some handy links below to assist you with the purchasing process.

Grand Theft Auto 3, $0.99 – Grand Theft Auto 3 introduced the concept of a “living, breathing [and 3D] world” with plenty of people to run over and things to blow up or steal. Its mobile companion is a solid port that sees this vision through on both the iPhone and iPad.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $0.99 – Chinatown Wars was once a high-profile DS title that didn’t see the kind of sales it needed, despite being an otherwise clever top-down take on the series. On iPhone, Chinatown feels intuitive and the scale of its content is insane.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD, $0.99 – Chinatown feels better on iPad thanks to the larger screen real estate. If you had to pick one or the other, definitely get this version.

Some studios never drop the prices on their games, while other studios, like Epic and Chair Entertainment, do it rarely. Case in point: Infinity Blade 2 [$2.99] has seen only one price drop since its launch in November 2011. Today, marks only the second time Epic and Chair have fiddled with the price, as the app has shot down to $2.99. If you’re one of those people who have been waiting for a massive price drop, this is probably as low as it’ll go for at least another couple of months. Probably.

This sale, of course, is in celebration of the release of the game’s latest expansion, Vault of Tears. The new area, which has a ton of new monsters and items, is available now as a part of a free update that also adds a treasure map and an annoying sounding new social media tie-in that gives Twitter and Facebook users the power to participate in ClashMob events without actually playing up the game.

App Store Link: Infinity Blade II, $2.99 (Universal)

Today only, Best Buy offers a $100 Apple iTunes eGift Card for $80. With free electronic delivery via email, it’s one of the best deals I’ve seen for iTunes credit that’s open to everyone.

It’s also available with free shipping, if you prefer to receive a physical $100 iTunes Gift Card.

For in-store pickup only, with activation of new 2-year contracts, Best Buy offers the Apple iPhone 4 8GB Smartphone for Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint in White or Black for $49.99 each. That’s $49 under last fall’s mention and the lowest price I’ve seen for any new (non-refurb) iPhone 4 8GB. (It’s a current price low by $50.) Sales tax is added where applicable. It features an Apple A4 processor, 326-ppi (pixel per inch) Retina 3.5″ display running at 960×640, gyroscope, front- and rear-facing cameras, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 720p video capture at 30 fps, 802.11n wireless networking, dual microphones, and more.

Buy.com offers the SanDisk Extreme 240GB 2.5″ Serial ATA 6Gb/s Internal SSD, model no. SDSSDX-240G-G25, for $209.99 with free shipping ($0.87/GB). That’s the lowest total price I could find by $30, although it was $10 less three weeks ago (since expired). It’s also the best price I’ve seen for a 240GB 6Gb/s SSD without rebate hassles. This drive features read speeds of up to 550MB/s and write speeds of up to 520MB/s.

Buy.com offers the SanDisk Ultra 64GB Class 10 Secure Digital High-Capacity SDXC Card, model no. SDSDU-064G-A11, for $46.99 with free shipping. That’s $0.73/GB and tied as the best price I’ve seen for a 64GB Class 10 SDHC card. (It’s a current price low by $10.) It features read speeds up to 30MB/sec.

With almost every Mac now shipping with a built in SDXC card slot, these speedy, huge capacity Flash storage cards are like microscopic external hard drives. They are great for storing music and movies or even portable backups. If you are looking to hook up your iOS device, SD card readers start at around $5 at Amazon.