PopCap Messes With the App Store

PopCap put the iPhone version of Peggle on sale for $1 over the weekend, giving gamers a great deal and demonstrating the flawed ranking system of the App Store in the process.

The list of best-selling software maintained by the App Store is based solely on the number of copies an app has sold, regardless of price. As a result, cheap, throwaway apps like fart simulators rise to the top of the list while more expensive programs languish in the middle where they're easier for people to overlook.

To mess with the system a bit, presumably with the goal of demonstrating its shortcomings, PopCap "hacked" the App Store by reducing the price of the hit casual game Peggle to $1 for four days. The result? After bouncing around the 60 spot on the list of best-selling apps, the game went to number one with a bullet and, according to a PopCap rep, sold nearly as many units in four days as it had in the first three weeks after the game's launch.

Point made, perhaps, but what point, exactly? Has PopCap exposed the imperfections of the App Store ranking system or merely admitted that its charging too much for its games? I'm not convinced PopCap has accomplished quite what it set out to.

Source: MTV Multiplayer