We've had a decent number of questions since yesterday, so we wanted to write up a full clarification for those who are curious.
Free as in beer
Just like all App Store updates, Sentinels Sidekick 2.0 will be a FREE update for existing users. If you have already purchased it, you are good to go. Simply check the App Store on Thursday to get the free update.
Paying the bills
HOWEVER - the price for the app is going up as of this update. Sentinels Sidekick will be $4.99 for new users starting on Thursday, August 15th. We're doing this for several reasons, the most important of which is that Sidekick started as a hobby but as an officially licensed property, we (as well as Greater than Games) have a vested interest in making the app self-supporting. This will also insure that we can continue to add features and support the app into the future.
Clean and crisp
If you are an existing user, there is one place you may choose to pay more - In the new version of Sidekick, Retina artwork will be available as an In App Purchase for 99¢. The only downside to getting all the official artwork into the app is that the size of the download ballooned from 8.7 megabytes to over 130 megabytes!
Apple disallows downloading more than 50 megabytes over a 3G or 4G connection at once. By including regular versions of all the art in the app, but making a separate download for the Retina versions, we could to keep it under 50 megabytes. This not only keeps the app downloadable over 3G and 4G , but it also avoids charging people with non-Retina devices for artwork they can't use (and saves them a larger download). If you have a Retina device and want all the high-res artwork, that's available for a one-time fee of 99¢.
It keeps growing, and growing...
We haven't worked out how we'll add even more artwork to the app in the future, but more In App Purchase "Art Packs" might be what we do since the base app is already getting pretty big. Some things we've already discussed as being possible add-on packs:
- Target card artwork pack - this art pack could potentially be as big as the current high-resolution art pack. Most villain and environment decks have more than 4-5 targets each.
- Vengeance art pack - as a mega-expansion, Vengeance promises to have a pretty hefty amount of new artwork as well.
However, one thing we want to make clear, as a point of policy, the functionality and content of Vengeance (and any other expansions/promos) will be added to the app as free updates, just like the functionality updates we're adding right now. What I'm discussing above is having paid artwork packs simply to make the experience of playing a more attractive one. It is our policy that a purchase of Sentinels Sidekick will always support all the functionality of the game with no additional cost.
So Act Now!
So you may now have realized that the best time to buy Sentinels Sidekick, if you haven't already, is RIGHT NOW! The price is going up, but not until Thursday so if you want to buy it now for $2.99, you'll save yourself a couple bucks, and get the new update for free in just a couple days.
In our excitement to talk about the new version, we didn't realize there might be some confusion regarding the pricing and availability so thanks to everyone for hitting us up to ask. We hope this covers all the questions but feel free to comment below if there's anything we missed.