Most iPhone, iPad, and Android customers are well acquainted with Square Enix and the rather exorbitant prices they charge for their mobile games. Buy why are they so expensive?

According to a recent chat with Kotaku, Square Enix sent out a corporate note though its faceless PR wing explaining how they justify charging $5 to $20 for mobile games:

“Each game is priced individually and evaluated based on the type of game, depth and overall experience it provides for players. Some of our higher priced titles offer more than 60 plus hours of game time with rich storylines, high quality graphics and challenging, diverse combat.“

“We’ve reconfigured and optimised them for the mobile platform, releasing them at a lower price than their original console or handheld versions. Square Enix does provide other casual titles in the lower price range, and as the market evolves, we’ll take all different price points into consideration on a game-by-game basis.”

Square Enix has a long and infamous track record of pricing their games far above the market average, with several releases being ports of console titles and other handheld titles.

Most recently, the developer/publisher launched a redesigned version of cult hit DS role-playing game The World Ends With You at $17.99 for iPhone and $19.99 for iPad. Such a move has been typical fare for the company, which also charges more than $10 for mobile versions of Final Fantasy Tactics, Chaos Rings, and Final Fantasy III.

Source: Kotaku