About Cytus

The App store game Cytus has raised a phenomenal trend in music game playing. I am personally addicted to it for about one year, not only because of its enjoyable game play but also because its smart idea of its marketing and pricing strategy.

Cytus is a music video game developed by Rayark Games, an independent game developing corporation in Taiwan. Cytus is a score-based video game. The game currently have 62 songs and has about 120,000 downloads from all the platforms combined.

I think one can really see the magic power that Cytus have until he/she plays it. I am personally a fan of music games and I downloaded many free or paid music games in this category, such as Beat Hazord Ultra, Beatogether,  Tone Sphere. But in my opinion, none of these games can compared to Cytus.








 

In my opinion, Cytus stands out of the music games for several reasons.

1. The songs are originally created for the game. Therefore the hitting point and actions was closely attached to the game.
2. Unlike the music of many other games, the songs are of high quality and varies from pop music to classic music and symphonic music, which caters to a big segment of players
   
3. The 62 songs was divided into 6 chapters. Each chapter has a theme. Each Songs and Each chapter has an elaborate drawing or poster set as the background of the gameplay; therefore each song is identifiable for palyers. 
4. Even not displayed yet, Cytus was trying to convey an epic story to the players. A question is also raised by all players over the word "What does Cytus mean?" 

Cytus was released in January 2012, when I purchased it on Apple's App Store in September, there was only about 14 songs and there were no chapters. The App charged me $3.99, which was a very expensive for many game players. It was also the most expensive app I bought back in 2012. However, the effect of the game just made me think it's worth the money.

Today, Cytus released the first 4 chapters for free (well of course you should purchase the game first) and charges $1.99 (it was $0.99 earlier this months). Chapter 5 and 6 was locked until you spend another $4.99 for each Chapter.

Now, you might think, "Oh that SUCKKKKS", but The game features a "Million Downloads Plan" announcing that when for every 100,000 downloads (across both iOS and Android) 10 more songs will be added to the game. I think this is just brilliant. Because it actually take a normal player a long time to master all the songs (trust me, if you like this game, you will try to do this) and therefore when a new customer might reach the 200,000 point to unlock Chapter 5 for free.
Also, to cater to the big big fans, they can also spend their money unlock the two chapters.

In this way, Cytus is doing a "double marketing" with different pricing strategy, but without offending either new player or old fans.