XBLA August: Braid, BC:R, Galaga, CASTLE CRASHERS, more

Post by **Gamerforlife** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:16 pm

Actually, Viewtiful Joe and Alien Hominid did pretty well as major releases, and I think Odin Sphere did too. If they want to release Castle Crashers at that price, more power to them, but one of the things that made Xbox Live Arcade so appealing were the lower prices and now little by little they keep increasing them just to see how much they can get away with before gamers stop biting. That's what bugs me. Microsoft sets a max for pricing and them changes their minds. Part of the excitement I had for this game was knowing it would be a cheap buy, now I know it may not be, so I'm less enthused.

There's many reasons why I retro game, and pricing is one of them so it's bad news for me. I only just recently bought Mass Effect because I got it at practically half its original price. I like deals, and I'm sad to see the Xbox Live Arcade slowly moving away from its low price point.

Sure, I would love to give as much money to these wonderful developers as possible, but I'm not rich and these guys aren't paying my bills or my mortgage, so screw them

Post by **ZenLogikos** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:11 pm

Doctor Fugue wrote:Don't tell Capcom or Microsoft...but I'm willing to spend 60 bucks on this, probably more.

I'm a huge Street Fighter fan, and shared the same opinion until I started playing the beta. The HD makeover is great, but it makes the fact that there are so few frames of animation all the more noticeable. The combat is so refined that I'll definitely be buying it, but I'm not as excited as I once was.

Post by **ZenLogikos** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:26 pm

Gamerforlife wrote:Actually, Viewtiful Joe and Alien Hominid did pretty well as major releases, and I think Odin Sphere did too. If they want to release Castle Crashers at that price, more power to them, but one of the things that made Xbox Live Arcade so appealing were the lower prices and now little by little they keep increasing them just to see how much they can get away with before gamers stop biting. That's what bugs me. Microsoft sets a max for pricing and them changes their minds. Part of the excitement I had for this game was knowing it would be a cheap buy, now I know it may not be, so I'm less enthused.

There's many reasons why I retro game, and pricing is one of them so it's bad news for me. I only just recently bought Mass Effect because I got it at practically half its original price. I like deals, and I'm sad to see the Xbox Live Arcade slowly moving away from its low price point.

I have one problem with your argument, Gamerforlife. If you were to wiki the list of XBLA titles and examine both the amount of 400 point games and which ones they were, you'd see that yes, in the first year, there were more 400 point games - but overwhelmingly those titles were console/arcade ports, which had been released MANY times over by then, OR they were the simplest of card/board games. Now that the service has matured, you're seeing more original content, so it's no surprise that the price may be higher. Now, if what you want is more of the same old "ports", at 400 points, then you have a valid argument - these have been scaled back. I believe that was always the plan though- not to increase prices per se, but that original content would eventually supplant "ports", thereby necessitating a price increase. I understand that no one ever wants to pay "more", but I don't see how the games on XBLA, even if the standard rises to $15 or even $20, wouldn't be considered steals. You seem to be in search of highway robbery. Castle Crashers could easily be a $30-$40 retail game, but it will release at far below that - in fact, for LESS than you paid for an already HALF-PRICE Mass Effect...

Post by **RadarScope1** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:48 pm

The "max price" isn't really a max anyway. It's been busted by Puzzle Quest, Lumines and Penny Arcade. As we get more original games, they could cost more.

All I'm saying is it can be a true marketplace in the economic sense of the word. If you don't like the price, just don't buy it. (I know that's what you said and now I'm arguing with you so sorry about that

). By the same token, if there's something you like or want to support, then by all means do it. Truth be told, that's why I spent 800 points on Ikaruga. I hardly play it and I knew I wouldn't put that much time into it, but I wanted to support a fully-featured, polished port of a fairly niche game to show that I support this kind of thing and not simply shovelware (it's the opposite of that coin that's kept me from buying SoulCalibur even though I really want it). The digital download space is still a young enough market that we can really affect the shape of it by voting with our wallets, or space bucks.

BTW, I'm not somebody with a ton of spacebucks to burn. I buy mostly used stuff, too. I just got Burnout Paradise for $20. I buy hardware about two years after it comes out. I trade stuff in. But I'm willing to spend on a DL game if it's something I like or want.

Post by **ZenLogikos** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:14 am

The first couple times you mentioned "spacebucks" I thought nothing more than a reference to "Spaceballs". After your last post I realized how appropriate a term it is in relation to "scrip" like Microsoft points - used in "cyberspace" and whatnot. Nice!

Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:48 am

ZenLogikos wrote:
Doctor Fugue wrote:Don't tell Capcom or Microsoft...but I'm willing to spend 60 bucks on this, probably more.
I'm a huge Street Fighter fan, and shared the same opinion until I started playing the beta. The HD makeover is great, but it makes the fact that there are so few frames of animation all the more noticeable. The combat is so refined that I'll definitely be buying it, but I'm not as excited as I once was.

Ahhh, I hadn't heard that about the animation.

I'm sad that you are a big SF fan, because I thought maybe this was the one game where I could beat you!

Post by **RadarScope1** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:27 am

Doctor Fugue wrote:I'm sad that you are a big SF fan, because I thought maybe this was the one game where I could beat you!

I'm still trying to beat his Pac-Man CE score after months of near-daily play. Got him beat in all the other five modes, however. Zen has the skills.

Post by **raztat** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:12 am

How does every one no CC is worth 30 or 40 bucks if its not out? I havent been following it so i really dont no much about it. I will try the demo to see if its worth it. Braid looks uber fun cant wait for it.

Post by **RadarScope1** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:41 pm

I have no idea for sure that it truly IS worth $20 or more (though it looks like it should be IMO), but I just disagree with the idea that it fundamentally COULD NOT in any way be worth $20 just because it's an XBLA game.

Post by **Gamerforlife** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:33 pm

Here's the thing, if they're going to keep raising praises, then hell why not just make them major retail releases? I mean we have budget titles like The Red Star, and at least you're getting something PHYSICAL. I'm sorry, but I'm only willing to pay so much for something that is just an intangible file on a hard drive. To me, the whole service just becomes pointless once the prices reach a certain point. For the same price that Castle Crashers is going to cost(supposedly), you could buy a retail release after waiting a few months for its price to drop, and you'd have an actual physical thing that you own.

I know some of you disagree, and I respect that, but I just don't want to be paying 20-30 and at some point maybe even 40 dollars for FILES. I want GAMES for that price.

This is just my opinion.