Tired of XBLA prices

Fol20

Ok today lode runner came out..Never played the original but after playing the demo i thought id make the purchase.Anyway when i came to buy it,it said it costed 1200 ms points.It previously showed 800 before i downloaded the demo.I for one refuse to pay that amount and as a result, microsoft,the game developer and me have lost out.Many games selling at that price point will in fact loose out now when there is a higher price point.Death tanks was another similar title that charged 1200 when i would have been willing to pay 800 ms points.i really dont understand their thinking when they raise their price to that extreme level.Were in a recession and everything seems to be falling yet xbla games seem to be in a bubble where they believe they can in fact raise prices.Games will always be purchased by the hardcore fans of the title when the price is set at 1200 ms points but the casual player who are in between are more than likely gonna be put off by this price.I hope the game now sells terribly as i hate the greed that the company is showing when pricing it at 1200 so please dont buy this game and any other that are at 1200. The 1200 price point started to come in ever since the successful Castle Crashers was released.That game is still on the top of the xbla charts and all the other publishers seem to want to emulate that by putting up the price.

Im in a real sour mood at the moment because i was looking forward to buying that title.Now i must find other mean of playing that game if you know what i mean.Id like to support the developer but when they are just abusing the consumer what more can i do.

Mr. K

The RE5 and BK Nuts & Bolts content both cost 400, hopefully MS will realise that people can't afford much much at 1200 points. Banjo Tooie is out next week, that's already been confirmed at 1200 points .

Dreddybajs

For stuff like Castle Crashers, you really think that for unique IPs (not ports), the developers don't deserve the extra fiver?

Don't buy them, then, simple as that.

Fol20

Mr. K wrote: »

The RE5 and BK Nuts & Bolts content both cost 400, hopefully MS will realise that people can't afford much much at 1200 points. Banjo Tooie is out next week, that's already been confirmed at 1200 points .

The RES5 content is a scam in my opinion..From what iv heard the file you download is 1mb which means the content is already on the disc before you buy it..ie your paying for an unlocking code for a proportion of data that is already on the disc..

dazftw

Ive said this before but the whole 1200 MS points make it seem like its a "extreme price" but really its not when you think about it. 1200 MS points is the same as 15 euro! Which when you compare it to a 60 euro game its tuppence! Arcade games are 1/4 of retail games! I think this is fair if the quality of the game is good. Which most of the time it is! If you enjoyed lode runner then pay the money and enjoy it more! Simple as that! If you didn't enjoy it then don't buy it!

Castle Crashers was well worth the 1200! Its a great game and that's why its still on top of the charts! I just think if you really like the game its well worth the money!

Also about casual gamers.. there a bit on the stupid side not in a bad way or anything.. they will just think 1200 MS points is normal! They don't keep track on prices like us hardcore guys!

Ill complain when they start charging 25+ for games.

amacachi

dazftw wrote: »

Arcade games are 1/4 of retail games!

Not everyone buys big titles when they first come out. And even at that the most expensive retail games can be got for under 50 quid online.

Fol20

I bought castle Crashers..it was a good enough game and a lot went into it..thats why its still at the top..However a remake game which is supposed to have more or less the same levels with better graphics doesnt mean its worth 1200 ms points.Secondly XBLA online multiplayer games die out a lot quicker than normal brick and morter games..There only a handful of games on xbla that have even one game on it at any given time.Most die out after 1 week.So basically xbla games and normal game are different

Royale with Cheese

I barely buy anything off the xbox live marketplace, 99% of the stuff is horribly overpriced.

I have about 25 proper games and I'd say 5 or less of them I paid full price for. I don't value most games at €60, and unless it's something I really really want, I'd wait until the game comes down to at least €30 before picking it up.

You can get plenty of decent games for between €10-20 if you're not buying new releases. I just ordered Top Spin 3 for about €12.50, and I bought Prince of Persia for €13 the other week. Prince of Persia came with a code to get the dlc for free, which usually costs 800 points, or around €10. Full game (with free bonus content)- €13, bonus content by itself - €10. Go figure.

So basically if you can pick up plenty of decent full xbox 360 games for €15, paying 1200 points for something from xbla seems a bit of a rip off.

Mr Freeze

1200 is way too much for an arcade title, but most of new XBLA games are priced at that now.

The RE5 versus mode is the greatest scam ever on xbox live i think, paying a fiver to unlock a feature shipped on the disc. There is no defense of that.

Fol20

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I barely buy anything off the xbox live marketplace, 99% of the stuff is horribly overpriced.

I have about 25 proper games and I'd say 5 or less of them I paid full price for. I don't value most games at €60, and unless it's something I really really want, I'd wait until the game comes down to at least €30 before picking it up.

You can get plenty of decent games for between €10-20 if you're not buying new releases. I just ordered Top Spin 3 for about €12.50, and I bought Prince of Persia for €13 the other week. Prince of Persia came with a code to get the dlc for free, which usually costs 800 points, or around €10. Full game (with free bonus content)- €13, bonus content by itself - €10. Go figure.

So basically if you can pick up plenty of decent full xbox 360 games for €15, paying 1200 points for something from xbla seems a bit of a rip off.

I usually buy all my new releases for around 25-30e on ebay from asia..The deals your getting are good however the problem with it is that your friends will get it when its brand new..by the time you get around to buying it,your friends will be bored of it by then..

To get more on point,im not saying all games arent worth 1200ms points im just saying most xbla games arent worth it..games such as puzzle quest or street fighter are worth it because they have a load of dept,but most games on xbla are fairly shallow with little to no dept.

ironictoaster

Don't buy off MS! I buy my points from these http://www.gamepointsnow.com/microsoft-points

It's a great site, paid through Google checkout and got my points instantly in an email.

dazftw

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I cant see how anybody can defend Microsofts pricing. Paying 15 euro for a game that was made over 20 years ago isnt good value. The pricing on the PS network seems a little more fair, the majority of the Ps1 games are 4.99 which is a good price. As already said the RE5 update is a joke and the fact that they are charging 800 points for two maps is a complete disgrace.

I said its fair if the quality is good! 4.99 for a direct port of a ps1 game is fair. Theres nothing added! All the arcade titles aren't direct ports they're worked on and features are added. Thats why they cost more. Compare the original lode runner with the new one on xbla.. Its a massive difference!

I got syphon filter of the PSN and its the exact same.. I couldn't even use the sticks.

Fol20

Yea i buy them off a similar website,JUST im not willing to support a developer who is over pricing their game

ironictoaster

I have no problem paying the price if I really really want it. I recently bought Banjo-Kazooie last week for 1200MS points, had it to get cause I remember playing it for hours on the N64, childhood memories.

€15 is not that bad for a direct port game IMO.

ironictoaster

LIGHTNING wrote: »

How is it good value? They have just ported to the xbox from whatever platform it was original on. It doesnt take a huge amount of effort.Look at the N64 games the already have all the code and content all they do is just change a bit of code so it runs on Windows CE. I have no problem with giving programmers money but when they are taking the pi** I get annoyed.

I suppose you're right but, in the case of buying Banjo-Kazooie for €15, I didn't mind paying more than 800MS, I really, really wanted it. There's certainly a few games on XBLA priced at 1200MS not worth it.

Fol20

As long as people buy them..they will always sell stuff over price or do the thing they did with res 5

chrislad

I love how your logic was 'That's too expensive, so I'm going to steal it'. You may not have used those exact words, but the meaning was clear.

At the end of the day, pricing is subjective. I've bought a number of games over the 800pts mark: Penny Arcade 1 and 2, Braid, Castle Crashers and Watchmen. The only one I considered to be poor value was Watchmen, but at the end of the day, I've paid more for full retail games that were worse. Having some some programming in college, it's all too easy to just say it's a piece of piss to port these games, but in reality, it's not as easy as that. Either way, I'd be looking at Sega in terms of a rip off: They've released the Sega Megadrive Collection, and now they seem to be releasing those games on Arcade. From that retail game, the following games are or are going to be available - Sonic 1 to 3, Comix Zone, Shinobi, Phantasy Star 2, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and I believe 1 or 2 more, with more to come, no doubt. That's just feeding off people who want achievements.

Karmafaerie

Braid was well worth 1,200 points.

SirLemonhead

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Look at the N64 games the already have all the code and content all they do is just change a bit of code so it runs on Windows CE. I have no problem with giving programmers money but when they are taking the pi** I get annoyed.

Yeah because its THAT easy. just change a few bits :rolleyes: They could get an intern to do that in a day sure

Asmodean

It's not so much the prices I consider bad but this ridiculous ****e about having to buy MS points! Does my ****ing head in that I have to raise thirty quid before I can buy anything, such a scam. Much prefer the Playstation store where you can spend a quid or two if you want. Microsoft, always doing things arseways.

papajimsmooth

I hate the fact that even after you buy these games, you cant use them unless your connected to the internet.

Fol20

chrislad wrote: »

I love how your logic was 'That's too expensive, so I'm going to steal it'. You may not have used those exact words, but the meaning was clear.

At the end of the day, pricing is subjective. I've bought a number of games over the 800pts mark: Penny Arcade 1 and 2, Braid, Castle Crashers and Watchmen. The only one I considered to be poor value was Watchmen, but at the end of the day, I've paid more for full retail games that were worse. Having some some programming in college, it's all too easy to just say it's a piece of piss to port these games, but in reality, it's not as easy as that. Either way, I'd be looking at Sega in terms of a rip off: They've released the Sega Megadrive Collection, and now they seem to be releasing those games on Arcade. From that retail game, the following games are or are going to be available - Sonic 1 to 3, Comix Zone, Shinobi, Phantasy Star 2, Golden Axe, Altered Beast and I believe 1 or 2 more, with more to come, no doubt. That's just feeding off people who want achievements.

Braid is a completely over rating game thats meant to be very short..I too have some programming backround and believe me the work they put into it would not be a lot.Sure all games are programmed on pc and xbox's code is more or less the same as pc..therefore if they ever coded this game on a previous platform..then they could basically just throw it onto xbox.

papajimsmooth wrote: »

I hate the fact that even after you buy these games, you cant use them unless your connected to the internet.

That only happens if your using a different console to the one you bought them on..Its simple to fix that..

http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/06/26/content-license-transfer-tool-aka-the-drm-tool.aspx

Retr0gamer

Fol20 wrote: »

Braid is a completely over rating game thats meant to be very short

Play it, it's awesome and well worth the 1200 points. However 1200 points is becoming the new 800 points and most xbla games aren't worth it. I've actually been put off buying a lot of games because they were 1200 points and would have snapped them up at 800. MS and the developers are shooting themselves in the foot with the 1200 points price point and scaring potential customers away.

docdolittle

I don't understand why so many people are complaining about microsoft with the XBLA. You do realise that people make these games with XNA and they are the people that choose the price that the games are sold for. Why shouldn't games developers get paid for there work? They worked hard on games that many people enjoy and €15 isn't that much for some of the great titles they have on XBLA now.

Just my 2c :rolleyes:

Retr0gamer

docdolittle wrote: »

I don't understand why so many people are complaining about microsoft with the XBLA. You do realise that people make these games with XNA and they are the people that choose the price that the games are sold for. Why shouldn't games developers get paid for there work? They worked hard on games that many people enjoy and €15 isn't that much for some of the great titles they have on XBLA now.

Just my 2c :rolleyes:

Because some of them are getting greedy and pricing themselves out of the market.

Karmafaerie

Fol20 wrote: »

Braid is a completely over rating game thats meant to be very short.

Can you tell me Saturdays lottery numbers please?

Cause you seem to know how "overated" a game that you've never played is!:rolleyes:

Fol20

Karmafaerie wrote: »

Can you tell me Saturdays lottery numbers please?

Cause you seem to know how "overated" a game that you've never played is!:rolleyes:

Iv played the demo and it put me off the game and plus a friend has it..still dont think its good.

Mr Freeze

Never mind Braid, what about Puzzle Quest Galactrix for 1600 ms points???

I played the demo and it was muck, not worth 400ms never mind 1600!

super_furry

800 points is the most I’ll pay for a game unless it’s something spectacular – like the Lost and Damned – which could have stood as a stand alone expansion.

I bought Outrun at release for 800 points and Braid when it was on sale, but aside from that, there’s nothing on XBLA that I’ve touched in ages.

A-Trak

I think Valve got the Left4Dead DLC price right.

ironictoaster

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Play it, it's awesome and well worth the 1200 points. However 1200 points is becoming the new 800 points and most xbla games aren't worth it. I've actually been put off buying a lot of games because they were 1200 points and would have snapped them up at 800. MS and the developers are shooting themselves in the foot with the 1200 points price point and scaring potential customers away.

I have Braid yet, I have touched it. Some annual game award show were giving codes away for free a while back, if you signed up to their site.

Ciaran500

Fol20 wrote: »

The RES5 content is a scam in my opinion..From what iv heard the file you download is 1mb which means the content is already on the disc before you buy it..ie your paying for an unlocking code for a proportion of data that is already on the disc..

Capcom have said it isn't, but its so small cause its nothing but some programming for the game mode that gets all its assets from the disk.

But 400 points is a bit much.

Riesen_Meal

Most ive spent on an XBLA game is 800 points for SF2HF....

No other SF game (at the time) and I couldnt wait for it....

Mind you I have purchased all the Halo 3 maps on Day one when they come out usually at 800 points aswell, the way I see it if it extends the gameplay of the game I constantly play then its a no brainer for me.....

The most ive spend on a DLC game was Wipeout HD on the Ps3, cost me 18 or twenty quid if memory serves, more of a standalone game aswell, dont think they released the disc in the shop afaik.....

Mr Freeze

Battlefield 1943 is going to be 1200 ms points.

But i dont mind paying the bit extra for that title. I wouldn't purchase any of the current 1200 or 1600 priced games.

Mr Freeze

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Capcom have said it isn't, but its so small cause its nothing but some programming for the game mode that gets all its assets from the disk.

But 400 points is a bit much.

According to a few reviews I read, the content is already on the disc but wasnt fully ready for the release date.

The 1mb download includes a few fixes for it and unlocks it.

It should have been free.

NunianVonFuch

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Nobody even came close to stating they would steal anything, dont go making stuff up.

To use your example of Sonic, I own Sonic ! on the following platforms;

Mastersystem,Megadrive,Gamegear,MegaCD,Gamecube,PC each were bought for less than the price Microsoft are charging for it. All the old nes,megadrive games shouldnt be anymore than 400 points. Xbox 1 games should be 800-900 points. As for porting games is not rocket science even more so when the games are quiet simple like the original 16bit games.

Rather than flog a dead horse I'd just like to add that there is no need to do any extra programming worth talking about, there are plenty of emulation programs freely available for the pc.

Banjo-Kazooie for one worked perfectly in Project 64 (N64 emulator) for the pc 4 years ago in 1920 x 1200 resolution, 4 x antialiasing etc., I imagine the Xbox 360 can handle it well too.

docdolittle wrote:

I don't understand why so many people are complaining about microsoft with the XBLA. You do realise that people make these games with XNA and they are the people that choose the price that the games are sold for. Why shouldn't games developers get paid for there work? They worked hard on games that many people enjoy and €15 isn't that much for some of the great titles they have on XBLA now.

I think you're confusing XBLA with the XNA Community Games. Games on XBLA can be made using any programming language not necessarily the XNA software. Also XNA Community Games aren't available yet in Ireland last time I checked so we can't give them our money even if we wanted to.

OP - I happily paid full price for Braid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, The Maw, Duke Nukem 3D, N+, Geometry Wars 1&2, Bionic Commando and Peggle. Of course I also foolishly bought Streets of Rage, Street Fighter 2 HD (I'm a terrible Street Fighter 2 player), Bomberman, Sensible Soccer (online is broken), Omega Five and Prince of Persia (probably not worth it for an hour of gameplay).

Death Tanks was an ok game. I was going to get it for maybe 400 points but when I saw 1200 I balked! There was no one playing it online and the game mechanics were similar to Worms but horribly broken.

chrislad

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Nobody even came close to stating they would steal anything, dont go making stuff up.

Read again.

m in a real sour mood at the moment because i was looking forward to buying that title.Now i must find other mean of playing that game if you know what i mean.Id like to support the developer but when they are just abusing the consumer what more can i do.

NunianVonFuch

chrislad wrote: »

Read again.

I just took it he ment emulation of the old game, or a free flash version http://www.ciroduran.com/?page_id=37&language=en

Fol20

chrislad wrote: »

Read again.

I can neither confirm nor deny thats what i meant

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

OP - I happily paid full price for Braid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, The Maw, Duke Nukem 3D, N+, Geometry Wars 1&2, Bionic Commando and Peggle. Of course I also foolishly bought Streets of Rage, Street Fighter 2 HD (I'm a terrible Street Fighter 2 player), Bomberman, Sensible Soccer (online is broken), Omega Five and Prince of Persia (probably not worth it for an hour of gameplay).

Death Tanks was an ok game. I was going to get it for maybe 400 points but when I saw 1200 I balked! There was no one playing it online and the game mechanics were similar to Worms but horribly broken.

Why do you say you foolishly paid 800 for bomberman...thats a great party game..im still having fun with that game like.

I agree with death tanks i think the game is unbalanced and 800 would have been a fair price.

johnny_ultimate

If the game is of sufficient quality, I don't mind paying. Braid was well worth the money - not only did it provide a perfectly realised experience, but you also get to support an extremely talented developer. I think most of the stuff I've bought has been 800 points, but for something like Castlevania, Rez or Geometry Wars 2 I'd consider that a bargain - have got more gameplay out of those games that I have out of many games at five or six times that price. Even the expensive Lost and Damned felt like good value to me - for that amount of content, the price is definitely right.

If I paid 1200 for something mediocre, yeah I'd be annoyed. But I only download the stuff I am really interested in, and with a bit of care you don't have to waste money.

NunianVonFuch

Fol20 wrote: »

Why do you say you foolishly paid 800 for bomberman...thats a great party game..im still having fun with that game like.

I didn't mean it was a bad game just I played Bomberman to death on the Snes, PC (Atomic Bomberman is simply awesome! puts the XBLA one to shame) and Gameboy. So when I have friends over for a party match of it, it gets very one-sided Anytime I played it online there was a smidge or two of lag in most of the games. You can't play bomberman with lag so I gave up on it.

Also I regret getting Lode Runner. Especially since I meant to only get the demo but must have chosen the wrong option from the menu. 1200 points down the drain.

Fol20

you should see how comments for this title go from praise to scorn after the price was raised..Just look at the first page and people were saying that ms has finally been realistic...then it turns to outrage for obvious reasons.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/04/22/arcade-lode-runner.aspx?PageIndex=7

Youd wonder why xbox doesnt have more special offers on xbla games kinda like steam..I snapped up orange box for a 10er there and thought it was a perfect deal..A few weeks ago they had alien hominid for a 5er..i was nearly gonna buy it at that price but decided its not a game i like that much...however id say a load of ppl did buy it for that amount.Pity they dont have more of them.

Otaku Girl

95% of these games are available via emulators.You are paying for the achievement points.

Fol20

Otaku Girl wrote: »

95% of these games are available via emulators.You are paying for the achievement points.

The new lode runner has new graphics kinda like bionic commando rearmed

Otaku Girl

Fol20 wrote: »

The new lode runner has new graphics kinda like bionic commando rearmed

Yeah,I know.I was just talking about most of them-mainly the classic arcade games.I would have considered getting this too.But 1200 is just too much.The price of these games should be going down not up.Oh,I loved how MS put the price at 800 points for a day then jumped it up to 1200.Classic bait and switch tactic-and cited it as a "mistake".

Fol20

Otaku Girl wrote: »

Yeah,I know.I was just talking about most of them-mainly the classic arcade games.I would have considered getting this too.But 1200 is just too much.The price of these games should be going down not up.Oh,I loved how MS put the price at 800 points for a day then jumped it up to 1200.Classic bait and switch tactic-and cited it as a "mistake".

Yea agreed..I hope everyone refuses to buy it like us because the price is too high for a remake especially when they know they could have got it for 800 ms the day it came out.

Evolute

Honestly lads now as someone said if your not prepared to pay for it then get emulators.
1200 points is a bit much for any arcade game for the simple reason that they havent done a thing to most of them(Granted there are exceptions)
Lets face it M$ are money grabbing thieves come on you think the fail rate is an accident? Its because they cheaped out on the internal parts.
Now dont get me wrong I love my xbox infact I wouldnt have a problem with paying 1200 points for a game if I knew my xbox would be working next year but judging by my current record of 3 xboxs broken in one year I doubt it.

Fol20

Im happy to say that it looks like lode runner hasnt done too well.Although i dont have exact figures,it only reached 4th place on major nelsons website losing to hasbro family game night,outrun and castle crashers..Maybe now they will go back to proper fees.

SteveDPirate

Depends on the type of game to be honest. I paid 1200 points for Braid, and I loved it. If the game is original and as beautiful looking as that, then 15 quid is fine by me.

But most games are at the 800 point mark. Check out Outrun!! I couldn't believe that was only 800. Yeah it's short, but it's amazing looking and great fun and fresh to play.

Fol20

Yea i tried outrun.its only a remake but 800 isnt too bad.Not my type of game though tbh but i know a lot of people would like that game.

Desmondo2000

I just got the Burnout paradise cops and robbers pack today and the two boost specials the two cars cost 400 each and the cops and robbers pack was 800 its quite pricey for what is really the same cars with just police stamped on them but its still lots of fun