Microsoft abusing XBLA or are we the idiots?

Fol20

Ok as many of you know the hurdle of 1600 ms points was reached earlier this year when penny arcade came out....I for one would not waste that much money on a small title such as that...I also knew that if this was a success more titles of this same pricing would come out even though they are only worth 800 ms points..To my horror i noticed that castle crashers,one of my favorite upcoming xbla titles broke the barrier of 1600 ms points and is in fact going to be sold at 1800 ms points....I loved the style of the unique and oldschool gameplay of castle crashers and was a definite buy for me until now!Even though it has been in development for quite some time i for one will not indulge myself in this game after seeing this over pricing and will not give them the benefit of my money in trying to exploit gullible consumers....The annoying thing is...is that people out there even though they are complaining about the price of these games will still buy it,thus worsening/feeding the situation and allowing the greedy devs get more and more money out of people even though its not good value....I also heard that braid,a low budget title made by one or 2 people is going onto the market at 1200 ms points...Personally i hope people dont buy either of these games and make the title 'bomb' forcing devs to make the right decision to reduce the price back to a more reasonable amount....Does anyone else hold the same thoughts as me in this regard.I read this at

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http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/30/japanese-xbox-site-lists-castle-crashers-for-1800ms-points-brai/

Justlikemike

Wow, that sucks, that sucks hard. The market will always be orchestrated by people paying over the odds. GAME anyone? Huh, and to think, I thought twice before I paid 400 points for Streets of Rage 2.

Mr E

1800 is insane.... jesus.

If you read that link, though, you'll see that there is an update that says:

Update: Microsoft tells Shacknews these prices are incorrect, and that the final prices won't be revealed until the Monday before each respective game launches.

Ian Beale

They haven't decided the prices yet it was just a rumour going around microsoft replied with,
The prices previously mentioned for Braid and Castle Crashers haven't been set in stone yet, so you can breathe a sigh of relief.

According to a report from Shack News, Microsoft has said that the 1800 MS Point price for Castle Crashers and the 1200 MS point price for Braid is incorrect for both domestic and international markets.

Microsoft will be releasing price points for the two games on the Monday before they're released, which means August 4 for Braid and August 25 for Castle Crashers.

The Behemoth, the company behind the development of Castle Crashers, has also posted up a notice on their development blog (external link), stating that Microsoft and The Behemoth are "working together to figure out a reasonable price point. (not 1800 points)".

Source

Fol20

OK i read about it yesterday and only posted it today...never saw the update....I think 800 is the fairest amount tbh...geometry wars 2 in great value for what you get....im loving the 4 player in it and single player is great with the new modes........well worth the 800 ms points...Bought schizoid last week...it was good enough but you really need a friend that likes that kinda game to play it...Im in the unlucky boat where none of my friends like that game a lot:(

grizzly

I can't agree. I think it basic economics – people will pay up to the very maximum of what they think a product is worth. There is very little you can do to about this. It's capitalism baby.

Although the difference with this a that if you feel a retail shop game is overpriced and can wait and buy it second hand – not so with a download.

jester77

I don't get why they charge so much for certain titles. 1800 would be crazy as is 1600 for Penny Arcade. I know a few people that would gotten this title if it were 800 but none of them got it, including myself. Now if they charged 800 then they would have more than likely gotten more than twice the amount of people to buy it (read any of the forums about this game and people refusing to buy it) which would have resulted in better overall returns.

whitetrash

I think Penny Arcade was worth 1600. I got 6 or 7 hours out of it, which is what I got out of the half life episodes which cost around the same but nobody complained about that price of those.

If you don't think it's worth it then don't buy it, a simple rule you can apply to all aspects of your life!

Also, don't forget, this is the penny-arcade guys first game and they don't have the millions from selling "real" games like Bizzare had to fall back on or spend from when making Geo Wars

Mr E

Fair enough White Trash, but I think its a psychological thing. XBLA has alot of good games going for 800, and people have no problem forking over a tenner for one of those games.

However in a summer of great releases on the Market place (1942, Geometry Wars 2, Braid, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Galaga Legions), Castle Crashers will have to be spectacular to make me want to buy it for more than twice the price of any of those games.

MayoForSam

Why can't MS reduce prices for older games on XBLA - retailers do it for full price games as a matter of course? Basic greed I guess. I rarely purchase XBLA titles as I think they are way overpriced considering we pay a yearly sub to MS as well.

silvine

They did. The prices of Assault Heroes, Doom and one or two other games were cut to 400 points a few months back.

jester77

MayoForSam wrote: »

Why can't MS reduce prices for older games on XBLA - retailers do it for full price games as a matter of course? Basic greed I guess. I rarely purchase XBLA titles as I think they are way overpriced considering we pay a yearly sub to MS as well.

There is a section in the marketplace for reduced priced Arcade games... if you can actually find it, hopefully the new interface will sort this out!

Fol20

Whitetrash im annoyed because if this game sells fairly well with the over pricing it is inevitable that more upcoming games will follow suit with extra profits to be had from the title.Secondly to another op its basic economics in the demand curve that if they sell it for less they will need to sell more and i dont think there is enough of a market out there yet for them to do this yewt on xbla.

mcgovern

Fol20 wrote: »

Whitetrash im annoyed because if this game sells fairly well with the over pricing it is inevitable that more upcoming games will follow suit with extra profits to be had from the title.Secondly to another op its basic economics in the demand curve that if they sell it for less they will need to sell more and i dont think there is enough of a market out there yet for them to do this yewt on xbla.

If it sells fairly well, then it is probably worth it?
If they then try and charge that price for things that aren't worth it, people won't buy it and they'll change it e.g. Oblivion DLC.

Fol20

Grizzly i dont agree with you....i think many consumers will be purchase it as a 'casual gamer' who does not know much about what they are buying....Another perfect example is the nintendo wii which is selling like mad...I too did economics when i was in secondary school and i know what your talking about but what you are forgetting is a thing known as Consumer knowledge.

MiCr0