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Lumines Heralds New Costs for Xbox Live Games
Game|Life reports on the upcoming release of Lumines for the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. Despite the high interest in the unique game (previously only on the PSP), gamers may be frustrated to learn that playing through the whole game will require additional purchases. From the article: "But then, once you hit a certain point in the 'Mission' or 'Vs. CPU' modes of the game, you'll be asked to pay up again for the ability to keep on progressing. All in all, you'll have to spend another 700 points ($8.75) to get the rest of the levels, bringing the real cost of Lumines Live to nearly $24. What lesson can we take from this? Clearly, Microsoft understands that there's a major disconnect here between what they'd like to make off direct-download game sales and what customers are willing to pay based on their perceived value. That's why, rather than go with straight dollar amounts, everything is priced in 'points.' 1200 points seems somehow cheaper than $15."
... when you take into account that the PSP version originally retailed for $40.
My thoughts exactly. I have never purchased one of these games, but my only concern is that customers know they are only purchasing "Part 1" of the game and are not under the impression that they are buying a full game.
Nobody has any problem with additional optional content, since the user still has that choice of whether they want to shell out additional cash. A game like Lumines sees NO benefit from limiting its delivery to episodic releases.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
The thing about Xbox is that if you keep charging for more and more functionality. MS finally has the AOL model, where they have you credit card and are going to chanrge for all sorts of things on top of the recuring subscription fee. As a casual gamer, I can't see paying all those fees. I like to buy the game and be done with it.
1200 points seems somehow cheaper than $15
That's the trick casinos use - issue chips and cards and hide the clocks so that you mindlessly keep plugging in cash.
Then again, this incremental pricing model isn't necessarily a terrible thing. I love buying used games, but sometimes I trade in a game for one third the price I bought it for because I didn't enjoy it. It'd be nice to pay for the first half of a game to see if I like it before shelling out the rest.
That's why almost all 360 games, and all Xbox Live arcade games have Demos. If you don't play a demo and just buy a game and don't like it, it's your fault. I've downloaded... well let's put it this way I've played close to 15 demos on Xbox 360. I played 0 on the PS2, I played 1 on the PC in the last 5 years and that was for work (game company).
I tried Test Drive Unlimited last night, the controls were a little stiff, but damm if I didn't like driving with 10 real people in free drive, that's an easy "must buy" for me. I tried Just Cause and it was an interesting game however the controls completely sucked, and the game wasn't that great, I'm waiting on reviews for that one.
There are elements of this that I like because it (sort of) reminds me of the old shareware games like Doom; you pick up the first episode at your local computer shop for $5 and if you like the game you pay the rest for it.
What I dislike is simply the cost. Digital Distribution (virtually) eliminates all of the costs associated with delivering a game to consumers; you eliminate the cost of physical production, shipping, warehousing and the mark-up at retail, meaning you probably save $20-$30 per game to deliver it to the customer. If the console producer has better licencing terms for smaller/digitally distributed games you could also save an aditional $3-$5 per game from that alone. A game like Lumines should be able to sold for $10-$15 and still make as much revinue (for the developer) as a game being sold for $40-$50; the "second" charge seems to be mostly a greedy act to gouge their customers (much like all XBox Live Arcade extra content)
1200 points seems somehow cheaper than $15
While I'm sure that plays a role (it must, or gas wouldn't be priced out to tenths of a cent), I don't think it's the largest reason MS uses points - or even the largest reason it's easier to spend points than money.
The big reason to use points, if you're MS, is that it allows them to sell points outside the Live system. You can buy redeemable cards in Best Buy et al, which makes them convenient stocking stuffers. Yes, there could be other ways to accomplish the same result, but:
Points are, as the article suggests, easier to spend. But not primarily because people are somehow "tricked" into not thinking of 1200 points as $15 - it's primarily because people see 1200 points as money they've already spent. The disconnect is between the perceived value of the points when purchasing them and the perceived value of the points once they've been purchased. People tend to have a reasonably good grasp of the concept of sunk costs.
When purchasing points, it's easy to dump $20 into it, thinking of how many little purchases that will cover. Once you've got the points, though, you know you're not spending any new money.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Does Microsoft own the company that writes Lumines? No, they don't. Ubisoft has the choice of the cost of the game, how they charge for content and how they release episodic content like this. Stop blaming Microsoft for this, it's not their call.
Cloning Clyde, Bejeweled, etc are NOT written my MS either. If you have a problem with what NinjaBee thinks their game is worth, don't buy Cloning Clyde, don't by Outpost Kaloki X, don't buy any other their games. Just stop blaming Microsoft for this...god you people are so blind in your hatred towards them...they just provide the network to download other people's content, they don't set the prices.
not most... ALL
IIRC it's a requirement that all XBLA games have a free trial version (which is really just the full version but locked out of full functionality)
As for the articles clam that the arbitrary point system is to confuse people, I'd have to disagree. I thought the same at first myself but after using it for a while I actually think it's a great idea... The Xbox Live Marketplace is GLOBAL if something costs 400MP in the Us then it also costs 400MP in Canada and 400MP all through Europe and 400MP in Japan. Rather then trying to localize the price of things for every currency in the world they just made their own pay scale, and IMO it works really well.
After having purchased a few things it becomes easy to follow. in US dollars 400MP = $5 exactly considering most game expansion packs, XBLA games (pretty much anything other then themes and pictures) cost 200, 400, 800, or 1200 it's fairly simple to figure out in your head how much they're worth in real money.
As for Lumines being the most expensive XBLA game to date, it's really not all that bad considering the PSP version is a whole lot more expensive, Not to mention you'll be able to play the free demo version to your hearts content before deciding to actually buy it.
Collector's Edition
So really, why is everybody complaining?
Because the groupthink notion of "making money is bad, unless I'm the one doing it" permeates this board like a cancer.