Sam And Max Get a Price Tag

Joystiq is reporting that Telltale games has finally announced pricing on episodic Sam and Max content. The game installments will be available as part of GameTap's $10/month service, but each episode will also be available for download straight from the Telltale site. From the article: "Gamers will be able to download individual episodes from Telltale directly for $9 per episode or $35 per season (six episodes). The season pass will save you nearly $20 off the individual price and earn you the option of ordering a CD of the entire season when it's all wrapped up for just the cost of shipping. That's all the benefits of episodic distribution, with none of the non-physical hangups our retail-addicted brains insist are so important."

Comments

Re:$9 ??

[rsmith-mac]

Considering it's only a month between seasons, it may very well only be an hour.

Re:Call me a cynic...

[normal_guy]

Exactly. In this case, it's 10% of a complete product at 10% the cost. Why couldn't they just make us wait so we can pay the whole thing at one time, in November of 2007?

Episodic entertainment like TV shows and some of the great movie trilogies of the past should have been released all at once, on DVD, at a cost of $199. Why should I enjoy part of an incomplete product?

You're only half a cynic

[Khammurabi]

...but "episode-based" game content just seems like yet another excuse for game developers to release incomplete products, except this time rather than hide that fact, they can tout it as a feature?

Games are becoming too costly to develop and, as such, are a huge gamble for investors. Episodic content is a way for the game to prove it has financial merit, and gives the investors a low risk option of cancelling further work on the product if the returns aren't there.

Episodic content is a novel approach that will give the company a predictable income to budget off of. While it may not meet the die hard fans request of a full game right off the bat, it essentially promises that (as long as they find a market for the product) there will be a full game at some point. The alternative is to not make the game, which seems silly to potentially leave money on the table like that.

Re:You're only half a cynic

[The_Revelation]

I remember buying my first Episodic game about 5 years ago now. Soul Reaver is probably the first time I experienced an Episodic style game. It was great because instead of paying $70AU for 1 game I paid $65 x 3 for three episodes of the same plot. Well, I would have, except Eidos never made game 3 and I really want to know how it all ended since the game was decidedly one of the more expensive games I have invested in even after only the first two Episodes.

Later I bought Frank Herbert's Dune, another hidden episodic gem. Once again, you don't really get to find out its episodic until after you have bought it at a fairly regular full-game retail price. You play a third of the story from the first Dune book then it ends telling you to buy the follow up components.... which, once again, company never bothered making.

I'm glad game designers have finally realised such a fantastic way to completely rip off the customer. No longer do game companies need to plan through a production, they just produce content while the product is viable and leave the gamer in the cold when the developers decide not to come to the party.

Re:What's the appeal?

[WidescreenFreak]

Sorry, but that's an asinine question, even if it was meant with a genuine desire for understanding. If you have to ask, then nothing that we say will make you understand.