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

$9 ??

[revlayle]

Finally... someone who can price episodal content at a point where even *I* would want to give it a shot. Unless the episodes last a measly hour of gameplay or so, sound like a decent deal.

Re:$9 ??

[rsmith-mac]

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

Call me a cynic...

[Delusion_]

...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?

[episode 2 of this rant scheduled for release next week]

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?

Re:Call me a cynic...

[iocat]

Cynic.

Seriously, I -- maybe -- have a couple hours every month for adventure games. I'd RATHER get episodic content.

Another advantage for game players (and makers)is this. If someone does a 40 hour game, they gotta pack a lot into that last hour for those players who make it. But a lot of people don't make it that far. They lose out, and the developer did a lot of work for nothing.

Doing several two or three hour episodes, as a game maker, I'd know most of the people who play them will get to see everything, so the player gets more reward, we can pack more exctement up front, and the artists and designers get to know that more people are seeing their hard work.

Finally, it gives the team the option to do a game with (potentially) a more complicated story-line, with multiple arcs and climaxes, than you'd see in just in one game. Each episode can have a story, as part of a larger story arc, like, you know, an EPISODE OF TV, versus having to do every game as one giant story, like a movie or book.

Shamless plug: there's some good discussion of this topic in the current next-gen.biz podcast, on which I am a guest.

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.

Worst game title...ever!

[BeeBeard]

From the makers of World of Home Improvement Loans-craft, Sim Taxpayer, and Virtua Grocery Clerk, it's:

Sam and Max Get a Price Tag!

and no I won't read the article for clarification. Let me have my delusions, please.

The most important question is...

[Archimedean]

...does this price tag make my arsenal look big?

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.

You're forgetting some important factors.

[WidescreenFreak]

It also allows the game companies to get immediate feedback on the game, not only froma story but also a technical standpoint.

For example ... All of the episodes are going to use the same engine. So if there's a problem in the first episode that they didn't catch, which is very possible because of the huge number of combinations of hardware out there, they can quickly make engine adjustments for the next episode. In some respects that might be the same thing as a "patch", but considering the negative connotation that the word "patch" includes, this is probably a better solution from a public relations frame of mind.

Additionally, it gives them immediate feedback that can be allpied in the next episode. What if people play the first episode then make great game comments about "Would that be great if they did such and such in the next episode based on this particular occurrence in the first episode?" If it's a really good idea, it could be written into the next episode. If this was a complete game, there'd be no opportunity to work it into the story.

On a similar tangent, it gives the writers more opportunity to expand the breadth of the story for future episodes, which is something that could not be done with a complete. That most likely could not be done with a sequel not only because it could be years until a sequel comes out but also because the sequal might have a storyline that is not compatible with ideas that were thought of before the prequel was finished.

I am the kind who does not like episodic games. I admit it. Imagine is a game like "Battlefield 2" went episodic where you got one map every month. That's unacceptable. But when it comes to games where the strength is the storyline, I can see where episodic releases would be a wise idea.

Linux compatibility

[WidescreenFreak]

I posed the question with them some time ago about using OpenGL instead of DirectX and porting their software to a native Linux binary. Although I was told that some of the developers would love to do that, they simply don't have the in-house knowledge and resources at this point. Unfortunately for those who don't want to run a Windows environment, an emulator or Windows VM is probably the only way to do it at this point.