Here’s the good news. Right now, on Xbox Live Marketplace, Games on Demand are available with this morning’s system update. Everything is was $29.99 (Update:Just under half have been reduced in price since the initial post. Bad Company, Burnout Paradise, and Mass Effect are notable drops). Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock, Oblivion, Mass Effect, there’s some really great games in there at a pretty solid price. Mostly they seem in line with new retail price, though a few are down to $20 by now at brick and mortar without matching on Live Marketplace.
There’s also Sonic The Hedgehog, Meet The Robinsons, and Karaoke Revolution:American Idle Encore. This post isn’t about quality, though, someone will like just about anything even if my job is to tell people not too. It’s about price.
Rockstar Table Tennis, a solid retail buy and very fun game is $29.99 (yes, still). Why retail? The game debuted with the Xbox 360 for $19.99, retail, and can easily be found from $5-10 new or used now. Just about anyone serious about gaming knows this, and most 360 owners have the game, particularly casual players, due to price alone. But for the privilege of downloading? 30 bucks is too damn much. I love digital distribution, but part of the idea is that you pay LESS than retail for the lack of packaging, not more.
And then, there’s also the avatar items that are horribly overpriced. Granted most of us didn’t expect things on the cheap, but this is gouging for as little use as avatars see. It’s a nice idea, game themed clothing, but, just as an example, Clone Trooper Armor and a Helmet, bought separately, cost a total of seven dollars. A lightsaber? Five bucks. Doesn’t even look that good, frankly. Would I be tempted at two dollars? Sure. Seven? Fuck no. COG armor and helmet? 6 bucks. Full Fable 2 highwayman gear? $11.50.
Adidas t-shirts for two dollars, Monkey Island shirts for one. This feels like Microsoft’s attempt at creating Playstation Home except that, minus 1 v 100, nobody will be seeing your avatar, unless your friends tend to visit the dashboard friends tab often and scroll. So it’s a lot of money to spend for you to look at it yourself, without much benefit even in terms of standing out. Most of the items would be reasonable at one dollar, or even fifty cents for most t-shirts. Fancier items, like full armor sets or big accessories could be worth two. But five and up is way too much for an avatar people have so little investment in, as demonstrated by people dressing them once and never touching them again, mentioned in the Avatar Marketplace introduction video.
Fix it, Microsoft.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am
They do it because they know some people, who are either lazy, or naive, or simply uneducated as to the price of games, will look at that and say: Why, for 30 bucks I don’t have to get into my car, drive to the store/mall, wait in line, and buy the game for $X.00! DEAL!
Or, if they’re purchasing it online, they don’t have to wait for the delay.
So in reality, the extra money tacked on is a convenience surcharge.
Don’t underestimate the power of the sloth side.