Nathan Fouts, the developer behind Xbox 360 Community Game Weapon of Choice, believes that you're currently getting a bargain when it comes to paying for downloadable games.
"I want to go on the record and say I feel like most downloadable games are under-priced," Fouts, who previously worked at Insomniac on Resistance: Fall of Man, told MTV Multiplayer.
"... Paying only 800 [MS] points for a game as nice as Bionic Commando: Rearmed or 1200 points for a game as big as Castle Crashers seems ridiculous to me."
The developer's frustration with downloadable game pricing policies, in this case Microsoft's, came to a head as he struggled to settle on a price for Weapons of Choice, which launched on the XNA Community Games channel with the New Xbox Experience.
"Microsoft does not allow for user-defined price points like 799 points or even 100 point increments like 500, 600, 700, etc," he explained.
"For a bigger game like Weapon of Choice, only having two options, one of which is double the first option, makes the decision difficult. I felt like we could have priced the game at 600 points and received no backlash from consumers as they compare our game to other downloadables."
In case you were wondering, Fouts settled on 400 MS Points as the price for Weapon of Choice.
What a moany bastard. These aren't full games, we don't get a disc a package or a manual, it doesn't have to be shipped to the shops, etc, etc, etc, that's what the price represents relatively to full priced retail games.
Developer wants more money for own product, thinks self undervalued - shocking!
I think there should be a greater variant on arcade pricing though. Some stuff there, especially older stuff and HD remakes, don't deserve full pricing. £10 for a game released 15 years ago where the only updates are resized or upscaled images? I don't think so.
Maybe they should have a few prices and base the long-term price on the Metacritic score and age. Original titles could use this sort of scheme: Launch at 1000. 1 month later, a 90+ score gets a 900 price, 80+ gets 800, etc (so you get what you pay for). 6 months later, reduce the points value to 75% or 66% of it's original value. 12 months later, 50% it. 18 months later, make it free.
Remakes would need their own scale though, because they get high ratings on retro value alone.
What a moany bastard. These aren't full games, we don't get a disc a package or a manual, it doesn't have to be shipped to the shops, etc, etc, etc, that's what the price represents relatively to full priced retail games.
Suck. it. up.
Quite right. I do agree with Fouts regarding the pricing structure on the Live Marketplace though; there are far too many games on there that are either way overpriced (Frogger should be 100 MS Points max) and stuff that offers exceptional value for money, Weapon of Choice included.
He maybe moaning about it, but at least he had the good conscience to settle for the lower price point. He obviously felt that 600 was reasonable and 800 was not, so ultimately he was penalised by MS's pricing policy; undercharging for his efforts to give the consumers a fair price.
If digital downloads are the way to go, and the supply chain is more or less cut out as a result, I think its reasonable to pay a price that's based almost exclusively on the content of the product itself. After all, what else are you paying for? Fixing prices into strict bands is a throwback to traditional retail sales and makes little sense in the digital domain, where the only thing that sells a game is the game itself.
i agree with the above posts plus to add to the pot you get nothing to sell on with these downloaded games so they're even less good value. the reason he wont put them in a shop is because no idiot would buy this stuff and he knows it. impulse buying is what he has got.
I was not aware that you couldn't charge in increments of 100.
However, in relation to the story, could it be that he's comparing them full priced games which are, arguably, over priced?
If he is comparing them to full price games I agree that he needs a rethink as these are often vastly overpriced. I agree with him though that there should be more flexibility on price point. I would say the same thing for full price games too. Fallout3 is arguably worth the asking price as it has hours upon hours of gameplay but many other games are great but overpriced compared to gameplay time.
I am pretty sure wiiware has a more flexible pricing policy.
I am pretty sure wiiware has a more flexible pricing policy.
As it should. As Mappman said, they need less strict pricing policies. I understand why they don't allow 'lose change' amounts, that's fair enough, and would be irritating. But as we can only buy 500s, 1000s etc, charging 400s and 800s leaves us with 'change' anyway. They should totally free up the pricing structure to allow games of '150 points', '600 points', you name it.
But as we can only buy 500s, 1000s etc, charging 400s and 800s leaves us with 'change' anyway. They should totally free up the pricing structure to allow games of '150 points', '600 points', you name it.
That's a point, I'd forgotten how about how annoying that is. I think I must have purchased something with an odd price once though, because I've forever got this random 10 points on my account that I can do nothing with. Will I ever get this money back? Probably not. So if MS are going to leave me with such piffling change, they could at least give me something to spend it on!
What a moany bastard. These aren't full games, we don't get a disc a package or a manual, it doesn't have to be shipped to the shops, etc, etc, etc, that's what the price represents relatively to full priced retail games.
Suck. it. up.
Quite right. I do agree with Fouts regarding the pricing structure on the Live Marketplace though; there are far too many games on there that are either way overpriced (Frogger should be 100 MS Points max) and stuff that offers exceptional value for money, Weapon of Choice included.
He maybe moaning about it, but at least he had the good conscience to settle for the lower price point. He obviously felt that 600 was reasonable and 800 was not, so ultimately he was penalised by MS's pricing policy; undercharging for his efforts to give the consumers a fair price.
If digital downloads are the way to go, and the supply chain is more or less cut out as a result, I think its reasonable to pay a price that's based almost exclusively on the content of the product itself. After all, what else are you paying for? Fixing prices into strict bands is a throwback to traditional retail sales and makes little sense in the digital domain, where the only thing that sells a game is the game itself.
as far as i'm aware he took the higher of the the 2 prices it was either 200 or 400 and i agree with one of the above posts, If he wanted more money he should either make it for xbla instead of community or release it on disc
But as we can only buy 500s, 1000s etc, charging 400s and 800s leaves us with 'change' anyway. They should totally free up the pricing structure to allow games of '150 points', '600 points', you name it.
That's a point, I'd forgotten how about how annoying that is. I think I must have purchased something with an odd price once though, because I've forever got this random 10 points on my account that I can do nothing with. Will I ever get this money back? Probably not. So if MS are going to leave me with such piffling change, they could at least give me something to spend it on!
Rock Band/Guitar Hero tracks are 160 points each. It's bloody irritating trying to spend amounts divisible by 500 when you wanna spend 160 points (or 440 for 3). I'd rather they just charge cash straight to my credit card to be honest, get rid of the points completely.
As for will you ever get the points/cash back? We both know the answer to that...
Arcade Live games on the whole are overpriced as it is.
Just like full price boxed games are.
We should be paying more like £20 for brand new boxed and £5 tops for downloaded arcade type titles.
maybe £3-£5 tops for DLC.
Have they heard of profit through numbers?
Id buy maybe two brand new titles a month rather than one if they were £20 then more of the cash would distribute between the devs and in return would create more faith for them to create more games.
For me to be interested in downloadable games they must be cheap. I wouldn't have bought wipeout or bionic commander if they cost more. Im sure many people would have but how many bought them just cause they where cheap and felt hey, if I dont like it no big deal? Side point I will never spend money on skins or new maps, that stuff should always be free
I agree with the guy actually. It is stupid that you can only use set prices, they should be more freedom up to a limit.
I hate points, both MS and Wii, it is one area PSN is better. Prices in the currency that you use! Being able to just ad the funds for the item you want! Madness!
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We both know the answer to that... 
