Next week marks the release of Capcom’s 2D Bionic Commando remake, Bionic Commando Rearmed. Rearmed adds bigger boss battles, two player co-op, and several multiplayer modes to the classic “use a retractable grappling arm instead of just jumping over those crates” experience. In addition to these exciting new features, the PC version will have exclusive access to a price point that’s five dollars higher. … Wait a minute, what’s the deal with that?!
“It has nothing to do with Piracy concerns. It has to do with different business terms/expectations in that sector and more importantly, generally prevailing pricing of PC digital games versus their console counterparts. The typical downloadable price for digital-only games on PC is actually $19.99,” Capcom’s Christian Svensson explained to Shacknews when questioned about the price hike.
“Another consideration is that our distribution costs as a percentage are, on average, slightly higher on PC than console,” Svensson added. “In several cases we have another party (beyond just the distribution portals) taking an extra bite, driving down our share of the revenue. For example, affiliate sites of our portal partners take a well earned slice of revenue for every sale, then the portal gets its cut, then we get ours. Three mouths to feed.”
The additional costs inherent in online distribution do give Capcom something of a valid excuse for the price increase, and I suppose $5 won’t exactly break the bank, especially when you consider that disk-based games cost less on the PC. Still, if Microsoft had its way this discrepancy wouldn’t exist: everyone would be paying $15!
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Contest:
8:46 PM on 08.09.2008
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There are also two issues with Svensson's logic. First, he's comparing apples to oranges with the PC digital titles that cost $20. Most of those are PC exclusive titles done by small independent companies. A quick search on Steam reveals these games to be $15 to $20 (ignoring the overpriced and shitty PopCap clones-of-better-games): Portal, Company of Heroes (and Opposing Fronts), Darwinia, Penny Arcade Adventures, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Team Fortress 2, and Uplink. This isn't even including the occasional sale prices of other games, like BioShock's occasional price point of $15. But that's what Bionic Commando Rearmed has to compete against. Which would you rather buy for $15: Bionic Commando Rearmed or BioShock?
Second, what the fuck is he expecting when the price point of a game varies on PC as opposed to consoles? Does he honestly expect PC users to be happy about spending more money than console gamers?
LOL @ comment :-)
its a bit ridiculous though... I sure hope lots of pc-gamers WILL pirate it because of that :-)
Diner Dash, Monopoly, Luxor and all that PC crap costs $20, in comparison.
I suppose it's something that the game is being released on the Pc at the same time as the 360 (I assume) but when are companies going to learn that giving inferior treatment to PC customers in any way is just pushing people toward illegal downloads and/or poor sales? It isn't rocket science.
Also you really can't compare a remake of an NES game with STALKER or Team Fortress 2, jesus. I also wouldn't agree that $20 is the average- I see and buy games for more and less than that all the time. Love was $1, Mount and Blade $25, Day of Defeat $5...
You know what? Fuck you capcom, you can go back to consoles for all I care.