Xbox Live Arcade is graced by one of its rare good looking games today, as time-screwing platformer Braid has finally made its appearance, causing Rev Anthony-types to cream their jeans in sordid delight. Microsoft, of course, is well aware that people actually want this game, and have rewarded fans for their excitement and interest by nickle-and-diming them for 1200 points. Lead designer Jonathan Blow explains that this wasn't his idea, but he's comfortable with the vampiric decision:
My feeling was that Microsoft would price the game at 1200 no matter what I said; however, I never pushed them to that point. Late last week, Microsoft and I had a conversation where we talked about a bunch of issues and I agreed on the 1200 point price.
There are good reasons why I picked 1200 instead of 800 (I thought about writing them up today, but I'm not sure it's really appropriate; I might, though, tonight. We'll see how I feel about it later.)
The Reader's Digest version is, I would have been perfectly happy with a launch price of 800 points. At 1200 points I am less happy, but I am okay with it.
With The Behemoth also stating that the final pricing decision rests with Microsoft, are we seeing a new trend that Microsoft will continue throughout its self-styled "summer" of XBLA? The reason why this sickens me is the fact that it's clearly cynical exploitation on the part of Microsoft, and I think it's rather despicable to charge extra cash simply because you know that, for once, your fanbase actually gives a crap about your games service. Very shoddy behavior, as far as I'm concerned.
[Thanks, power-glove!]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
55 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
5:03 AM on 08.06.2008
| 
"Rod — I agree with you, it is a significant risk. However, I had to look at the low end too — I have no idea how many people will buy Braid even at $10 (it is the least popular of the Summer of Arcade games, with the least publicity).
What I had to guard against is the Space Giraffe problem. Jeff Minter priced Space Giraffe (which is the best game on XBLA) at $5 because he wanted a lot of people to be able to afford it, and really wanted to give something to the fans at a low price. Well, that bit him in the ass because he only sold 19k copies; depending on how big his testing+localization advance was, maybe he has barely made any money from Space Giraffe at all, and just lost a lot of money (due to the time spent in development). I don’t know exactly. I’m pretty sure, though, he didn’t even make back his cost of living.
If I could ensure my ability to keep making games without publisher interference, and release Braid at $0, I would do that. But I had to guard against the Space Giraffe problem. Like Space Giraffe, Braid is a non-mainstream game, very different from the other things on XBLA, without much publicity. And Jeff Minter had a built-in audience from his previous games, waiting to play SG the minute it came out; Braid doesn’t even have that.
There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it), even at $10. If that happens at $10 then I am in debt and have to get a job and can’t make games any more. If that happens at $15, maybe I can still make games. That is the difference."
@manasteel88
This is why I don't want to buy anything off of XBLA. I already have played some of the games to death, but wouldn't mind owning ANOTHER copy of it - if the price was more modest. For example - Alien Hominid. I own a gamecube copy I paid twenty dollars for. I don't want to buy it AGAIN. Same with Sonic 2 and Symphony of the Night. Love the games, but why so seriously expensive? Don't they know the world economy is in decline?
That said, the only puzzle piece I didn't get within seconds of seeing it was the result of requiring pixel perfect precision rather than a challenge to my problem solving skills (tried the solution several times before it worked).
Maybe later on it gets harder, and showing that in the demo would be an advantage, but I can't really justify Microsoft's price gouging for a game with little to no replay value (for me anyway) that doesn't seem like it'll take me overly long to finish.
Which is a shame because Braid is a well made, attractive game that I would have picked up without hesitation had it been at the normal prices for XBLA games.
Maybe that's just because I'm a) poor and b) tight-assed though.
Jonathan is saying that sure, he would have liked to be able to go with 800, but the he perceived the financial risk to gbe greater and believed MS would just go with whatever they wanted anyway, making it a moot point.
There's talk of price inflation on XBLA, but aren't there more variables involved than just the price going up? For example, the game size cap has been increased, and the platform is taken a lot more seriously than it was on launch and so there would be a natural trend towards games that have the higher production values and a more polished development process that attracts a higher price. The test case for this was Lumines Live, and that came out quite some time ago now.
I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see more 1200 and 1600 point games in the future. And many of them will be rubbish. But I think (save for a few freak exceptions in the generally consistent pricing) they'll at least aim for the sort of content in them which would seem to justify those prices. And I don't think 800 and 400 point games will go away, because there's always room for those - look at Geo Wars 2.
Of course Microsoft wants to see how much we'll pay, I'm not naive - I just think there are many other factors at work here.
the problem for me with the pricing of Braid is whether or not it will last.
I played the trial version and loved it. The watercolour backgrounds were fantastic and it was a nice spin on the basic platformer (plus I loved the Mario homages throughout one level)
but it all depends on the longevity. I got through the trial in probably about 20 minutes. There doesn't seem to be very much after that, judging by the number of worlds, so I really am not sure if it's a purchase. If it was 800 I would've snapped that up as quickly as possible. But since it's 1200 I'm not so sure.
I could spend that on some Rock Band DLC or rent a movie and I'd get more out of it.
But as I said, I've only played the trial version. There may be a lot more that i haven't seen.
It is a damn impressive game though. Check the trial out if you havent.
The last game to be priced this way was Puzzle Quest. Fuck, Puzzle Quest has an insane amount of content.
Braid has 3 hours (probably at the most). Since those are the only two games that hit at that price point (Puzzle Quest since dropped), it's hard to justify Braid's pricing by anything other than stupidity.
The Penny Arcade game is an exception, because that's a $20 game on the PC, and if it was cheaper on the 360, PC gamers would cry foul.
Just my two cents, but I think this is only going to hurt him. Comparing the game to Space Giraffe is stupid, because Space Giraffe sucks, hard.
One question I have for these developers who are struggling with XBLA is why don't they develop for PC as well, and release it through Steam. The PC market usually supports games like this much better than the XBL crowd, and I think it's a better service than what Microsoft offers. Is there some sort of exclusivity agreement?
If developers dont like the price schemes microsoft has for the XBLA then they can go and release their games else where. If you think something isnt worth buying then dont fucking buy it. It's a game, it isnt exactly essential to life.
So Space Giraffe isn't the bigget piece of shit ever made like I keep hearing? SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU.
Long enough to keep you busy, but short enough so you don't get fed up.
I was happy paying whatever for Portal, so maybe if this is a similar length it may be worth my space bucks
Considering the price of a full game in a store this is pretty reasonable for a completely original title. Not for oldies though.
Wait... so this guy things Space Giraffe is good?
Erg, I'm not so sure about Braid now if the creator things that game is good. :p
...
To be honest I wouldn't care as much about the XBLA pricing of some of these games if the cost of MS points versus the pricing of XBL content was consistent. In the US 4000 points costs ~$50 but in Canada 2800 points costs $40. From what I understand other countries are just as bad if not worse, yet we pay the same amount for XBL content that Americans do. We can't even just buy US points cards because for some inane reason they're locked by country and the only way to use them is to make an American account (which is pretty unreasonable).
Of course this is Microsoft's fault as they set the points policies and game pricing, but games like Braid and Castle Crashers will likely suffer internationally because of it.
Might go download the Braid demo now...
I'm not buying this.
Braid is well over 30 minutes. I don’t think it’s even physically possible to speed-run the game in 30 minutes even if you have memorized the best solutions to all the puzzles. (So far the fastest time I have seen for the entire game is 34 minutes).
I would say that it’s 5-8 hours of gameplay to play through most of the puzzles, depending on how quickly you solve the puzzles. From there, if there are a few hard puzzles you get stuck on, it could be an extra 1-5 hours…
This will be released on PC too.
If Microsoft starts to release games that should only be priced at 400 or 800 points at 1200 or 1600 points we can speak with our wallets.
People would go apeshit if they started charging $80-100 for a retail game because it was of very high quality. The value might be lower here but the principle is just the same.
Space Giraffe is NOT the biggest piece of shit ever made. It is in fact much, much worse.
About Braid. Meh. Haven't had interest since that developer walk through video as Blow came off as a pretentious bag of dicks. I know there are a lot of people who will enjoy it, and that rocks, but the pricing is out of whack.
And what's with these "Look at them, making money" statements, like it's a bad thing? Of COURSE they're doing what they can to make money. That's what businesses do, they're not soup kitchens doing things out of the kindness of their collective hearts. Did you know that companies also bend the truth in their favor as to make their products look better than the competition's? Oh noes, so scandalous!
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's right to shaft loyal customers either, but if you're loyal enough, you're going to bend over for the company you love and you're going to take its mammoth meat manatee as best you could and you're going to like it. don't matter what company it is, that's what brand loyalty boils down to.
Also, if this is the least popular of the "Summer of Arcade" games and it's 1,200 then we can most assuredly expect Bionic Commando and Castle Crashers to be more.
also, loved - LOVED - the Braid demo but i'm going to have to stick to my guns on this one. i'm not buying it at the $15 price point. same reason why i have yet to buy Penny Arcade for $20. and if Castle Crashers is $20, no way i'm buying that one either. STICKIN' TO MY GUNS!!!
A added note I have no idea what the pricing will be but I dont see them charging less than $20 for Bionic Commando (which I'm picking up for PS3 for link play).
In all honesty, people are buying this game anyway, and I'm sure this Braid guy (is his last name really "Blow"?) deserves all the money he can make off this game.