What makes a game valuable? Sorry if you're just rolling out of bed from a Saturday night hangover, and I'm dropping a major question on you, but where does value come from when we're talking about videogames? It's a question cropping up more and more as DLC and non-retail releases start becoming more and more popular. How does one decide when a game is actually worth $60 dollars? We only paid $50 for Super Mario Galaxy and that was worth more than most $60 games.
This long and pondering intro is to make you think a bit about the question before you respond to Microsoft's justification for charging $60 for a game they originally claimed was viewed as almost An expansion: Halo: ODST. Originally both Brian Jerrard and Joe Staten of Bungie said the game was not going to be full retail, with Jerrard literally spewing the words "We do not view this as a $60 title."
E3 rolls around though and suddenly we're paying $60 bucks for a game that two lead Bungie guys said wasn't going to be worth that. Why? A Microsoft rep answers all. "At the time of those statements, the overall scope of Halo 3: ODST was not yet finalized, and since then the project has grown increasingly more ambitious. We believe this standalone experience is much more than just an expansion. Halo 3: ODST provides a new campaign from the point of view of an entirely new character. Combine that with three new multiplayer maps, the entirely new cooperative mode called Firefight, and the complete Halo 3 multiplayer collection on a standalone disc, we feel this is a good value and tremendous addition to the Halo franchise."
So how do you place value on a game, and within that value system does ODST live up to $60 or did Microsoft screw the pooch on this one by telling everyone it wasn't a $60 game right off the bat.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
11:00 PM on 06.14.2009
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I will call BS on this quote though "At the time of those statements, the overall scope of Halo 3: ODST was not yet finalized, and since then the project has grown increasingly more ambitious."
No, guys, you knew it was going to be $60 from day one as well.
I'll get it, but I know as well as they do that they can sell anything that's branded with Halo.
anyway, all 60dollar games are too expensive
It has the Halo 1 pistol? Somehow I missed that.
Day one purchase. But seriously, I wanted it anyways. I burnt out halfway through Halo 2, and on 3, but I might get back into it. I was too big of a Halo maniac to not dive back in at some point.
The entire quadrilogy isn't worth $60. Most overrated piece of shit EVER.
[/troll]
However why are people acting surprised at ALL over Microsoft's hardon for raping your wallet? Don't get me wrong, the 360 itself is great value. But having to pay for my internet TWICE? Awesome. Pay to change your username? Whut? Also awesome. Microsoft are microtransaction whores, and seeing that extend into using dumb catch phrases to justify a higher price is not at all surprising.
But Microsoft aren't the only ones guilty of this new wave of "Episodic content priced at full retail cost".
Make a game that only takes 10 minutes to finish? No problem, just include an Achievement to replay it 200 times and OH LOOK, VALUE FOR MONEY. Almost every game I've played recently has been disappointingly short, low on content, and full of stupid self justifications for being nothing more than a glossy shareware title with a $100 price tag (AU).
So those of us that already own Halo 3 get what we already have and pay 60 bucks for it? I'm on board... pfft
God I hate monetized gaming. NEW MAPS AND GAME MODES PLEASE PAY ME FOR THEM EVEN THOUGH THE FILE YOU'RE DOWNLOADING IS SMALLER THAN MOST MODERATELY SIZED JPEGS ITS TOTALLY NOT ON THE DISK ALREADY PROMISE.
Honestly, it probably isn't worth $60, but how many games really are? We rarely see games that aren't more then re-hashes of previous ones. Look at Gears 1 and 2, all the Halos, all the Mario Karts...they are pretty much the exact same game with a huge price tag. I guarantee L4D2 will be full priced, and how much is really original there? 90% SMG2 style?
And what bites my ass is people will still buy this while original games well worth $60 like Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Braid, etc. will continue to get overlooked. Sad.
@Shadowiii
I'm not actually pissed at all with the 90% new levels thing for SMG2. Usually game developers do reuse alot of the old stuff but at least they're actually telling me beforehand then just letting me figure out.
"M$ is get your moneys!"
the whole fucking game industry is raping your wallet, and its just as much consumers fault when we agreed to buy games for 60dollars.
Hint: Obvious misguided attempts to flame a game are obvious
Protip: The meat of Mirror's Edge is in the time trials, not the story. You'd know that if you beat the game.
Bend over fanboys.
Thats why my friend is buying it and I'm just gonna steal it from him.
and
@SephirothX: Don't even pretend Halo is at the same level of quality as the average Valve product.
Valve has been making god-only-knows how many nearly identical first person shooters using the exact same engine for years. Bungie has made 4 first person shooters for only two console generations. Anyone who hates Bungie for constantly making Halo games but then praises Valve for making more Half Life spinoffs is just silly.
you forget TF which is literally the greatest and most balanced shooter of all time
halo is for tiny boys who have issues with their weinee size >_>
It needs to be pointed out that the Half-Life 1 spin-offs were all done by Gearbox, only approved by Valve. Valve themselves only made Half-Life 1, then used that engine to put out retail versions of fan-mods like Counterstrike and Team Fortress. Now, if you're complaining about any FPS using the Source engine as a "spin-off," such as TF2 or L4D, that's ridiculous, since engines are constantly reused by many developers and these games are markedly different from the Half-Life series. (See also: Prince of Persia 2008 was on the Assassin's Creed engine.) This is not to mention the fact that Valve will license out this engine to other companies as well, making it more middleware. Unless Valve starts cranking out Half-Life, attacking the use of a common engine is not a suitable criticism.
Personally, I'm not seeing a problem with getting Halo 3: ODST for that price, so I'll buy it.
Well considering the map packs are all well over 100mb your argument in this case is somewhat invalidated. Besides which I haven't bought them all and as such having them included in Halo: ODST represents added value.
Basically put, this still packs in a lot more new stuff than a lot of the crap that gets onto shelves these days, so I don't see it being any less worth full price than aforementioned other rubbish. Nevertheless I'll be picking it up second hand.