No F@*k1ng Way! (1800 MSpoints for XBLA’s Castle Crashers?)
No, the eyes do not deceive - that’s right, 1800 MSpoints (or $22.50/£15.30 in earth money) for Castle Crashers.
Microsoft today updated the official Japanese Xbox Live blog and branded it “The Summer of Live Arcade”. The update gives news on the availability of five XBLA titles and their prices, most of which are the fairly standard 800/1200 MSpoints.
- Castle Crashers - 1800
- Braid - 1200
- Geometry Wars 2 - 800
- Galaga Legions - 800
- Bionic Commando Rearmed - 800
So just why are we all being asked to pay 1800 MSpoints for what appears to be a fairly standard hack ‘n slash title? Don’t get me wrong, it does look like a heap o’ fun but it also reminds me of the Saturn classic, Guardian Heroes - which is getting on a bit now to say the least.
Castle Crashers has been in development for what seems like an eternity - perhaps this protracted (and expensive) development period is responsible, I certainly can’t think of any other reason for it. Microsoft would do well to remember the backlash they faced from the community over the then farcical, but now acceptable price of 1200 MSpoints for one of it’s previous XBLA’s releases, Lumines Live.
Which begs the question, if we all got used to paying up to 1200 MSP for an arcade title, is Microsoft hoping we’ll just become used to seeing other releases priced at 1800 MSP? A gradual increase is usually the way corporations raise prices on the sly.
Will you pay 1800 MSPoints for Castle Crashers?
Source : Joystiq
Posted by Bleem - July 30th, 2008 -
August 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
If you don’t think Castle Crashers is worth that much, you are scum of the highest order.
Yes, I said it. I went there.
If we want better quality, bigger games coming to XBLA, we’re going to have to expect paying bigger money. This is an all original title, not another shitty remake hot off Backbone Entertainment’s production line, a port of an old game, or a piece of badly emulated crap, after all.
Seriously, even at 15 quid, that’s less than half of a full price game.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Sorry there Mentski but compared to other titles Castle Crashers can’t be worth that much.
Original Xbox games are 800pts here in the US……with Black and Fable on that list I couldn’t justify buying CC at that pricepoint no way
August 7th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Hi Mentski - thanks for the insult, much appreciated!
The question is not whether or not Castle Crashers is worth 1800msp, but whether Microsoft can justify the additional cost given that some comparable XBLA titles are available from 800msp, When saying that, I’m thinking about titles such as Soul Calibur, Rez, Lumines and most recently, Braid at 1200msp.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
You can’t compare Soul Calibur, Rez, and Lumines, they are ports of existing older games on other platforms, sometimes years old
Sadly, the bulk of XBLA’s titles are ports or emulated games, even sadder, the more obscure original titles get overshadowed by crappily emulated titles that probably took all of a couple of hours to get running.
No wonder Jeff Minter got pissed off to see Space Giraffe being outsold by Frogger. I bet he’s wishing he chose another price point over 400MSP now.
…And that brings me to the main crux of your complaint, you seem to believe that the pricing is solely up to MS, sure, they get a percentage, but have you ever thought it was the developers that asked for a higher price point?
Don’t you honestly think they deserve a nice bit of cash for their efforts? Especially a game built and designed totally from the ground up, and with so much content in it, like Castle Crashers.
The Behemoth’s first game, Alien Hominid, before it was re-released on XBLA, came out as a full price title. 40 quid, maybe more depending on where you shop, GC, Xbox, PS2, etc. Seriously, 15 quid is nothing.
As for Braid, It’s cheaper because it’s a whole lot shorter. In fact Probably a little overpriced for 6 levels that I’m almost 75% through in a day, but it looks and plays so god damn good, the people involves seriously deserve more than a percentage of 6 quid that 800 points would be.
The developers of Braid and Castle Crashers aren’t Capcom, Namco, Sega, or any big company which can just write off a poor selling product as a loss and move on: These are little teams, who need to be paid the money they deserve in proportion to the effort they put in, so they can pay the bills, and maybe, just maybe, turn enough profit to consider continuing.
That is what justifies the high price.
August 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I’ve just read it’s been announced at 1200msp over here in the UK - hurrah!
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
But UK sux