Castle Crashers to Debut on XBLA - 1200 Points
by Demi Adejuyigbe on August 14, 2008 at 10:44 am
About two weeks ago, there was a rumor that surfaced via Famitsu that Braid was going to be 1200 points ($15), and Castle Crashers would be 1800 points ($22.50). Microsoft, not wanting to upset the core crowd (for once) quietly put this rumor to rest, saying that the games would not be at the rumored prices. Of course, when Braid was released, people got pissed off, since Microsoft had lied to everyone. In turn, this led everyone to believe that Castle Crashers would indeed be 1800 points, which, for some reason, was just unacceptable.
Today, Dan Paladin confirmed on the Castle Crashers devblog that the game wouldn’t be as expensive as everyone thought and that it would debut on Xbox Live Arcade August 27th, for 1200 points. But of course, this is the internet, and there will always be something to bitch about.
Hit the jump to read why I think everyone who is against this price should just calm down.
Ever since the pricing was announced for Braid, the internet has been buzzing with shouts of protest and anger, because for some reason, paying more than 10 dollars for quality is just absurd (And yet, people bought Two Worlds for 60 bucks.) But honestly- I would have payed 20 bucks for Braid if Microsoft had made the pricing so. I’ve said it plenty of times before, but Braid is a quality game, with a thought-provoking story and challenging platforming. Plus, the gameplay is between 4 and 10 hours (depending on whether or not you go for the stars) for all of those who have a time-to-money pricing ratio.
There’s another reason that people are getting upset, namely because its not the pricing they’re used to. People are afraid that if enough people buy a game above the average price, Microsoft will make it the new standard. Luckily for us, there’s a few things that Microsoft do well, and one of them is fair Arcade title pricing. They’ve always had the same pricing tier for games, with prices ranging from 400 to 1600, in increments of 400 points ($5.) 400 has always been for retro revivals/coin-op classics, (eg: Time Pilot, Ms. Pac-Man, Joust, Astropop, etc) and 800 has usually been for new games, or updated versions of classics (eg: Geometry Wars, Alien Hominid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Aces of the Galaxy, Assault Heroes, etc.)
1200 points has never been a standard for anything, but that’s because it has only been used for 3 games- RoboBlitz, Braid, and Castle Crashers. Penny Arcade had the highest XBLA sales ever with 1600 points, and no one complained as much because it was a really good game (Not to mention that it’s episodic- 3 episodes at 20 bucks each equals the same price & content as the average disc-based game). I assume that the only reason that these prices have been used accordingly is because Braid & RoboBlitz have been two of Xbox Live Arcade’s longest titles. Knowing this, we can guess that Castle Crashers will either be really long, or just have huge replay value as XBLA’s first original 4-player beat ‘em up.
The last (and only legitimate) reason people have bothered to complain is because they don’t know whether or not the game will be good. But hey- that’s why every XBLA game is required to have a trial. Try it out for yourself before judging it. Or, if you really value others’ opnions, then read a review. The Penny Arcade game, RoboBlitz, and even Braid are amongst the highest rated XBLA games to date, and have done exceptionally well as far as sales go. Castle Crashers has also been one of the highest-anticipated Arcade games coming out this year, and had amazing reception coming out of Comic-Con. I think it’s safe to say that Castle Crashers, just as Braid, RoboBlitz, and Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One before it, will be worth every penny that Microsoft pulls out of your wallet.
Plus, at least its not Yaris.
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on August 14, 2008 2:51 pm
I think the fundamental issue with your arguement is that there is some price to quality/play time metric. Pay more for longer games? So by your rational GOW should be 20 or 30 dollars, and fallout should be $150?
Whats really happening is MS is saying, we have a high profile, highly anticipated game, so we can ring a few extra bucks out of folks, and if this works at the higher price, maybe we can slide some lower profile games up a price point.
on August 14, 2008 3:16 pm
Ashe: Like I said, with only three games, and few similarities between them, its hard to say what standards they’re going with for pricing. If MS was doing that with all high profile games, then I’m sure a lot more games would be priced above the norm.
on August 14, 2008 3:16 pm
Besides, that timing thing would only apply to DLC, since all disc-based games are forced to have a standard $60 or less price.
on August 14, 2008 3:48 pm
Seems like Microsoft is testing the waters. Seeing how much they can get away with lying and charging. Seems like they can pretty much get away with whatever they want because there will always be gullible 360 fans who will take Microsoft’s gouging happily.
on August 14, 2008 4:20 pm
I’m going to keep on saying it- its not price gouging to pay 15 dollars for a game that deserves it. Now, if they tried to charge for Yaris, then you can complain.
on August 14, 2008 5:33 pm
“we have a high profile, highly anticipated game, so we can ring a few extra bucks out of folks” isn’t so much an “evil microsoft conspiracy” as a little-known political philosophy that goes by the name of “capitalisim”.
It’s also been standard practise in the gaming industry for, um, er, well, forever?
If anything, I’ld say while it’s neat that these games are available, the service still doesn’t do much for developers who want to target markets where $20 or $30 is a genuine bargain value.
And anyone who takes a corporate verbal promise or a press release at face value deserevs everything they get, be it Microsoft or EA or Valve or anyone else - whether it’s a lie or a mistake, you can never be sure they won’t change their mind.
on August 15, 2008 12:16 am
Ashe: Or you know… the fact that these games were in development longer and cost more to make than your average XBLA game and therefore cost more. Common sense really…