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As a borderline obsessive classic gamer, I was excited to hear that Microsoft had announced the Game Room, which lets your avatar pimp out their own arcade and fill it up with arcade cabs. I miss the days of the arcade, and to be able to relive it in some form would be the epitome of nostalgia. At my day job, my co-workers and I went back and forth about how much we think the games would be. Seeing as the announcement inclued Intellivision and Atari games, I wouldn't have minded paying 99 cents per game. It wasn't until I saw the pricing of said games that I realized how much of a scam this had become.
I was excited to hear that Microsoft had announced the Game Room, which lets your avatar pimp out their own arcade and fill it up with arcade cabs. I miss the days of the arcade, and to be able to relive it in some form would be the epitome of nostalgia. At my day job, my co-workers and I went back and forth about how much we think the games would be. Seeing as the announcement inclued Intellivision and Atari games, I wouldn't have minded paying 99 cents per game. It wasn't until I saw the pricing of said games that I realized how much of a scam this had become.
Being an avid retro gamer, I've purchased almost every classic game that has been released on XBLA. I didn't mind paying $5 a game with enhancements and online leaderboards. I thought it was great. This, on the other hand, is pure wallet rape:
From Gamespot :
"The publisher also announced a pricing structure for the downloadable classics. Games can be purchased for play on both the Xbox 360 and PC for MSP 400 ($5), or for an individual platform at MSP 240 ($3) apiece. Alternatively, gamers can carry on in the coin-op tradition by purchasing single rounds of any individual game for MSP 40 ($.50). Players can also sample games purchased by their friends for free by visiting their game rooms."
So let me get this straight. The industry came from the era of big, expensive cartridge games to disc based games because they would be cheaper for them to produce and cheaper for us, the consumer. So why are we paying $60 for a new game nowadays?
Now we're into the age of the digital download. This means no cost to make packaging for games, no distribution fees, no money to pay just to get the game onto a store shelf. So why are we paying $5 for Asteroids, Pitfall, and Intellivision games?
On a related note, I just got my wife addicted to Eye of Judgement on PS3. Sony in their shrewdness circumvented the use of digital cards by making you go out and buy actual physical cards for $5+ a pop to play the game. Not so bad, right? Here's the kicker: In order to play any of the series 2 or 3 cards, you need to pay $14.99 for DLC so that the game will recognize the cards that you have to go out and pay for in the first place!
These two events this week have really made me start rethinking DLC. I'm obsessed with Borderlands right now, but I refuse to pay $10 for the storage box that the shallow "Beyond Underdome" DLC offers because a) that should have been in the game in the first place and b) I refuse to pay for something that doesn't do anything to add any more story or enetertaining content to the game.
I've sucked it up and overpaid for DLC in the past, but now I'm just fed up. I'm paying a yearly fee for Xbox Live for just to be entitled to overpay for game expansions and avatar add-ons. The gaming industry makes more than the movie industry yearly, but people seem to be content with this insane price game everyone has going on. It's time to give it back to them. If we let this continue, we'll just get more unfinished games that we need to pay to complete. Do we want a future like that?
I found this out when I was still writing the "demands of 2010" article and almost put this little rant on the end of it...but I didn't want to ruin the tone. If anyone is interested, there is an online petition to keep us from paying premium prices for the Microsoft Game Room. Sign here!
Anyways, thanks for listening...errr reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you have any.
- Dr. Swank
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