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Xbl Marketplace - Overpriced?

Siren

By Siren,
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Siren Newbie

Siren

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It is discussion time! Remember all opinions will be tied with your gamertag :)

Is the XBL Marketplace overpriced as a whole or is it just certain content? Think about themes, gamer pics, avatar items, Zune Marketplace, and DLC....all of it. Where do you stand when it comes to the pricing? Feel free to make comparisons to PSN and the Wii store too!

Thanks everyone :)

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ThermoNukePanda Newbie

ThermoNukePanda

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In my opinion there is a disparity between the Xbox Live Arcade titles versus Microsoft's Games on Demand service. Digital downloads are usually great for many of the smaller Xbox Live Arcade games, but you really have to wonder about the pricing of the full retail games. The same problem exists for the Playstation Network. Why would I want to pay full price to download a PSP/PS3 game from their service when I can walk into a store and possibly pay less? Sure, it's convenient to be able to download the game directly to your system but the extra premium you pay for a downloadable retail title isn't worth it in my opinion. I'll keep relying on Amazon or other outlets to make cheap purchases AND have the physical copy of the disc/instructions.

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Kevnvek Newbie

Kevnvek

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The standard price of XBLA games seems to have risen from $10 to $15. I buy a lot of XBLA games, and I know for a fact that I would have spent MORE money if they didn't jack the prices up. I'm just turned off by having to pay so much for a single arcade game, so I believe they're only hurting themselves by raising prices.

DLCs are getting out of hand as well. While some can offer great new experiences that make them worth the price, such as Borderland's General Knoxx DLC, many are just overpriced. $5 for a single, formerly PS3 exclusive character in Soulcaibur IV? $15 for a map pack with half of the maps recycled from the previous game in Modern Warfare 2? Think about it, after four map packs, you may as well have bought the whole game TWICE.

I've gotten to the point where I feel that "If it's in a Deal of the Week, I'll get it", for games such as DeathSpank that I'm interested in but turned off by the price. If you looked at a graph of the rise and fall of XBLA game and DLC purchases, there would probably be huge spikes when they are in a Deal of the Week, because prices actually seem fair during them.

The worst part of DLC these days is intentionally withheld content. It's ridiculous when they announce DLC before a game is even released, or shortly after, because you KNOW that that content was being designed at the same time as the game, but intentionally being taken out so they can charge you another $10 for it later.

Lol, sorry about the mini rant Siren. Maybe I should be writing the article. :D lol jk

I just have a lot of opinions on the subject.

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Siren Newbie

Siren

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I just have a lot of opinions on the subject.

Feel free to rant away. I'll find a way to use all of the comments! The more opinions on the matter the better!

Lol...much love for GG. I'll find a way to sneak it in there.

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Skylark95 Newbie

Skylark95

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In my opinion, almost everything is overpriced now when it comes to the marketplace... Microsoft and other publishers just know that there are people who will buy something no matter how much it costs. I think all the arcade games that have been released for Summer of Arcade should be 800 MS Points and not 1200. I love my Hydro Thunder game, but for paying $15, I would expect more than 8 tracks. The unfortunate thing about this is just because people will still buy things from the marketplace no matter what the cost, the high prices will probably never change, and in fact, probably go up more over time like they have for the past 6 years.

Also Siren... I made this by taking data from Wikipedia, you could use it in the article if you like...

xboxlivearcade28042imag.png

Source: http://en.wikipedia....ve_Arcade_games

Data File: http://cid-de4bcbe51...e%20Arcade.xlsx

Full Image: http://a.imageshack.us/img291/2204/xboxlivearcade28042imag.png

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InfernoParadox Newbie

InfernoParadox

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Sure the marketplace if overpriced, but that is because there are rich, or just stupid, gamers out feeding off Microsoft's diamond encrusted nipples. Microsoft doesn't care about anything besides money, and will gladly jack up a games price to double its worth because no matter what, some people will buy it.

The other thing i hate about the marketplace is that the prices are pretty much fixed in place, besides the occasional sales which only have a few titles, i cant wait for the price to go down, as i would on an actual game.

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ThermoNukePanda Newbie

ThermoNukePanda

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Skylark, awesome graph dude. It just shows much much they're raping us.

More math. Since 2006, there has been on average an EIGHTY TWO PERCENT INCREASE.

$11.94 (2010 average price) - $6.54 (2006 average price) = $5.40

$5.40 / $6.54 = 0.82 = 82%

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Cody Newbie

Cody

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In my opinion yes, I think everything should be free except movies and games/add ons. I mean honestly, its come down to choosing between your avatar looking cool to increasing play time on the 360. Who's idea was it to charge for the clothes? I'm not going to lie, I have only bought maybe two XBOX Live arcade games, and even with that, I didn't pay for any of the Microsoft points, I only buy games with MS points that I got for free. Most of the Arcade games I've played I have gotten from my buddy (GT= xDecayingx) Well I'm done here, haha.

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Kevnvek Newbie

Kevnvek

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And put it's an 82% increase for all the retards out there. LoL

Well one thing to consider is that the quality of XBLA titles has risen drastically. Some of them are as good graphically and gameplay-wise as full retail games. When you think that something like Pacman or Assault Heroes was initially released at $10 years ago, and something as high end as Shadow Complex was released for $15 only last year, it's not so bad. Development costs are most likely higher now, too. Think about it, the file size was once capped at 50MB, and now we're seeing XBLA titles that are around 1GB.

I do still think that MS is ripping people off with their pricing schemes, but there are some examples of how far XBLA games have come.

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jb410 Newbie

jb410

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First off, I agree with what everyone else was saying. But what I really want to see from M$ (besides some humble pie) is just freedom, for the devs/publishers...I have read several times in various interviews that the reason for the pricing of a game add-on/avatar piece/etc was due to Microsoft. I believe in one case, they wanted to offer something for free but Microsoft made them charge for it (Can't think of the incident and correct me if I'm wrong). When it comes down to it, I think the pricing should be determined by the dev/publisher and not by Microsoft. This freedom should go across the board imo, like for example when it comes to updating a game. Instead of going through an extraneous process, the dev should be able to offer an update or patch at their own will.

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ThermoNukePanda Newbie

ThermoNukePanda

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First off, I agree with what everyone else was saying. But what I really want to see from M$ (besides some humble pie) is just freedom, for the devs/publishers...I have read several times in various interviews that the reason for the pricing of a game add-on/avatar piece/etc was due to Microsoft. I believe in one case, they wanted to offer something for free but Microsoft made them charge for it (Can't think of the incident and correct me if I'm wrong). When it comes down to it, I think the pricing should be determined by the dev/publisher and not by Microsoft. This freedom should go across the board imo, like for example when it comes to updating a game. Instead of going through an extraneous process, the dev should be able to offer an update or patch at their own will.

A shining example of the problem is Team Fortress 2 on the 360. Valve WANTS/WANTED to release quality content for free:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/valve-hopes-to-release-upcoming-tf2-dlc-for-free/

And then we have news that MS is going to force them to charge for it, so they were waiting for "an abundance of content" to make it worthwhile:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/valve-hopes-to-release-upcoming-tf2-dlc-for-free/

That was 2008, and still we have no updates. PC has had a RIDICULOUS amount of content added to TF2.

Another example is the All Fronts map pack for Gears of War 2. Epic wanted to give it away free and MS wagged their finger and opened their pockets to say "FEED ME":

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/09/microsoft-wont-let-new-gow-maps-be-free/

There are numerous examples of this, and quite honestly it's bullcrap. If a developer wants to give away stuff then MS should let them.

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ARMISTICErj Newbie

ARMISTICErj

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I think it's mostly overpriced, but there are developers out there such as Valve that have gone against the grain and stayed very reasonable on pricing and i wish they were rewarded for that. also remember back in the day when we useto get free arcade games and all kinds of free crap? what happened? we pay for a premium service but hafeto dish out for EVERYTHING! the only time you get anything free anymore is games like mass effect 2 and battlefield 2 when you buy brand new but then you could argue most of that stuff should be on the disk at launch.

i still haven't bought a single map pack for Modern Warfare 2 because of the fact that they are doing recycled maps and charging more for it. $10 was justifiable if you play the hell out of a game but $15...it's totally BS. there's 2 or 3 map packs for the game now and to get them all you would need $30-$45 dollars, that's almost the price of a brand new game people!

someone needs to tell microsoft that most people are broke because they sure don't seem to get that. my income is fine and i make a decent living but i was taught the value of a dollar and there is almost not a single deal to be had nowadays on the marketplace (aside from the deal of the week, which has been crap for the past few months IMO). even Limbo which i LOVED was way overpriced.

I'm not even gonna try to calculate how much i have given Microsoft but i figure for the amount they have gotten from me they should be alittle more willing to give me a deal.

that is the end of my rant.

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PaNfOoT Newbie

PaNfOoT

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Just like to throw this one out there when it comes to overpriced DLC.

Ace Combat 6

Number of game add-ons: 59

Cost of retail game on release: $59.99

Cost of DLC for the game as of today: roughly 11500 Microsoft points, or approximately $143.75

Granted I own somewhere between 10 - 15 dollars worth of content that isn't factored into that number, it is still nearly 3 times the cost of the full game when it cost its most.

Also note, this content is all skins and maps, all on the disk already.

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Towncryer Newbie

Towncryer

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DLC should have a declining scale as releases for the same title are introduced. That way it controls the investment that customers make on old titles while feeding the war chests of M$. While maintaining the legnth and quality gamers have become accustomed to, prices should be $15, then $12, then $10 and the bottom being $5. As the customer purchases the DLC they are then credited with the discount for the next. We will never be in a world where add-ons are free anymore so I think this is a compromise we all could work with.

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Trixiebelle Newbie

Trixiebelle

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definitely overpriced - I have one arcade game this year and it was a gift from Nick. I have a couple of the DLC from Dragon Age because I enjoyed the game so much, but the last one for Leliana was a ripe off and took less than 2 hours to play through. I completely agree with Chris about buying games in the store as opposed to download. Why pay more simply because it is there? I work too hard for my money to throw it away.

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