Kameo joins in on the holiday cheer
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Nov 29th 2005 at 3:15PM }
Correct us if we're wrong, but isn't the (Capitalist) spirit of
Christmas, gift giving? Well, we suppose in order to get to giving, you've got to first get to
buying. Welcome to the world of Xbox Live Marketplace microtransactions…
The kind folks at Rare & Microsoft have designed a custom "Winter Warrior Pack" that will use a bit of the ole' festive touch to transform your Kameo characters into Winter Warriors (see right: Kameo doing her best Ms. Claus imitation). Of course, rather than a gift to Kameo fans, the "Winter Warrior Pack" must be purchased before it can be downloaded. Watch out y'all, there's a new Grinch on the block!
[If you can hold off until spring, maybe Microsoft will let you scoop the download for free.]
[Thanks, Luke]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
XD @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Here's one of the good/bad points about downloads. Its very cool that we can get upgrades or addons, etc. but a costume that you have to pay for seems like its pushing things a bit. Some people will eat this kind of stuff up and i'm sure MS will make a small fortune from these kinds of purchases. I'm not one of the poeple who's willing to pay for something small like this and I think this case should be more of a free/bonus download. Now if we're talking about a new form to transform Kameo into, that's a different story!
Mrs.EB @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
That's very thoughtful of them.. to nickle and dime us... OMG but Kameo is in a santa suit! OMG!!!1!1!1
rk @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
This is nothing more then a test to see what consumers are willing to pay. If it sells, then expect to see more such offers in the future, if there is a consumer back lash, then expect similar content to be free going forward (or not available at all). It makes sense that MS is the first one into the pool.
Buckshot @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Much like the gamertag pictures, they give you very few choices, and anything remotely cool you must buy with microsoft points. It is the wave of the future. Sigh...
Scott @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Geez....nobody is forcing you to pay money on this. You guys sound like the people bitching about credit card companies because a bunch of irresponsible idiots decide to max out their credit cards.
Nmaster @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
lol, now haX0rs actually have some reason to get crackin' on the Xbox 360...
Coming Soon: "Nude Warrior Pack"
helo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
You better not pout, you better not whine..
360's are out, and they nickel and dime,
for every little thing that you'll buy.
They see you when you're online.
They know your gamer score.
We see what games your playing
at home or at the store.
Don't buy anything. Enjoy your machine.
Micro transactions are truly obscene.
Like fools who buy those stupid ringtones.
Justin @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Nice little song.
XD @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Scott,
you miss everyones points. This is the beginning of something big. More things will use this process and it will expand to the point where you will get something very basic and you will need to buy upgrades to enjoy the game the way it was ment to be played. No one needs Kameo's Christmas suit and no one is being pessured to purchase it; its the big picture that will come from this that has people dissapointed.
MumbleyJoe @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Microsoft has been experimenting with DLC for 2 years now and I don't think games are any worse for it. The benefit of microtransactions, if anything, is that it makes these cheap little purchases feasible... they're accessories, you don't need them, so don't buy them if you don't want them. As for substantial content like maps, cars and things like that I can't complain about how its been managed so far. Sometimes it's well worth the money, sometimes not. Such is life.
I don't think Scott missed the point at all. I don't feel nickel and dimed by Microsoft over things like this. It's Kameo in a santa-suit... it's not like they held back real game content.
cyberfelon @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
This may not be a necessary addition to Kameo, but you can bet your ass that if this is sales model is successful it will lead to upgrades in other games that give you an advantage online. The more you pay, the more you win. That's why this first step is so distressing.
XD @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
MumbleyJoe,
learn how to read; go back to my 2 comments and try again.
MumbleyJoe @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Thanks for keeping is civil XD.
I can read just fine, but I stand by my point. People have made the same statements since XBOX Live launched. So far they haven't used it in such a way that you could pay for an advantage. I've seen it used to expand content and now to accessorize games as they have with Kameo.
Seriously, this is a costume for Kameo and to me doesn't spell doom and gloom for fair gaming. Rather than extrapolate from this costume to gamer extortion and unfair advantages, why not conisder the two year history of XBOX Live and look at how it has been used instead. Feel free to rub my nose in it if it eventually goes that way, but so far I can't see a problem.
Bloo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
"More things will use this process and it will expand to the point where you will get something very basic and you will need to buy upgrades to enjoy the game the way it was ment to be played"
Then the game will be missing said items when reviewed and get a bad review thus hurting sales... so your speculation is most likely wrong.
"but you can bet your ass that if this is sales model is successful it will lead to upgrades in other games that give you an advantage online"
That would piss of customers. Pissing off customers who already paid you is bad for the sequel. Thus, this most likely will not happen either.
Rakthar @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
You guys are thinking about this wrong.
Rare didn't create this as a gift to the fans, but thanks to the horrors of DLC/Micropayments they have to charge for it.
They created it so they could charge money for it. It's a super mini expansion pack that's available for the people who want it. How many games have extras added on after release? There may be a few extras patched in, but for the most part it'll be balance changes and maybe a few things that didn't make it by the original ship date (a map or two).
By creating microtransactions as a valid thing, it allows fans of a game to have more content/neat features, that they can pay for if they want. If that's not desired, then it won't sell and people will stop creating it.
Imagine if instead of releasing expansions months down the road, game companies could add little features, some art and other assets, and release them incrementally. Would that not be good for fans of the game?
Why is it every time a new feature is introduced people look at the worst and least positive aspects? This is a way to remove the retail revenue stream which we all claim to hate. We hate marketing, we hate PR, we hate shovelware that's shoved out to meet a release date. Here's a mechanism that gets around all that and allows the studios to directly profit off their work, and people are afraid of it.
Nicholas @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Prediction: If this is the microtransactions that Xbox Live marketplace is based on, it will fail pretty fast.
What's that did someone say Divx?
Joost Schuur @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Buckshot: While the selection of game pictures for your profile is limited to a dozen if you edit it via Xbox.com, there are a lot more (at least 10-20) available in-game for free by default. Many of the launch titles have avatar pics you can chose, without spending Microsoft Points or even having to specifically download content marked as 'free'. They don't appear to be content for games you own either, as I was offered Quake 4 pics, which I don't own.
Bloo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
"Prediction: If this is the microtransactions that Xbox Live marketplace is based on, it will fail pretty fast.
What's that did someone say Divx?"
It's not what it is based on. You also have themes and great games like Geometry Wars and classics like Gauntlet. It is based on ALL of those things. And how this compares in any way whatsoever to Divx is beyond me. Divx failed because it was backed by Circuit City so Best Buy et al didn't want to sell it and the fricking discs EXPIRED. That compares how?
Vinnk @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Ok, I am fine with having to buy additional content. It used to be included for free and you could unlock it, I'll miss that. But I could see myself buying this additional stuff to complete my game. After all because of this system the prices of games have lowered. Oh wait. They havn't. They've gone up.
So $60 +? =complete game.
Right now it's not a problem, I could care less if I didn't have a santa suit. But still.. on another system that might have been something biult in as an unlockable. But games will not need to be complete when they ship. They will only need to be playable. All the little extras will have to be bought seperately. New tracks, cars, decals, that should have come with the game in the first place.
But as I said before, you charge me only $40 for the game and I would be willing to spend $20 on microtransactions. Though it save me time to just buy the game at $60 and have that all included, or free to download with a registered purchase of the game.
Maybe that's just me.
Barc @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
--Imagine if instead of releasing expansions months down the road, game companies could add little features, some art and other assets, and release them incrementally. Would that not be good for fans of the game?--
Well gosh, that's almost as good as buying only the core Xbox 360 system now, and then spending $139 CDN to add the hard drive, $50 CDN to add the component output cable, and $60CDN for the wireless controller!
Face it. Microsoft knew that pretty much everyone would want the full package, and not settle for "just" the core components, and priced all the accessories to match in an effort to dig every dime they could out of people. Then, they ship more core systems than full packages, despite the fact that it's the pre-xmas feeding frenzy, and everyone will be looking to get all the extra components to make the systems premium systems by Xmas when they're handed out as gifts.
Note to explain a bit of the bitterness above: I bought one of the Core systems for a Christmas present to a sibling, and only was able to get a component cable for it at this point, no hard drive, no wireless controller (though wireless is not really that important). Playing with it even in a limited fashion (have to test it, you see. Make sure there's no hardware issues) has convinced me well beyond a shadow of a doubt that one of these boxes without the hard drive is nearly bleeping useless. Anyone who thinks they can buy a core system, not get the hard drive, and have even close to the same experience as a hard drive enabled system is delusional. Everything revolves around it. Live doesn't work without storage, content can't be downloaded, custom tracks and other things can't be saved, can't play Xbox games, can't do really much. And if you pay $60CDN for a 64MB memory card instead of spending twice that much for the hard drive, you're really out to lunch. Microsoft's rationale for the two tier pricing is they want to give budget gamers a way in as well. That's just so much horsecrap. They know damn well that 95% of the core buyers will end up buying the hard drive as well, and pay more for the privilege.
This Kameo nickel-and-dime exercise is the same type of thinking. It's the thin edge of the wedge. Not about extra content that a few people might want, but ultimately leading up to getting people used to buying most of the product first, and then later on buying the remainder.
What about when more games are doing things like only bundling half the number of levels in the retail product, and then you can buy more if you liked those first ones online? Or if they decide to make the games episodic, and if the episodes don't sell so well, the development of further levels is cancelled?
As for arguments that they've been doing micropayments for things for 2 years now on Live and haven't done anything of the sort, that is true, BUT, Live was optional before, and couldn't be counted on as a distribution medium to everyone with a console. Now, everyone gets the low-end Live for free, so of course you can put up patches and content without fear that your customers won't have access to them.
Rare Hare @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
7. Posted Nov 29, 2005, 4:00 PM ET by helo
You better not pout, you better not whine..
360's are out, and they nickel and dime,
for every little thing that you'll buy.
They see you when you're online.
They know your gamer score.
We see what games your playing
at home or at the store.
Don't buy anything. Enjoy your machine.
Micro transactions are truly obscene.
Like fools who buy those stupid ringtones.
----------------------------------
awesome. purely awesome. it also sums up all i have to say on the matter pretty much.. buy little tidbits if you want, but i won't be laying down extra money here and there for santa suits.
Rare Hare @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
Kameo does look pretty cute in the ms. clause outfit though...
XD @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
I'm done posting on Joystiq, its not worth my time and I'm tired of explaining things to people who refuse to be open minded enough to understand that they might be wrong or that someone else may have a good point that they don't like.
I'm tired of being mis-read or interpreted incorrectly when my posts are not ambiguous.
I'm also tired of the fanboys and their stupid uniformed comments and being accused of being a fanboy for what ever system I make a positive comment on and being a fanboy for the competition when I make a negative comment on a system.
Most, not all, people on here are very gullible and can easily be blinded and brainwashed by marketing and by misguided loyalty. In time you will see the errors in your ways; that or you'll eventually grow up.
A big part of anyone's job who likes what they do should be managing expectations. Thats what this industry is trying to do to the consumer and the average consumer eats it up like candy instead of realizing its stale bread.
Enjoy your gaming and don't say I didn't warn you!
XD out4good!
Levi @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
You see, this is really lame. Charging people for Christmas themes. I remember back in the day that there would be easter eggs in games where the game environment would get all festive when the console clock hit a major holiday. I can't believe that two years ago has now become back in the day.