Lumines: Insert credit card to continue

This HAS to fall flat on its face or it will only be the start of crap like this. I love Lumines, but there is no way I can even think about buying it now. Every cent they make will only encourage more of this behavior. Please do yourself, and everyone else, a favor. Do not give them your money. $15 is bad enough. The original on PSP is only $20 now and they don't have to pay for the UMD and packaging and distribution and etc. etc. This is such a shady business move, you'd think it was coming from Sony...

No way I'm gonna buy this! I hope nobody else does either. This kind of price point cannot be supported.

And the upcoming PSP version is only going to cost $30. ;) This game is friggin' expensive.

This is blatant price gouging, I'm a huge marketplace supporter but it needs to be reasonable, and when you buy a game you shouldn't have to buy the 2nd level to beat it. This is crap.

What I find so strange about this craziness is that it seems to be coming out of nowhere. Most of the other Marketplace items (besides the Horse Armor, of course) have been very reasonably priced, but t his is just atrocious. What's worse is that the entire game (Lumines 2) is basically a big advertising ploy for the featured musicians: unlike the original Lumines, now you play with Gwen Stefani's face and music on her level which assuredly ends on a note of "buy my CD". Absolutely appalling.

However, remember that Microsoft doesn't set the prices: the developers do. So point the finger at Q? Entertainment for milking their franchise. Such a shame, as Q? was a developer I used to have such respect for showing their true colours.

I have to agree with Frank on this one. Its not Microsoft thats incharge of the pricing scheme. That said I will not buy this game, but I really wanted to get it. But its just so rediculious that I wont even consider it now.

Which brings up an intersting thought about Q? Entertainment. Or Asian developers. If you looke at Chromehounds and their latest Weapons Pack BS, I am starting to think that the asian developers are wanting to rape the marketplace more so than the western developers. Or thats the image that I am starting to see. You guys think this will be a trend especially with the PS3's new online setup as well. I could see a lot of asian developers going this route, if this is the case. I mean if someone is going to pay $600 for a system, they have to be a money tree.

As someone said, this is Q Entertainment's idea, not MS's, because MS don't set up the prices or anything, they just put the content on the XBLM server for them.

But I see this is Q's way of making back the money lost compared to the other versions (such as on PSP, which this game is the exactly the same as). But still, I find it dumb that their doing it on basic features, such as playing against a CPU, or whatnot. I can understand having additional, bonus content like all other games but not doing this for essential parts.

If they were going to do this, why didn't they just release Lumines Live as a full Xbox 360 game for $29.99 or something? I'm still looking foward to playing this game, though.

Makes you wonder how the circus some developers are trying to turn the marketplace into will take the actual nosedive after we the "users" can develop and sell our own games on the marketplace

You know, I originally thought the Marketplace and the Live Arcade in general were good ideas. Howerver, Microsoft seems to be screwing themselves over here with their prices. Seriously, the only way I'm paying 25 bucks for a game on Live is if it's something involving the Half-Life 2 engine. Seriously, I'm not going pay for different parts of a game. Gimme the whole thing all at once or don't give it to me at all.

Out of interest... is it the price or the fact that it's in separate parts that has everyone so hot and bothered? Would you be less offended by a $25 single download that included everything and had no addon packs? or a $15 when all was said and done download that involved purchasing 3 separate parts? I'm really curious; I don't understand the negativity here...

AoE, honestly, I'd have absolutely no problem if they released the game as a total package for $25... $30... even full price, assuming that it's that good a quality game (haven't been able to play it yet).

The problem here is that from the sounds of it, Q Entertainment is basically releasing a game which is missing some key features... the full puzzle mode, multiplayer, so fundamentally it's an incomplete game... so basically by purchasing everything, we could very well be encouraging developers to do this on a regular basis...

While it's a pretty extreme viewpoint... with companies like EA out there who's just out to make a buck, that's kinda a horrifying idea.


On the other side of the coin... could it be possible that Q entertainment's intentions are not to shortchange us... but to basically do what microsoft is doing with the HD-DVD? If we're gonna use it, that's certainly our option... but if we have no intentions of utilizing the multiplayer mode... then why pay for it?

I dunno... I guess that's a stretch.