Revealed XBLAugust prices incorrect [Update]

by Ross Miller on Jul 30th 2008 1:45PM

The official Japanese Xbox 360 blog has posted prices for Xbox Live's "Summer of Arcade" series (i.e. five weeks of awesome releases). Let's review:

July 30: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (800 MS points / $10)
August 6: Braid (1200 MS points / $15)
August 13: Bionic Commando Rearmed (800 MS points / $10)
August 20: Galaga Legions (800 MS points / $10)
August 27: Castle Crashers (1800 MS points / $22.50)

At $22.50, Castle Crashers would hold the record for most expensive XBLA title. The total price for the Summer of arcade is $67.50, which is a little bit more than a standard Xbox 360 title + applicable tax. The prices are currently set for Japan only, but they generally don't differ with the North American releases. Is your wallet prepared?

Update: Microsoft tells Shacknews these prices are incorrect, and that the final prices won't be revealed until the Monday before each respective game launches.

[Via X3F]

Source

Tags: bionic-commando-rearmed, braid, castle-crashers, galaga-legions, geometry-wars-2, japan, summer-of-arcade, xbla, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xbox-live-arcade

Reader Comments (91)

I mean it looks like an amazing game, but really Microsoft? Talking about sticking it to the consumer.

Coming from the guy with an Apple logo, oh the irony.

is it really up to MS how much this game costs?

Yeah... I don't think we want to go there ;)I could compare the cost of a Windows desktop with all the required software to a Mac, but I'll refrain for the civility of these comments.

I'll still probably get this game though.

Go ahead and compare the two, Drew... if you're up for embarrassing yourself, anyway.

How's this for embarrassing?:

For the six years I've owned my own Macs, they have performed perfectly for me when it comes to the tasks I purchased them for. I'm happy to pay a premium on something that does what I want.

For Windows PCs, they probably perform perfectly when it comes to the tasks you purchase them for. You are probably happy to pay a premium price when you want to upgrade video / sound cards and Operating Systems, to ensure you can do what you want with your PC when you want.

They both accomplish their respective duties for the people who chose to purchase them, much like PS3 / 360 / Wii.

Why drag Mac v PC into this post about trying to find the means to justify the would-be most expensive XBLA game?

+1 for you, dear Xoviet. Well said.

Xoviet chiK; Because nerds get off to having huge flamewars about what electronic item that have bought.

Thanks Xoviet. +1

Comparing the two is silly when half the stuff that OS X comes with has better versions available as open source freeware.

-iTunes is free on both.
-Firefox is the best browser available, much better than Safari or IE.
-Thunderbird is a better mail client than Mail or OE/Windows Mail.
-Picasa > iPhoto
-OpenOffice is free on both.
-self-sufficient antivirus is available for free for Windows (I prefer Avast but there's also AVG Free and Avira AntiVir)

Who's comparing bundled apps again?
I work on a G5 all day while administrating many XP systems, and I come home to 2 systems I've built running Vista Ultimate x64.

Macs and PCs are no different than one another at getting things done. Similar apps are available on both; there is no more platform dependency with any of the pro apps (other than the few Apple makes such as FCP). I use CS3 all day on a Mac and come home to CS3 Windows and don't miss a beat.

Personally, I dislike both Apple and Microsoft. Aside from the fact that I usually hate overly-graphical and 'simplified' UI's, the biggest difference between Apple PC's vs IBM-clone PC's (for lack of an up to date term) is that when I choose to purchase Winblows, I'm only giving $50 to an evil corporation, vs ALL my money to Apple for software AND hardware.

Anyways, on-topic: Castle Crashers for $22.50 makes me sad.

....What in the name of....

I'll still get it but what the hell?

You know you could wait until a price drop. I’m betting that after sales at 1800pts start to slump there will be a reduction of price. I think I’m going to wait this one out, but then again I have never been an early adopter.

1800 points for Castle Crashers?!!!
Damn...I don't know if I want to buy it now...

But it looks so good...

Still a must buy for me.

No offence, but isn't 3/4 of Shivering Isles's* price a bit too much for a game that essentially looks like a cross between Alien Hominid and Dad n' Me?

*A game that offers you at least 30 hours worth of quests etc. and countless hours of fun.

Fifteen bucks is the sweet spot for Castle Crashers. Why make it over Twenty? I'm sure there will be more than a few people that will not get the game now, that would have bought it at Fifteen... Silly Microsoft. Yes, I will still be getting it myself.

...I do hope the game has the length and replay value to justify the price. If the average gamer can plow through it in Thirty minutes, there will be a lot less sales.

Well that's a pile of horse-shit!

Braid has some big balls charging 15 for there game.

Seriously! I've been looking forward to Braid for a long time, so will pay, but the developer--isn't it just one guy?--is going to lose a lot of sales for making it more than the standard $10. Who's going to pay $15 for an independent game that isn't hyped like Castle Crashers has been? It better have an awesome demo.

If it was at 1200 I wouldn't have been surprised but 1800 points is way too much.

I can understand Castle Crashers price point, to a certain extent.
...but $15 for Braid? Really?

Anyway, this is a potentially baaaad sign for the future of downloadable games.

Since it *IS* the Japanese Xbox site, maybe the higher prices are for Japanese customers? I know, I'm probably being hopelessly optimistic, but you're right, this could be a bad sign :(.

Didn't MS said the limit for xlive games was 1600p?

1800? Um I could buy that Penny Arcade game or Ninja Gaiden.

Not sure if want.

Braid = fail.
Castle Crashers = ...
BCR = buy
Galaga = do NOT buy

Braid = fail.

I beg to differ.I could see my self playing that one also Galaga buy my only most buy there is Bionic Commando Rearmed.I like Castle Crashers but I have never paid more than 800p for a xbox live game.

Not EXACTLY sure what you said, but Galaga is a wasted of points, i can wait out braid until it becomes a "greatest hit", and CC is so not worth the money, but i might get it anyway, lol.

Exactly. There are too many good, full games coming out in the next few months for me to blow $22.50 on a download only beat-em-up with SNES graphics.

I beg to differ.

I could see my self playing Braid also Galaga but the only game there that is a most buy for me is Bionic Commando Rearmed.I like Castle Crashers but I have never paid more than 800p for a xbox live game.

_________________________________________________--.

Better?

CC is way too expensive,Braid looks good but I feel Exit delivers better and more puzzles for your money.

Galaga could be good.

I wish my SNES could pull off Castle Crashers. I would have never made the SEGA Saturn upgrade.

Am I missing a firmware update?

Jonathan Blow Says:
July 29th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Phil: There are about 70 … or so … puzzles in [Braid]. They are divided up unevenly between levels — the levels vary a lot in size. I think there are about 40 levels if you don’t count the story screens.
-----

He also discusses that he'd like to make a level editor for the game, in response to a PC version question.

Sounds like $15 well spent, though I'll be damned if I can get three other friends to fork over $22.50 for Castle Crashers.

It won't deter me, but you're right, it will deter some of my friend list which could hurt. Still, since I bought Alien Hominid day one at retail for Gamecube this doesn't seem like a bad price to me.

I really want Castle Crashers but I will not pay over $15 for a digitally distributed game. For $22.50 I better have a physical copy of something.

Ugh, I want Castle Crashers so much, but with this price, I might not now, as I need to get my money up for L4D. >_

If Castle Crashers isn't completely worth every penny, then you can hold me, Matthew Michael Murray/Dopple Boppler personally and financially responsible.

I'm still interested in Castle Crashers, but I'm definitely trying before buying. At ~$22, it better be a pretty big game.

$20+ is too much for games that you will never be able to trade or sell to someone else. I'm saddened...

Luckily XBLA has trials for ALL their games so if you dont like you don't buy. I'm sure a lot of people WILL like and WILL buy though. lol

Braid looks B-E-A-UTIFUL btw.

Braid looks very good. Specially because is like a tribute to the old Mario Bros. games.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.xbox360fanboy.com/media/2008/02/jumpman.jpg

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.xbox360fanboy.com/media/2008/02/another_castle.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br3Oo1g9nZQ&eurl=http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=35772

I love the "I'm sorry, but the Princess is in another castle"

=p

I love how M$ ups the price ante whenever they feel like it. First Penny Arcade was supposed to be the limit at $20...just wait till "Portal:Still Alive" comes out...that sucker is probably gonna be $30...mark my words.

I stopped reading this post after "M$".

With dedication to Anni.

"I AM A MASSIVE TROLL, PLEASE ASK ME TO LEAVE JOYSTIQ!"

In fact, I'm going to post it every time somebody says M$ or Nintendoland.Thank you Anni for giving my life a meaning.

I am $o $orry to have hurt your $en$ibilitie$!

Relax guys, I am sure Microsoft will do just fine without your brave, selfless defense of it's name.

What's this got to do with Microsoft? Shouldn't you be bitching at the publisher or developer?

I have a feeling that a major reason for Castle Crasher's price is due to the long development time. I mean, how many other XBLA games can you think of that have taken as long as CC?

I'm still going to buy it, though it better be a decently long game and plenty of replay value.

It's funny that people are saying 22.50 is too much then immediately following it wit, "But I'll still buy it."

Doing some quick math at 1800 points instead of 1200 they are getting 1.5 times more in revenue. The question is how much of the audience are they losing do to the price point?

My guess is that they lose less then half of their potential purchasers so win for them. Also as the game price drops in 6-18 months they will get a bump in purchasers.

So yeah Behemoth make you some money.

The only way they "win" is if they lose less than 1/3rd of potential buyers
1200pts * 10 buyers = 12000 pts
1800pts * 7 buyers = 12600 pts

I don't know, really. On the one hand I'll definitely be snagging the demos for Braid and Castle Crashers-- BCRA is an auto-buy for me. I can see paying an even $20 for CC if it's good enough; it looks to be highly polished and at least funny enough to warrant the price (yes, I value funny). But Braid... without knowing more about it, and just going on that interview from late last year, I'm not entirely convinced that it's worth it. I'm hoping that it doesn't bomb, for the guy's sake, but it just sounds so totally unappealing.

Or I'm probably just bitter about getting suckered for flOw and Everyday Shooter. (They're okay. Not nearly as spectacular as they had been hyped to be, but... just okay.)

If you think 22,50$ is bad, keep in mind Microsoft is the only company out of the big three that still haven't adjusted their point cost to the value of the Canadian dollar (which is now equal to the US dollar). 1800 points in the US can be bought for 22,50$US, but up here we're arbitrarily charged 26$US for the same amount of points.

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