Blow explains dilemma of Braid's price to 1Up

Problem is, if the game sells good at $15, then more games will be priced the same way, like Castle Crashers (rumored to be a $20 game).

Good for them... bad for our wallet.

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Fernando,
There were quite a few games before it that were >$10

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There is no problem and there will be no problem if the content is actually worth it. I dont know why this is so difficult to understand. I doubt we will ever see Bejewled 4, Switchball 3, or Super Duper Pacman Champions Edition at 1200 or more points. The devs know what the sweetspot for their respective title is. If anything I think this encourages the devs to put better quality on XBLA or PSN going in knowing that people are really going to buy their games.

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If an extra five dollars is going to break the bank, you might want to stop gaming and fortify the bank walls, if you know what I mean =P

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The Braid demo was interesting, It looks to me like a pretty awesome game honestly. However I suck at platformers, so I'm certainly not paying $15 for it. That isn't to say I would pay $10 for it either.

Braid is not a plaformer at its core. Platforming is merely the mechanic used to solve the puzzles. I stink at platformers and hate them all... And Braid doen't deserve to be dragged down into that "genre".

It is more of a puzzle game then anything.

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Knowing that I always talk myself out of 800 point purchases, I thought that the odds that I would purchase this game would be pretty low. However, it seems like I might just get over the price tag, because the demo was brilliant. I probably would have bought it already were it not for the sale at Toys R Us this week which has thrust Boom Blox and Zack and Wiki onto my plate.

$15 is a bit too much for a pretentious Mario clone with a rewind button.

Haha, oh wait it's nothing like Mario...

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More then likely he hasn't even played it...

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You're absolutely right. The point of Braid is to get to the end of the level without dying.

Oh wait.

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@miyagi

Are you sure you have played it? Sure there are some nifty additions... Like the Prince of Persia Time jumping, and the levels where time moves along with the player... But come on... Goombas... Pipe Plants... ;)

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Miyagi, what's your problem? You're a short, fat guy trying to save a princess. Hell, in the demo there's a stage called fucking Jumpman with pipes, piranha plants, and fireballs.
Hell, at the end of the first set of stages the stupid dinosaur comes out and gives the (terribly forced) "The princess is in another castle" line.
The only real differences between this game and Mario are the rewind button and a silly storyline that sounds like Blow wrote it after a bad breakup. It could be one goddamned stage in a Mario game, but people are fellating it to no end.
If this was the "Best of E3", then the other showings must have been pretty damned week, and I know that wasn't the case.

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I find it amazing how much quibbling there is over a measly five bucks. Both parties are guilty too: Blow won't shut up about the pricing and the consumers whine incessantly. I consider myself a pretty cheap bastard, but it's five dollars. It's really not that much.

Jesus, it's $15 dollars!

You ever go to a movie? there's 2-3 hours of entertainment. About 10 dollars for a ticket, another 10 for popcorn and a drink. And who knows? The movie might suck.

I bought Braid with about a seconds hesitation, I saw the $15 price tag and said, "Oh, that's a bit more than I thought it would be...Oh well."

And guess what? I regret nothing. Wasn't Portal worth the $60 for the orange box? That game lasts way less then Braid. Braid will change the way you think about time and existence, and you're all crying about 5 measly dollars. If you were at a retail store, you wouldn't care. But since it's on the internet, you have to make sure that 'you're getting your moneys worth'.

If you want the game, BUY IT. If you don't, DON'T BUY IT. Stop crying to the developer for trying to make some money.

Exactly my thought. Dark Knight was worth my $10 ticket for 2.5 hours, this is worth $15 for 5-6 hours.

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Certain prices make sense for certain games. I know that there are MANY people that would have bought Pac-Mac:CE (including me) if it was $5 instead of 10. An example of how it works for me is with Mega Man 9 and Portal. If Mega Man 9, which I have to admit I'm looking forward to more, was priced over $10, I would wait for a price drop. With Portal I would feel perfectly fine paying $15. If they decide to charge more I would again wait. If the new Portal was a disc game I could see spending $20, 25 with co-op or multi-player, and 30 with co-op and multi-player.

Yeah, I guess it all basically comes down to a matter of preference: whether you feel Braid is good enough to pay $15 for. I say nay, and that doesn't mean I don't think Braid is GOOD, it just means I can't justify paying that high of a price. Especially if I have to buy 1500 MSP (the only denomination possible), over $18, just to buy this on XBLA.

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A few have already touched on this but why are we so concerned about the game length when it comes to our perception of value? Should quality not be a more important indicator of how we assign value to our games, or are we really that shallow?

I don't really see people complaining that a 90 minute movie should have lasted longer because it cost as much to see as one that lasts for 3 hours, the very notion is absurd. Obviously games are a slightly different proposition but the amount of time we can spend playing them should always be a secondary concern to their quality.

Braid is one of the best games I've played this year, it easily justifies the price tag.

I agree that quantity of hours =/= quality. Ico and Shadow of Colossus were both wonderful, amazing games that were each not very long. But they were also not overpriced and were hard copies. ;)

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Actually, lots of people do think the same about movies (at least, producers seem to). Most movies run over two hours now. I agree, it's stupid.

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The whole "hard" copy vs. Digital is pointless to me when you couple that with having a problem with $10 vs $15.

IF… you could purchase this game as a hard copy you would be paying at least $20 or maybe even up to $30.

I, for one, am going to buy this. Mostly because I get really nerdy over puzzlers and especially after hearing his explanation of the price point. I enjoy supporting the little guy so that they can keep making creative/"non-mainstream" games. And if that means I need to fork over an extra $5 to ensure they are able (whether or not hindsight will deem it necessary)... so be it.

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I didn't know $5 was such a big deal...

I wasn't even interested in Braid, but I tried the demo and bought it instantly. It is *so* very worth it.

One niche game selling for $5 more than your average XBLA game isn't enough to set a precedent. That said, you have to understand the logic here. Price points aren't something done without any basis. There is a very definable unit price to unit sales ratio and finding the balance is key in your marketplace. Based on their research, they estimated that this is a niche title and that the profit made by charging $15 is more than enough to offset the number of people who would have bought it at $10 but not at $15. You can't just arbitrarily say that "cheaper game = more sales = more profit". If that was the case, every Wii game ever made should be outselling any and all 360 and PS3 games. There is a formula involved and obviously they think it's worth it to them to take the chance with a higher price. If they are wrong and the game sells past their expectations, there is no downside for them. If it undersells, they can always lower the price later and try to get the stragglers. Again, this doesn't set a precedent.

Everyone gushing about this game will have completely forgot about it by year's end. It's a decent platformer but it does not deserve all the press it's getting. From the outside looking in, it seems the 1200 pt price was the best thing that could have happened to Braid, because of all the controversy and dialogue it's created.

And I thought smaller dev's meant less overhead and thus a lower price point. Since when do indie bands get a premium for being small time?

What ever the price this game is good value to me. As I recently wrote in my Parent's Guide to Braid:

"It's apt that you collect and arrange puzzle pieces in the game as it creates an experience that has a lot in common with rainy days huddled around the dining room table pointing out which piece should go where."
http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/familyguide_360_braid.htm

The extra money in Simon's pocket is A OK by me.

he's trying to raw dawg people who unlock every xbla title so he can at least break even. this is almost as bad as fansubers on anime who try to charge for there releases.

You obviously didn't try the demo.

How is this guy like a fansub ripoff artist? The guy designed and developed the game by himself and went in to hock to do so.

The game looks, sounds and plays great. Its an amazing experience... 5 bucks extra for something of this quality is well worth it. I hate platformers to death but this isn't your normal platformer.

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Well considering most of the XBLA games are either arcade ports or card/board games (Granted some of em are good, but seriously... Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?) I'm sure a little extra for something as magical as Braid, would be worth it.

I hate that worth translates to length in games, a word about it being short has always been something that's hurt sales thanks to perceptions of value. The fact is, I really agree with this guy. I'd like to pay the same amount for an RPG without all of the inevitable grinding, and I'd prefer a game which keeps building on itself right until the end, much like LostWinds, which is probably a fraction of the length of this game.

I haven't finished okami, but I'd point that out as a long game which has continually evolved for tens of hours.

I loved the demo. In fact I played it while my wife and 6 year old son were in the room. My son laughed till he couldn't breath because of the animations when the "goombas" fall on your head or when you get defeated. He thought it was hilarious. And my wife liked helping me with the puzzles. We were having a great time.

It's a great game....unfortunately I won't be buying it at $15.00. He priced me out of buying it. Although it's great I still don't think I can or will pay any more than $10.00 for an XBLA game. It sucks because I would love to continue on with the game but this is a game that people can be patient with and hope the price drops. If it never does there will be plenty of games to take it's place.

Ok...all I got from that was "I'm broke".

Fair enough. Bottom line (in a sea of bottom lines), I'm not hurting for games. If this was summer of 2006, I would had purchased this game at 1200 points.

I have Orange box purchased for 30 bucks, I have Roogoo which is an excellent XBLA game at 800 points. Many others, to choose from my library.

It's simply outside of the sweet spot. MS wants to break the expectation of 360 user base, they should had started longo ago. Now everyone expects the 800 point price point.

Until MS offers a steady stream of games 1200 or 1800 points, there will be a slow adoption rate.

This is like XBLA's 'horse armour'.

Haha, you'd buy Roogoo based on the demo but not Braid? Wow. Blow is right... He's got to mark it up to profit off the dedicated/niche gamers because too many people just want Roogoo for 10 bucks.

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I bought it. Its worth $15 for the soundtrack alone.

Jesus it's good.

You can listen to the music for free...
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=260#more-260

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Yeah, that site is awesome. Might be worth a streaming subscription just for the radio.

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I didn't even notice the price when I purchased it. Damn you MS Space Bucks!!

I have to say that I enjoyed the demo. I would have paid $10 to play through the whole game, but $15 really felt like too much for me. I guess the game just felt nice to me, but didn't totally hook me enough to pay more than I paid for PacMan C.E. or Geometry Wars 2.

I think the thing that screwed him over the most was coming out after Geometry Wars 2 and before Bionic Commando.

"You pay for quality, ergo, this costs more than many other games."

Unfortunately, that's not the way things typically work in videogame land.

I paid $60 for Gears of War and Crackdown which I've probably spent more than a thousand hours playing, yet mediocre games across the country were priced at that same $60 when released.

GTA4 and MGS4 didn't release for > $60 because they had very high review scores.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have cost more (I would gladly give Epic and Realtime Worlds some extra cash, because for only $60 I feel like I ripped them off for those games and don't really think it's right that they got the same amount of money from me for them as EA gets from me for Madden), but unfortunately that's the way it works in the videogame world and people are stuck in that stigma of not having to pay more for a game that they'll enjoy more.

Uh, how much money did this game actually cost him to make? I have a hard time believing that selling the game for $10 would have left him in financial ruin.We are talking about a simple puzzle game here. Not exactly making a 20 hour next gen epic.
Even if he only got $1 for every copy sold, it is still quite a bit of money. Think about that for a second. If the game sells 500k copies at $1, thats $500,000 in his pocket. Even if the game sold 20k copies I still think he would be making money.

That is almost like me saying "If I don't get to sell every catalog that gets printed from my design for $15, I would be in financial ruin." I can guarantee that working to make every part of a 100 page product catalog took more work than making this game.

Be happy you are actually making money from your game. Sounds like an arrogant ass to me.

A while back on Gamasutra there was an article that had a quote from some XBLA dev that said breakeven was about 70k units. But that number has probably changed with MS' drop in royalties. If Braid was going to be selling 500k, we wouldn't be having this thread in the first place. Only a handful of XBLA titles have passed 500k (and some of those were free/$5). The simplistic Space Giraffe sold 19k units and that was an assured money loser.

I find it revolting that you are comparing it to a 100 page catalog. Even in pure man-hours it might be a stretch to say they're comparable. Factor in the quality of those man-hours and it's an entirely different story. Have you played through the demo in the first place? It looks like a lot more work went into it than the majority of XBLA games. What basis do you have for your assumption that this game was cheap to make? Not knowing that, I'd have to say that you sound like an ass to me.

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The whole "hard" copy vs. Digital is pointless to me when you couple that with having a problem with $10 vs $15.

IF… you could purchase this game as a hard copy you would be paying at least $20 or maybe even up to $30.

I, for one, am going to buy this. Mostly because I get really nerdy over puzzlers and especially after hearing his explanation of the price point. I enjoy supporting the little guy so that they can keep making creative/"non-mainstream" games. And if that means I need to fork over an extra $5 to ensure they are able (whether or not hindsight will deem it necessary)... so be it.

Honestly, Braid is worth every cent and is one of the most refreshing games I have played in a long, long time.

Some games are simply worth more than others, and this is one of them.

Blow explains dilemma of Braid's price to 1Up

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