Braid: tearing up Metacritic; one of the top XBLA launches

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 12th 2008 12:57PM

Jonathan Blow's Braid is drowning in critical acclaim, just now hitting an average of 93 on Metacritic and becoming the 8th highest-rated Xbox 360 game on the console. The official Braid Blog takes the opportunity to point out that indie developers don't need to make cheap PopCap clones to be successful; if they do something different, their work can be recognized. Yeah? Well, this industry is all about sales so ... how's the game selling on XBLA?

Blow cites VGChartz's ballpark figure of 28.5k copies sold and estimates that the number "seems to be in the right neighborhood" as of last Saturday. Does that mean his struggle with the game's pricing has paid off in a big way? Apparently not. Blow contends that Braid will need to sell a lot more to be profitable but "things are looking promising now." We'll say! Let's put that estimate up against the top XBLA launch figures in a thoroughly unscientific breakdown*:

Braid, ~28.5k units
Rez HD, 25k units
Ikaruga, 22.5k units
Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1, 16.5k units
N+, 13k units

*(Figures represent sales gathered from the first three days of availability. Blow's ballpark figure was posted on Saturday, three days after Braid's Wednesday launch).

Source

Tags: braid, jonathan-blow, xbla, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (62)

Why can't we do this for Wiiware/PSN? I want to see some sales!

Good for Braid though. It's very different from most XBLA games (ie good xD) and it should sell well.

Who said you couldn't?

The game will eventually make its way to PC, since the Xbox 360 and PC are BFF, and I would imagine that the possibility of a PS3 release is there as well. It really depends on what the team can manage, as they aren't a huge group of people with a huge pile of money behind them.

I think he meant why can't we show sales numbers for Wiiware or PSN.

Yes lol, but Braid on PS3/PC would be nice too. I bought it anyway though, so idc.

The only reason we have this data is because Penny Arcade released the official top 3 (as told to them) when Precipice was released. So unfortunately, this is not even a current list and no further data from MS is available (that I know of).

Well when PixelJunk 4 (and 5 and 6, and hopefully much more) release, i want them to announce something damnit!

It's nice to see something besides a PopCap-esque game doing well on XBLA. Frankly, I think most people underestimate the potential of LIVE Arcade. Too many people consider it a dumping ground for arcade-style games.

I have yet to give Braid a try, but I keep hearing nothing but praise. I'll probably have to give it a try, though I'm looking forward to Castle Crashers more.

Just wait until tomorrow when Bionic Awesomeo is released! My prediction is it will not only top the sales charts for XBLA/PSN but also be the highest rated downloadable arcade game to date!

I'm downloading it tonight!

Loved the demo. I'm afraid the puzzles will be so hard though. I couldn't finish the demo one and that kinda scares me. I tried so hard to get that one piece where the mini lion or w/e is shot out of the canon. I tried slowing time down so I could bounce on his head over to the ledge where the puzzle pic was but no success.

Anyways I'm gonna give it another shot tonight and download the full game.

God I love the 360!

The puzzles are hard, but I haven't encountered anything unfair yet, and I have three pieces to go.

My only complaint is that some of the game elements (green goo that you stand in, purple glowing items/creatures) could probably have been explained better. Hell, I got stuck at the beginning of the game because I didn't know there was a rewind mechanic because I hadn't 'died' yet.

Braid is a great puzzle game with a thought provoking ending. Anyone who says "bad mario clone" is either a troll or just dumb. Anyone who complains of the price is cheap or poor.

Wow way to be an asshole. Some people just refuse to pay $15 for a regular xbla title, no matter how good it is.

He speaks the truth Jordan. You will probably spend $15 this weekend on the shit mummy movie or something. Also people that don't get this game are uncultured and uncouth. Their favorite movie is probably The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift and think that the pinnacle of musical achievement is Linkin Park.

I know those types and they inhabit Xbox Live and Joystiq by the dozens.

Alot of people are poor these days with high gas prices, high electric bills, high rent, high food and high game prices. You must live with your parent or you would understand.

nothing wrong with being poor. didn't mean to sound negative to those who don't have cash sitting around for every new game that comes out. But compared to other entertainment that costs $15+, Braid is quality.

You can call me uncultured all you want, but I'm not wasting $15 on a regular sized xbla game just because it looks a little prettier and it's a little tougher than most xbla games. I can save that $15 for Bionic Commando and a couple good rock band songs.

You shouldn't fall victim to Microsoft's pricing scam, as in they're only charging more for this game because they feel they can get away with it, but it's your choice.

Jordan I wasnt calling you uncultured, I know I used "you" stating that you were going to see the Mummy movie I was just generalizing. For all we know you are probably some wine snob who lives in Carmel and games just to keep up with the commoners.

Hey, at first I thought $15 was too much. Then I caved at bought it. Let's just say that it's the best $15 I've spent in a long time.

I would be more inclined to buy cheaper (read: less than 20 bucks) games that are shorter which I would actually be able to beat. With a job and a social life I just can't dedicate my time to a 30-50 hour game. Even GTA, which I was super pumped about, slipped away from me after around 10 hours....

Jordan, just play the demo. I, too, was skeptical, but this game is seriously balls-to-the-wall hellafuckin awesome. By the end of the first level, I've no doubt you'll be willing to part with 15 bucks. Braid, unlike 99% of trash on XBLA, actually managed to earn its price.

P.S. There's nothing especially "cultured" about the game, it just has a really innovative gameplay mechanic.

I did play the demo the day it came out and to be honest I fell asleep, so that's not a good sign. My point was I could have thought it was the greatest thing ever, but I'm not spending $15 on an XBLA game unless it's a full game (along the lines of Siren and Warhawk on PSN). It's out of principle.

Microsoft wants to universally raise the pricing on their games, so they do it on a game that the hardcore will buy no matter what price it is. They did this before. Everything used to be 400 points and now about every game is 800. Geometry Wars Evolved 3 will be 1200 just as the price went up from one to two, and whether or not it is worth that is not the question. Do you want to only be paying 1200 and 800 for arcade games next year? Sure the quality will go up all around, but not evenly and you'll probably buy less games because of the pricing, which means less variation in your gaming.

When the next Xbox comes out the trial will go the way of the dodo, and nothing will be less than 1600. You won't be buying arcade ports, but there won't be the very low budget price either. A good selection will be worth the price--don't misunderstand me. It's just that nothing will come out for cheap anymore.

Hmm... Now that I think about it... This comment is highly irrelevant to the topic at hand...

kudos for making that first step! I agree that I wish everything in life was cheaper!

either you don't have a 360, or you are out of touch. but demo's will not be going away. This has proven to move many games that would not have been sold otherwise. The demo requirement for all XBLA games will be there.

People see the price for this title, what (possibly) Castle Crashers will be, and for Penny Arcade's game and they flip their shit. Suddenly is a mass conspiracy by MS to raise the prices of everything.

Those 800 MS point games aren't going anywhere. Companies are going to continue making cheap, 800pt games simply because they still sell rather well all things considering. I don't find it bad or unreasonable to pay a little bit more for games that play like full-titles instead of the two-hour arcade-y titles that populate most of XBLA. And I don't think trial is going to go anywhere 'cause it actually helps sell some of these games.

I think this whole price-hike fear is little more than a knee-jerk reaction. Just because you have a whole three games that are a little more expensive doesn't mean it'll become a complete trend. Besides it's 5 bucks, you probably spend more than that on lunch every day.

Dude...no.

Microsoft would be foolish to release all their arcade titles at inflated prices. They would price themselves out of the market. The reason you are seeing a little bit higher prices on these games is because they are releasing higher quality titles through the network now. They got a lot of crap from critics for only releasing ports and minigames with no substance. Now they are releasing games with higher production values, longer development cycles, and more depth to compete with the "artsy" titles PSN offers which, lo and behold are in the same $10-$15 range.

The complainers are being quite obtuse. Xbox Live is evolving in front of your very own eyes and part of its base is bitching and complaining because they are cheap bastards and want to be continued shit.

Leobebes

There's currently no regular PSN games over $10 (not including full ps3 games like siren, gt5, etc). The first one that will be over will be Quest for Booty, which will be $15 and it looks and plays like the PS3 Ratchet game.

Microsoft is only charging $15 for Braid because they see the hype around it and feel like they can get away with it. The same will happen with Castle Crashers and every future hyped xbla game thanks to the sales Braid is getting.

I'm not saying this will happen for sure, but I wouldn't be shocked if Braid is $10 *when* it comes to PSN, because that's the price the creator wanted it to be but Microsoft wouldn't let it go for $10.

Jordan, I have a job, a mortgage, a wife, and a kid. If Microsoft decided to go ape shit and price up every game at an inflated price, then there is no way in hell I can continue to take part in their XBLA distribution. They know this, they are not stupid. Now if games as innovative and beautiful as Braid showed up on a weekly basis I would be a poor mofo. This is not the case though, games like Braid are a rarity, and it would be business suicide if they released games like Cloning Clyde at $15.00.

This game really came out of nowhere for me. I didn't even hear about it until about a week ago. I might have to check it out when my bank account gets replenished with funds. There's no way it can be bad considering all the praise.

love the game.

-=Do you see the part of the bridge on the first painting?=-

havent passed it yet but i plan to over the course of this week..

I think about BRAID and hope i can switch th olymipcs for awhile to play ..

Here let me make a great point! For all you whiny little babies complaining about Braid's price put or shut up and give us your gamer tags so we can see the masterpieces you have played on your game lists.

Let's see what opuses your hard earned cash has gone to. I bet we see a lot of TimeShifts and Bomberman Act Zero's in there.

lmacairjordan87

You're going to see some achievement whore games, and also good luck figuring out which games I bought and which games I played with gamefly :P

Then this is where personal integrity and dignity for the sake of argument comes into play. lol!

Timeshift catches a lot of crap, but it was a decent game if you're a fan of the FPS genre.

Yeah, I have to agree about the came out of nowhere comment. This one wasn't tracking for me at all, and upon release, I was like, what is this?

It was only through word of mouth that I would even actually consider looking at the game. The one issue that does bother me though, is the pricing. I'm concerned about games on XBLA costing more than in the past. At one time there were 400 point games, and then lately everything is now 800 points, but now we have games that are pushing the limits of cost. That's fine, I guess, but I have to really want a game to pay more than 800 points. To date, I haven't bought Braid. And I'm a pretty good consumer when it comes to XBLA games. I probably have purchased at least 70% of the titles to date. I think if the cost were less, I'd be more likely to impulse buy.

Still have yet to pick this sucker up. I finally put some money into my PSN wallet and have been spending some QT with Eden, Siren, SSHD, and flOw. Definitely going to have to take a break from them soon and snag this and Bionic Commando.

I just don't understand how people are up in arms over the price of this game. It's getting a 93 on metacritic and for good reason. Getting GW2, Braid, and Castle Crashers for $45 (or so) seems like a steal to me.

I am simply amazed at the amount of total lockstep groupthink being shown in the gaming press and so-called 'hardcore community' over Braid. I'm not trying to troll-- in fact I threw away four drafts of this comment because I thought they sounded too hostile-- but I just didn't like Braid. I did play the demo, and what I saw just didn't really impress me. It was well-made but it just wasn't something I wanted to play.

Of course heaven forbid I have a differing opinion than the rest of the world on this game. I don't like Braid, therefore I must be "stupid" or "cheap" or a troll. I'm fairly certain I'm not alone in this opinion, but to listen to the constant teenage girl-esque gushing over Braid, you'd think I just announced that I'm the Spay Yourself With A Rusty Spade Party's candidate for President.

I suppose it really just reinforces my belief that the self-styled "hardcore" gamers make the best case AGAINST playing games.

That's fine. I understand that this game isn't for everyone. You're probably a cheeseburgers and WWE guy. We're all different.

Actually, I'm a vegetarian and I think most of the professional 'wrestlers' make better actors than athletes. But thanks for proving my point for me.

LOL just cracking you around a bit.

For everyone trying to make the argument that people who aren't buying this game due to price are dumb...please, please, PLEASE stop assuming that we also spend tons of money on stupid merchandise, games, or tickets to shitty movie theaters. I don't. Did it ever occur to you that some of us may actually be PICKY about what we spend $15, and YOU may be part of the crowd that DOES NOT have discriminate taste?

And the whole "you pay $15 to go to see a movie..." argument is stupid because every movie admission costs the same, right? Batman and Mummy are BOTH $9. So should we be paying MORE to see Batman? No, we should be spending our $9 wisely.

Same thing with the "you pay $60 for a shitty game" argument. Should we pay $90 starting for Bioshock, since it is "better" than $60 Madden?

Since when do we pay MORE for quality when it comes to the consumption of media? Aside from used game/DVD markets, a lot of media consumption has standardized MSRP. So paying MORE for Braid because it's "better" doesn't make sense to the consumer...maybe to Blow. We should be rewarded for finally spending 800 MSP that are worth something, not be punished by a raise in price.

Anyway, Braid is a great game. I enjoyed all 3 hours of it. I played it and I beat it and I still think it's overpriced. Deal with it. If you think it's worth $15, go right ahead. That doesn't make you a better person or more hardcore. It just makes you the kind of person who can and will spend the money.

By your logic Braid (and all other xbla games) should cost 60 dollars.
It's CHEAPER than retail, not more expensive.
Fail some moar.

@JfkAok: Right, because the hard copy game market has ANYTHING AT ALL to do with the XBLA. So should we be spending $9 for all games since that's what movie tickets cost? Or maybe $35 for all games since that's what DS game cost? Hmm...

I'm obviously suggesting a standard of 800 MSP, not $60. Learn to read moar.

I read fine, you're an illogical hypocrite and can't assess your own analogies properly. You want rules for a,b,c but not d, because d is usually 10 bucks, but a,b,and c is usually more. So, let's ignore those things that make your logic a complete failure (games used to be 30-50 bucks, ya know?) and just concentrate on d.
Too bad a,b,c and d are all one thing - VIDEO GAMES. So you're saying, the physical disc is worth 50 bucks and the game is worth 10? No, you're not...I even give you that credit.
You're not saying anything. You're talking illogical, hypocritical gibberish over 5 dollars.

"You want rules for a,b,c but not d, because d is usually 10 bucks, but a,b,and c is usually more."

I said I DID want rules for "d," assuming "d" is XBLA games. 800 MSP as a standard price point. What is "hypocritical" about this?

"Too bad a,b,c and d are all one thing - VIDEO GAMES."

I wasn't aware that DS and XBLA games were the same thing as 360 and PS3 games since they are ALL video games. Now that you've clarified that, yes, I guess I was silly for asking for a standard 800 MSP on XBLA games.

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your abcd analogy...I don't speak your dialect of gibberish, only my own hyptocritical one, apparently.

Another day, another Braid story...

I'm bumbed that no one has said "Braidstiq" yet.

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