Xbox Game Room pricing, partners detailed

by Xav de Matos on Jan 7th 2010 9:50AM

The pricing structure for Microsoft's newly announced Avatar-occupied Game Room has been detailed in an online fact sheet, and we'd suggest you stock up on Microsoft funny money. Players have three options: 400

($5) grants a dual-platform license for one game (for unlimited play on Xbox 360 and PC), 240

($3) gets you the virtual arcade cabinet on one platform (Xbox 360 or PC), or, for the old-fashioned types, 40

($0.50) is just "two quarters" worth of playtime on a select title -- for the authentic arcade experience, minus the sticky floors. Additionally, when visiting friends' game rooms, you can "try" their games before you pump in Microsoft Points of your own.

The Game Room itself -- developed by third-party outfit Krome Studios (Viva Piñata: Party Animals, Star Wars: Republic Heroes) -- will be free for users to download. Customization options are mentioned in the fact sheet, but pricing for these features is not addressed. At launch the service will include 30 original arcade titles -- with "over 1000" planned for the future -- from multiple publishers, including Atari, Activision, Intellivision, and Konami. (A list of 31 confirmed titles is posted after the break.)

Games will be presented in 1080p (because that's why you bought that HD set) and will support multiplayer for up to two players, as well as cross-platform leaderboards and Achievements. Microsoft's ~~Home~~ Game Room is slated to launch this spring.

Xbox Game Room

Source - "Game Room" Fact Sheet [.doc]
Game Room Titles

Adventure
Armor Battle
Asteroids Deluxe
Astrosmash
Battlantis
Centipede
Combat
Crystal Castles
Finalizer
Football
Gravitar
Jungler
Lunar Lander
Millipede
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing
Outlaw
Pitfall [visible in screenshot]
RealSports Tennis
Red Baron
Road Fighter
Scramble
Sea Battle
Shao-Lin's Road
Space Armada
Space Hawk
Star Raiders
Sub Hunt
Super Cobra
Tempest
Tutankham
Yars' Revenge

[Via Game Room trailer; Giant Bomb]

Tags: achievements, arcade, avatars, ces-2010, game-room, games-for-windows, gfw, gfwlive, krome-studios, Microsoft, pricing, xbla, Xbox-360, xbox-game-room, xbox-live

Reader Comments (149)

games that old should be FREE

We're talking about Microsoft. We're lucky Solitaire and Minefield still come for free with Windows... Maybe not for long :P

*Minesweeper.

Same thing :P

And that is why Live will never be free.

You got a + from me, Brad.

Let's keep these old games free:

http://www.petitiononline.com/xbgrpet/petition.html

"To: Microsoft Xbox Team

In light of Microsoft's announcement of "Xbox Game Room" we, the avid gamers of the Xbox Live Community, refuse to purchase retro-style games for a premium price. Most of us, already Xbox Live Gold members, cannot support a price model of $5.00 for games that are freely available online, some of which by the very partners involved in this venture. Examples:

http://www.atari.com/arcade
...
http://www.konami-play.com/

In short, we will not buy these repackaged classic games.

Note: When signing please include your Xbox Gamertag.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned "

-Nefariousity

No offense but some gamers on the internet signing a petition is not likely to elicit anything from MS, who is more likely to just listen for whether people actually pump money into this when it's released. That's the place to make a stand. We, gamers on boards/blogs, do not make up that much of the gaming sales numbers out there.

You're actually not paying for the games; EVERYONE that cares knows you can download them onto a PC for free.

You're paying for the ability to play with your Xbox friends.

Make no mistake people, LIVE isn't just online play. LIVE is the current form of an arcade: a central location for gamers to meet up and play games.

It may sound ridiculous but have you ever tried to get someone to network on MAME? Even then it's just two people and ONLY those two.

Well, its worth a try =)

Really? We're demanding that Microsoft pay licensing fees on over 1,000 games from Atari, Konami, Activision, and Intellivision, add online multiplayer support and achievements, and offer it for free?

Fuck, if we're going all in, I'm starting my own petition:

"To: Microsoft Xbox Team

We, the avid gamers of the Xbox Live Community, refuse to pay for blowjobs from the XBox Live Support Team. Most of us, already Xbox Live Gold members, cannot support a price model of paid blowjobs when some employees of Microsoft are known to have given them away for free to consenting partners.

In short, we will not pay for head.

Note: When signing please include your Xbox Gamertag.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned "

Hey Joystiq, MS GameRoom will be a lot better than that Sony calls Home. nice try at the dig, though.

unfortunately, there will be plenty of people out there that will buy arcade games. my fiancee is one of those 2D-only gamers -- although I do occasionally (rarely) get her to play Halo with me.

sure I can play them for free on my computer, but my laptop screen isn't really going to make for an enjoyable 2-player game of Contra or Wizards of Wor.

@copa, where's the link?

Oh, I'm sorry Copa, I guess you're the kind of moron that buys every version of ASTEROIDS ever created on every system and is happy to give away your money for minor changes to popular game franchises.

And if you had actually read the petition, it wasn't suggesting that Microsoft make these games free, just not charge $5.00 for a 30 year old game that you can easily play online. But by all means, buy their regurgitated crap and support this type of marketing.

Being old doesn't automatically mean something should be free. That's stupid logic.

Of course, if you do just want to play these games you CAN play a lot of them for free on Atari's website. http://atari.com/arcade

If that's the case, why is it people don't have a problem spending money on Wii's virtual console, regular Xbox live arcade, or even Psone classics. And I'm pretty damn sure you can get most of the games featured on those services easily online.

Why pay for adventure when I can play it for free at the atari arcade. By the way, I just want to see if any of you can beat my time on adventure over at the atari arcade--mode 2.

let me see $6-10 for a PS1 game which I can play on my PSP and PS3 WITHOUT paying extra or a game that can be played on a web browser.. you tell me which is better.

I don't expect them to be free, but it'd be nice if gold users got a discount or something.

Why should they be free? Playstation doesn't give away their old games for free on PSN and over on the Nintendo side they charge 400 Wii points for games like Pacman and Donkey Kong.

People think they are entitled to too much these days.

"games that old should be FREE"
Thats the dumbest comment I've heard in a while here. These games are intellectual property. Do you think the people who developed them did it to give away for free? No, they did it for the same reason why you work at Subway - to make money. People these days act like they're entitled to something. Sorry friend, nobody owes you shit. I can go to Best Buy to grab the original Star Wars trilogy. Hey, they're "old", I guess I should demand Best Buy give them to me for free. Now if these games were ad-supported and free, thats fine, but for me it would take away from the authentic experience if you had to close pop-up ads every 30 seconds into a game of Double Dragon.

Well I guess the name "Tower of ROM" is out then?

: (

Concept? Okay.

Charging for it? Microsoft, you can go to hell. What's the point of a Gold subscription if I still get charged for everything?

I mean, ATARI offers these games for FREE.

http://www.atari.com/arcade

The concept of playing online multiplayer is good too but people seem willing to pay for something that is free on every other system under the sun.

People are complacent and will pay for this - it's going to be a money maker for MS for sure.

Agreed, I think this is a fantastic idea/concept, but this should be free for gold members in my opinion.

With this in mind, Microsoft will still likely make boat loads of money off this service, and will only confirm that they don't need to make something like this free....ever.

Well, with the addition of some online multiplayer and at least looking decent in 1080p, you have to recoup some of the cost. Pricing could be a tad more reasonable depending on the game.

I'm pretty sure my 50 a year covers any incremental costs.

If the games were cheaper (say, two for a dollar) it'd make more sense.

Jon, I think the cost is recouped by the charge for Gold live already. You have to continue to upgrade a pay service if you want continued loyalty and to bring in new users, so some loss is just the cost of doing business. Here MS is trying to bring a new arcade experience to entice more members to live as well as keep old ones - and they shouldn't charge so much for it. The games just don't have the value for those prices anymore. So, while I'm glad to see them implementing new items - I think they have dropped the ball on how this should be presented to us.

I really wonder if they'll have trials like they have with the Arcade games or are they going to shaft of those now with the quarter system....

Crap I just answered my own question they just did this to shaft us of the free stuff we we're use to getting!

THOSE BASTARDS!!!

In the end, all that counts is the moolah. Vote with your dollar people: don't buy this shit.

And seriously? They're trying to get you to 'pump quarters' into an online service? That's just disgusting.

The two player limit could be a mistake. It would be great playing the 6-player Xmen arcade or even the 4-player games like TMNT, The Simpsons, Gauntlet or to a lesser extent... MJ's Moonwalker.

Lesser extent my ass!

TMNT is on live in its original 4 player glory already. Great game.

And now you can pay for TMNT *again* to play it in a virtual arcade! What a deal! *eyeroll*

Yeah if you think those will see the light of day (err...Gameroom day) you're crazy. The only game not horribly mired in licensing constraints is TMNT and you can already get the remixed hd version.

So how does this work, does each person in the "arcade" have to have purchased the game, or if you buy a "cabinet" does that mean that anyone that comes into your arcade can play it?

Because if it's the former, then this whole idea is just one giant waste of resources.

To really replicate the arcade experience (in my home town circa 1993), one person should by a random selection of games, most of which are old and terrible. Then everyone else should visit their arcade, pay too much to play the games, and ultimately leave feeling ripped off.

Ain't it annoying when you spot a typo the second you hit send?

Its just like a real arcade.
If you don't have any money, you can't do shit except watch everyone else play.

Its like Microsoft is holding you all upside down and shaking you for quarters.

sound good but how much each cabinet is that the 5 buck or use of the room and how long if any time limits

I think Game Room is a pretty cool guy. eh takes MS pionts to play games and doesn't afraid of anything...

WHAT??!!

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

http://memegenerator.net/825805/I-think-game-room-is-a-pretty-cool-guy-eh-takes-ms-pionts-to-play-games-and-doesnt-afraid-of-anythin

they would charge for something that is gold exclusive. some of these games are on xbla too i believe. i love they played in the ces keynote. they advertised how you have the option to play it on your xbox or your pc. they never mentioned that you would actually being paying almost double the price so that you can have that right. i should be able to buy it for one price and be able to play it on my pc, xbox and zune. what happened to that xbox live anywhere concept? oh, its still there but you actually have to pay more to get your games to multiple devices.

Getting to play it on both for the same price does sound great, but if that were to happen it would probably just get argued the other way: Why shouldn't people who just want to play the game on a single platform be given a discount? Then we are right back at having two prices.

Why should anyone pay for this when everything equivalent to this is free on Playstation Home.

I love Live and spend almost my entire online gaming experience using it. The premium is worth it in my opinion.

Paying a premium on top of my premium, however, is borderline theft and I hate that this will be just one more notch on the belts of XBL haters.

I'm barely willing to put out the $0.50 to play a current arcade game (for the few days the state fair is in town, the only arcade around anymore). No way in hell I'd do it virtually (with a shitty d-pad) for these old ass games.

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Xbox Game Room pricing, partners detailed

Xbox Game Room

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