XBLA games rising in cost, quality, says Microsoft

Xbox Live Arcade portfolio director Chris Charla has acknowledged that the average price of XBLA games is rising, but says the quality (judged by average Metacritic score) is rising too.

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I've you've noticed the standard $10 creeping up to $15 for Xbox Live Arcade games, you're not alone. Microsoft has acknowledged that the average price of XBLA games is rising, but also notes that the average review scores are rising along with it, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

"If you look at Live Arcade, and do the math, and look at the publicly available sales numbers, you can see that average prices on XBLA have crept up over the last few years, which has been an interesting trend because on some app markets there's been a race to zero as fast as possible," said Xbox Live Arcade portfolio director Chris Charla.

"We've seen a little bit of the opposite happening," he continued. "I don't really know where prices are going to go - ultimately, that's set by the market - but it has been really gratifying to see that people are willing to a premium price for digital content [sic]."

By the numbers, 21 of the 86 games in 2009 were $15 (1200 MSP), or about 24%. In 2010, that rose to 27/85, or about 32%. This year's figures aren't complete yet, but it already has 20 games confirmed at the $15 price point, so it will likely surpass last year again.

But it's not all bad news. Charla claims that the Metacritic score for XBLA games has risen as well, by a full 12 point average since 2008. "Sometimes, when [developers] talk about Live Arcade they're like, 'We want to do a boxed quality game on Live Arcade', and I'm like, 'What does that mean?' I can point at a bunch of 38 and 42 and 56 metacritic scoring boxed games, so it actually kind of pisses me off." Charla argues that games like Limbo or Castle Crashers are "as good as anything on the market."

Gamasutra looked at some of the top-selling XBLA games of the last six months, by analyzing leaderboard data. Dead Rising: Case West and Full House Poker were the standout hits, at over 200,000 each. A World of Keflings and Torchlight both nearly hit that mark as well. Gamasutra notes that some games may have sold well, but lack leaderboards, so it's hard to tell using this method.

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  • reply
    July 22, 2011 6:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, XBLA games rising in cost, quality, says Microsoft.

    Xbox Live Arcade portfolio director Chris Charla has acknowledged that the average price of XBLA games is rising, but says the quality (judged by average Metacritic score) is rising too.

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 6:22 PM

      This is true. XBLA games have actually been noticeably better than most retail releases over the past few months.. Bastion, Section 8: Prejudice, Limbo just to name a few

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      July 22, 2011 6:26 PM

      As the price rises, my buying habits have slowed to a crawl. Now I wait for inevitable sales rather than get raped an extra 50% just for being willing to buy a game on day one that will probably be overhyped because it's developed by an "indie" developer.

      I find it hilarious that guys like Team Meat get hero worship when all they did was rip of N+.

      I will only be buying content on PSN and XBLA at around $10 since it mostly ends up being an hour or so of worthwhile content.

    • reply
      July 22, 2011 7:02 PM

      Actually all XBLA games are required to have leaderboards, no exceptions.

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        July 22, 2011 8:05 PM

        Including, like, Limbo? Haven't played it yet but how do you leaderboard something like that?

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          July 22, 2011 8:23 PM

          How many times have you died?

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          July 22, 2011 9:04 PM

          How fast you beat it or how many eggs you find.

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          July 23, 2011 5:16 AM

          How many times have you looked at the leaderboard.

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        July 22, 2011 10:58 PM

        Yeah, it's a pretty terrible rule.

        "Arcade"

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        July 23, 2011 7:08 PM

        True, but they don't all have leaderboards that are useful for assessing sales figures.

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      July 22, 2011 9:01 PM

      Good excuse to scope out the indie games. Some real gems and the highest price point is $5. Most are $1 or maybe $3

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      July 22, 2011 9:24 PM

      I have no problem paying $15 a game if the quality stays at it's current level or continues to increase. Currently more good games come out for XBLA than I even have time to play. Recently I have purchased Bastion and Trenched and both were worth every penny of the $15 I paid for them.

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        July 22, 2011 11:44 PM

        I have no problem with it because I have more fun with the arcade games than I do with a lot of the retail ones.

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      July 23, 2011 2:02 AM

      I'd rather have 2 good games then 3 so-so ones. Broke niggas need to get jobs.

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      July 23, 2011 5:27 AM

      Oh man! When they start charging $20 as the base price, the games are going to be amazing!

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      July 23, 2011 5:36 AM

      They're also raising in size... and yet MS hasn't announced any HD update... :/

      • reply
        July 23, 2011 11:30 AM

        you can get a Star Wars Xbox 360 soon with 320GB!

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