Downloadable Games Under-priced, Says 360 Dev

48
Former Insomniac Games developer Nathan Fouts recently turned his hand to downloadable titles, creating the Contra-style shooter Weapon of Choice for the launch of Xbox Live's Community Games.

But as Fouts struggles with the pricing of his own title, he now says that most Xbox Live Arcade titles are selling for less than they should be.

"I want to go on the record and say I feel like most downloadable games are under-priced," said Fouts to MTV.

"As a collector, I can relate to people who enjoy buying a game and having the game box, and manual. However, paying only 800 points ($10) for a game as nice as 'Bionic Commando: Rearmed' or 1200 points ($15) for a game as big as 'Castle Crashers' seems ridiculous to me."

Fouts also noted that the lack of incremental pricing for downloadable Xbox 360 titles can present developers with a tough decision: price the game high and risk consumer disinterest, or miss out on serious revenue.

"Microsoft does not allow for user-defined price points like 799 points or even 100 point increments like 500, 600, 700, etc. For a bigger game like 'Weapon of Choice,' only having two options, one of which is double the first option, makes the decision difficult. I felt like we could have priced the game at 600 points and received no backlash from consumers as they compare our game to other downloadables."

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 25, 2008 11:46 AM

    This is not going to get a good response from price-sensitive gamers but I sorta agree. I wish devs of games like CC or Braid got more. I'd be willing to pay $20-25 for some of those games.

    • reply
      November 25, 2008 12:03 PM

      Not me. I would spend $10 without thinking. For $20, I would think about it.

    • reply
      November 25, 2008 12:08 PM

      i would have bought braid if it wasnt so expensive tbh

    • reply
      November 25, 2008 12:15 PM

      Braid was really a though sell at that price point. CC is insanely priced IMO. I think the price structure is quite good Tbh

    • reply
      November 25, 2008 1:02 PM

      If you are willing to pay more and you want to support them, noone is saying you can't buy their game twice.

    • reply
      November 25, 2008 3:10 PM

      $10 is my limit for impulse buys of downloaded games. If I end up only enjoying it for an hour, it's not that big of a loss at that price point, so I am more willing to take a chance on purchasing more games (if the demo seems good) at that price point.

Hello, Meet Lola