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Mizuguchi does damage control on Lumines Live 'microtransactions': Next Gen SUCKS

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/740/740214p1.html

IGN: What do you think people's reactions are going to be when they see the core game -- and all these additional packs? Are you worried that people will feel they're getting charged too much? Or that they're going to complain that all these packs should be put into one game?

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: (Long pause.)

IGN: I realize that's a very forward question, and to be honest, with Lumines, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, will I feel perfectly happy buying five different packs, or will I feel ripped off? Personally I just want to play the game, but micro-transactions are a nickel and die model, and a lot of people might not like the idea at all.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi
: So, there are a lot of components to the answer, but yes, it's a bold move. But it's actually just taking the next step to a challenge and we believe this is the way of the future. With regard to the pricing, yes, there will be users that are optimistic, but it's really more about the business and the platform. The way we're providing content to users is changing. The easiest way to compare things is the way we buy music now. We went from cassettes and albums and CDs to downloading games on iPod. We're talking about games, but if you look at the last time you went to Amoeba or Tower Records and bought 10 CDs, versus when you're at the airport or at home or wherever you download music and downloaded songs, you're really only going to buy the songs you want. You're only going to purchase maybe two songs out of the whole album. So, it's really up to you, the user, the gamer, the listener, what you want to buy, play, or listen to. It's up to you as to what you're comfortable with spending.

So yes, Lumines has this image. It was a successful launch title on PSP and it came in a package, it came on a UMD. And now it's not. So now people are worried. And maybe even upset that they can't even get the full pack in one software product. But really, it's just changing the way we provide the content. So, Q Entertainment is trying to take advantage of the way the XBLA model works. So, in our eyes, the game doesn't have to come in a package. We just feel like we're shifting our audience and we're starting to deal with different people. That's not to imply the PSP and Xbox Live users are that much different, but naturally, the way we are accepting media, goods, music, and games, we ourselves are changing our attitudes. So we're trying to follow a new path. So at the same time the audience is changing, we're changing along with it. We think this is the way of the future.

There is another analogy, and it's not perfect, but in Japan there was a year that bubble gum sales dropped dramatically. There was a research company that went out and studied why sales of gum dropped so dramatically. They learned that the rival for gum was cell phones. It's true. It was done by an independent company and it was legitimate research. But at least in Japan cell phones actually replaced the human desire or need to pulling out a piece of gum. People pulled out their cell phones instead. The story illustrates how groups of people are changing in their desires and buying patterns. So, if you step back and look at the whole industry and see how things are changing, then this move with Lumines isn't such a big deal.

For a while, and we're already started seeing this, I feel there will eventually be a tug of war between users owning or purchasing a software packaged item versus those who are getting used to buying downloadable content. We have seen a little of this and we're going to see even more in the future. So, it's almost to a point where those two groups are going to have a, well, not a fight, but a tug or war. That leads into general entertainment, and games, depending on whom you speak with, are generally considered mass entertainment. Just having an internal tug of war within our own industry is interesting. But we may even come to a point where, movies, and TV and music aren't the games rival. We may even discover that there is something else that's a big challenge to us. So, Q Entertainment is a game studio, but it's always on the forefront of our minds to provide a new experience to the user, something that's the way of the future. We constantly think about that, and we want to fulfill the desire of the user in that perspective.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I read all that and don't think he answered the question at all. However!

IGN said:
Personally I just want to play the game, but micro-transactions are a nickel and die model, and a lot of people might not like the idea at all.
That's one of the best typos ever.
 

Kodiak

Not an asshole.
Yeah... except iTunes offers the whole CD for less than the sum of all the songs bought individually.


Dammit Q! you guys were doing perfect until this. (N3? ... never heard of it)
 

Odysseus

Banned
marioxblm.JPG
 

loosus

Banned
I think this is shit is messed up on a lot of levels.

First of all, I just don't like it. Period. I just want pretty much everything in the game when I buy it.

Second, it's ordinarily more expensive.

Third, I really think it's putting a further gap between casual players and games. How the **** do you explain this to casual players? "Well, you buy it...and you don't really get the whole thing. Ya see, ya gotta buy some other stuff, too, or you can't play the whole game." If I didn't know anything about games and I heard that, I'd probably be very wary because that sounds like a scam.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
just because "we" don't buy the "other tracks on an album" does it mean that they shouldn't be there at all because we didn't buy the cd for them?
 

mr jones

Ethnicity is not a race!
*reads article*

*gets pissed to the point of swearing at the screen*

Look.

The game that they put up on Xbox Live isn't complete, unless you purchase additional packs. You can't try those packs out through the demo. You HAVE to purchase them. When you try the demo, it doesn't let you know what part of the game is going to be limited when you purchase the "full" version. There's nothing documented in the download screen on Xbox Live that tells you that. Basically, you're buying blind. After you purchase the game, there are features that are still locked, until you buy additional content.

That is STUPID. If I want tracks off of a CD, I can listen to a portion of it, and if I like it, I buy it. I can hear a song of the radio, and if I like it, I can buy the single. If I download a CD, I get the complete track listing that the artist had recorded for that album.

Lumines is an experiment that I don't want to participate in. I've already stated that if I handled it, I would have made the entire game available and fully functional upon purchase, with extra modes, music and skins available at a later date. There wouldn't be any of this mess of features that I can see, but can't access.

I'm hoping that Xbox Live owners voice their opinion with their dollars. This is up there with Horse Armor to me. Sucks too, because this was a Live title that I was excited about.
 

kevm3

Member
Breaking up games and selling them in chunks or holding back content from games so they can be resold in the future = the wave of the future.
 

Mrbob

Member
Cool then I guess the future downloads will be one dollar each like itunes?

Take advantage of the XBLA model. Hahahah. Look at the monster you created MS. Take control of this before it spins out of hand.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
The Challenge mode Advance Pack is the first add-on pack for “Lumines Live!”, and includes 22 new skins (20 skins + 2 bonus skins) for additional, challenging game experiences. Due to a technical issue with yesterday’s upgrades to Xbox Live, the Advance Pack is temporarily unavailable, but will be available for download by 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday or earlier.
ms is blaming the update for the delay in the first expansion pack.

mmhmm.

stolen from the giant thread.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
i predict we'll be buying a demo of a game and buying the extra chunks that come out as they're produced. its really ingenious, so they can tide the development costs and not have to wait four years before they see a return on it.

imagine if an FF game were like this. you get a certain amount of story, a few extra sidequests, and a basic spell cabinet. you play through it, have to wait another month for the next 5 hours that you'll pay another 20 bucks for, rinse and repeat. it could keep going on FOREVER like this for all we know. there may actually BE a final Final Fantasy because it never actually ends.

its BULLSHIT.
 

Zep

Banned
Please...MS isnt sweating this at all, I'm sure their perfectly happy getting their cut of the points...or shall I say $15.
 

aaaaa0

Member
davepoobond said:
i predict we'll be buying a demo of a game and buying the extra chunks that come out as they're produced. its really ingenious, so they can tide the development costs and not have to wait four years before they see a return on it.

imagine if an FF game were like this. you get a certain amount of story, a few extra sidequests, and a basic spell cabinet. you play through it, have to wait another month for the next 5 hours that you'll pay another 20 bucks for, rinse and repeat. it could keep going on FOREVER like this for all we know. there may actually BE a Final Fantasy because it never actually ends.

its BULLSHIT.

Isn't that how Half Life Episode 1/2/? already works...
 

bluemax

Banned
I do not support this initiatize. And frankly the only way to stifle it is for gamers to not buy into it. Boycott Lumines Live for the greater good.
 

loosus

Banned
Yeah, why did he keep saying "it's the future"? It's like he thinks that the future must be different, and he can't think of a future different from microtransactions, so therefore, microtransactions must be the future.
 
davepoobond said:
i predict we'll be buying a demo of a game and buying the extra chunks that come out as they're produced. its really ingenious, so they can tide the development costs and not have to wait four years before they see a return on it.

imagine if an FF game were like this. you get a certain amount of story, a few extra sidequests, and a basic spell cabinet. you play through it, have to wait another month for the next 5 hours that you'll pay another 20 bucks for, rinse and repeat. it could keep going on FOREVER like this for all we know. there may actually BE a final Final Fantasy because it never actually ends.

its BULLSHIT.



I don't mind episodic content. But this Lumines thing is missing core elements of the ****ing game.
 

Zep

Banned
monchi-kun said:
i think the share per transaction is less than 30%

So...its money in their pocket regardless. They're loving people for paying $15 for this, that shit only adds up in the longrun.
 
He's lost his damn mind, first the garbage track list that is Lumines 2 and now this. Luckily i can play Lumines 1 forever much like the original tetris :lol
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
krypt0nian said:
I don't mind episodic content. But this Lumines thing is missing core elements of the ****ing game.

ok, maybe its a little bit of a bad example now that i think about it, but it'd still be missing core elements of the game. like you can't go past a certain level or some crap like that.
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
loosus said:
Would be fine by me.

I could do with another musical shooter before his demise though.

Although without the rest of UGA I'm not sure how well it would turn out anyway.
 
davepoobond said:
ok, maybe its a little bit of a bad example now that i think about it, but it'd still be missing core elements of the game. like you can't go past a certain level or some crap like that.

Actually it's more like if they left out the magic system in a Final Fantasy until you purchased it later.

Half-Life Ep.1-2 I have no issue with.
 

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
what do you actually get if you buy Lumines Live and none of the expansions?
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
SolidSnakex said:
NNN should be the one to get that award.

That was post-Lumines though!

I think the fact one of his games did really well was too much of a shock to the system after the DC years, and upset the chemical balance in his brain ...
 
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