Pushmo is overpriced at $5?
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Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Breaks Digital Sales Records
- Thread starter CountAntonius
- Start date
Pushmo is overpriced at $5?
Microsoft sure know how to piss off talented studios.
stuminus3
Member
Wait a second... is it breaking digital sales records or breaking XBLA digital sales records? Topic title and OP don't jive. I presume this is an XBLA specific thing but it wouldn't surprise me either way.
If you knew what you were talking about then you'd know that Pushmo was a thing.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
In Notch we trust.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
It couldn't possibly have anything to do with Phil Fish and his charming personality.
Speedymanic
Banned
I didn't notice this the last time I was on the 3ds, I'll check it out though. Apart from that, what else is there?
outunderthestars
Banned
No, I am rooting for there to be a sustainable middle ground between $60 games at the normal $5 -$10 DD title. Something that allows for larger games with higher production value.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
I love the internet.
Fish certainly fucked up in terms of PR, but there's no question here that Mojang is getting a pretty sweet deal from Microsoft.
That's actually an interesting Twitter palaver. For what Fez is (amazing) I can't believe the way MS handled the game. Why was it not part of the Arcade NEXT promotion? They could've added the extra 200 achievement points and put it in. It would've made the promotion the strongest line-up they've ever put together. Instead they released Fez on a Friday right before Trials Evolution.
*shrugs* Didn't have to be exclusively MS published games.
I can get behind that, for sure. I get what you mean but the quality would have to be increased if they wanted to start selling at that higher price. Right now, I don't see any games on the DL service, save one or two, that I would pay $25-$30 for.
I was under the impression that this was supposed to usher in a new MS policy on title updates for 360 games. Did I misremember that?
bigtroyjon
Member
You are rooting for something that already exists, we've had that for quite a while on XBLA. A higher pricing tier isn't necessary.
Arcade Next was a promotion for Microsoft published games.
I knew they changed the amount of achievements and achievement points XBLA games had to have. I hadn't heard that though. Can anyone clarify?
Edit: Fuck, I've been picture buried!
Mutant Mudds and Mighty Switch Force come to mind. But even then, there's a handful of good/great games on the eShop (VC not withstanding) in total and XBLA has a handful of good/great games every year, sometimes every few months. The two services aren't even comparable in my opinion.
as far I know Minecraft 360 is codeveloped with Microsoft, anyway it's a shame a developer cannot have a live access to their sales on xbla.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Pic needs Tim waving while walking off with a full sack.
Speedymanic
Banned
I can see his point, more games like American Nightmare at a slightly higher price than games like FEZ would help to build the platform and create a nice middle ground between retail and DD.
I think the main problem at the moment is the restrictive file size games can be, the patching system and the certification system. If MS iron those things out next gen, XBLA will grow significantly and attract a lot more devs from the PC indie scene.
Thanks for the recommends, I'll check them out.
bengraven
Member
This, this, this x100.
It sits above RDR as my favorite game of this generation. Minecraft is my favorite game released since the SNES era, even.
And I think I need to completely start over in another world, because I miss the survival horror elements. Now I just see the sun is going down, shrug off a few arrows with my diamond armor, eat something then speed burst away from the mobs and get the doors of my gigantic mega-village and go do some enchanting or get some sleep.
Notch said he got his info from the leader boards and not direct numbers
CountAntonius
Member
Really hope so. This was the biggest thing holding back XBLA IMO. If Microsoft get's rid of the cert process, and fee's for devs updating their games we could see some great continues support. Would love to see some F2P love as well.
bigtroyjon
Member
Higher priced games doesn't equate to more profit on a digital platform. Unlike physical games which will have fixed costs associated with each game sold, all that matters for a DD platform is the total revenue, revenue per unit sold isn't really that important.
So the developer "thinks" they're doing that? And back in January? I'm not saying it's not possible or not happening, but it was never something Microsoft announced or revealed. And it's so long ago... wouldn't Fish know they were changing the policy as an XBLA dev? If they really did change the policy they should let the world, and the rest of the devs know.
Other devs should be upset as well. Most of them have to abandon their games because it costs to much to update them.
Speedymanic
Banned
Slight improvements, the link where Fish complains about preferential treatment has a comment from Notch saying that they only have a limited number of free updates/patches.
Their backwards approach to how certain games update/add new content is going to end up hurting the platform. I'm all for having devs paying for patches when it's related to fixing stuff they should have found before releasing/to deter broken games from being released, but when it comes to content patches, they need to get with the times and allow devs to release those for free or at a much lower cost than game fixing patches.
I was in crunch on another game when it came out and never gave it a chance; but after picking it up last night and playing with some friends I'm pissed at myself for not playing sooner.
The game is simply brilliant.
I urge anyone who hasn't tried it yet to pick it up and enjoy the ride!
The game is simply brilliant.
I urge anyone who hasn't tried it yet to pick it up and enjoy the ride!
Speedymanic
Banned
I wasn't looking at it from a profit standpoint, more a quality one. XBLA has a ton of amazing games, but there is a lack of a certain type of game. Those games that have more of a retail feel to them but come with a significantly lower price point.
Like Minecraft, Trials, AN, MS are doing the rights things, but they could be doing more to attract more devs so more games like those listed above are released. Games like Dear Esther, Penumbra, Amnesia and so on.
dragonelite
Member
Wouldn't be surprised that Halo 4 with Spartan ops is going to test this for disk based AAA games. I think stuff like this is necessary next gen and it would be really awesome if XNA could make it to the next xbox or Modding in games. Developers have to sit around the table with microsoft and make a standard to achieve this.
Nabs
Member
Damn. If only there was a service that gave you live sale updates, free unlimited patching, and paid you each and every month.
Palette Swap
Member
Moving forward, MS definitely need to improve on their content delivery process, which sucks balls from the looks of it. Steam seems pretty lax about it and nobody has died because of updates. At least not since that first Witcher 2 update a year ago.
They can't push online contents with the right hand and nickel and dime this shit for all its worth with the left hand. At some point, they'll have to choose.
Speedymanic
Banned
Yeah, about that...
Taking bets on when Notch will stop supporting the game because of MS' ass backwards approach to content patches/updates.
Synth_floyd
Banned
Wow. It's also a $20 game.
toythatkills
Member
With half a million copies sold in a day, I've a feeling he'll get over it =P
note sony seem to charge for updates too
Speedymanic
Banned
I'm sure he will, but as usual, we're the ones who eventually get screwed because of a stupid decision to charge devs for content patches/updates.
Yeah, I know. There aren't many games on PSN that would require constant content patches/updates. Well, there was LBP, but that's first party, so it doesn't really count.
dragonelite
Member
I was always told they charged for bandwidth.
But what i really think is microsoft is afraid with the influx of casual players a bad patch will rub off on them instead
of the incompetent game developer who either pushed the wrong update or is just incompetent in general on what ever platform.
That is why they are testing most patches.
This is my theory Steam doesn't really need to give a crap because most pc gamers know windows is a fairly open OS(No safety walls on it) where everyone can make a game or program and patch it at will.
Im actually interested in that space sim game Notch wants to make. I wanted to give assemble a go since last semester what better way to learn it then in a game was a guy who tried it in algorithm and his implementation was 10 times slower then the compiler generated assembly code always wondered why.
afaik, they do that also, demos, patches etc
toythatkills
Member
I dunno, they have to charge at some point. I imagine there's a fair bit of work at Microsoft's end in ensuring that the patch doesn't fuck anything up and getting it through cert, and that can't come free. Especially since if everyone gets this for free, there will be so many patches going through all the time that the new games will start getting held up.
bigtroyjon
Member
What does any of that have to do with raising the prices of XBLA stuff? I mentioned profit because that's all that matters at the end of the day when it comes to determining the budget and resources a company is going to give to a game.
Speedymanic
Banned
Good point, but MS should do the sensible thing and have a much lower cost for certain games that will likely require a lot of content patches. I do agree that too many patches in the network will holds things up, but they can differentiate between content patches for a few games and game fixing patches.
I hate patching, but some games like this benefit greatly from regular updates which bring new features, content, etc. To limit those seems very shortsighted in the long term, they want to build the platform, not piss off devs because they have to pay to support their games after a certain point.
And then there's the added threat from Steam. MS needs to take that threat seriously and rethink their policies or they'll soon find themselves unable to attract any devs.
snoopeasystreet
Member
Could they not trust developers to not break their own game and if they do, fix it as soon as possible? Surely its in their best interests to make their games as good as they can be.
what happens if a patch bricks a console? Who should pay for it: the consumer, the developer or Microsoft.
Microsoft usually allows 1 free patch and then you pay after that.
toythatkills
Member
That's pretty much exactly what's happening with Minecraft. It shows it's not a rigid structure, but a game has to have a compelling case to break it and Minecraft obviously does, because of the nature of its update-focussed production from day one.
Hellsing321
Member
If only someone created a service that gives you up to the minute tracking data and free updates whenever you want. Oh wait...
Edit: Beaten
Ketzal's Corridors. Want more examples?