Meier said:
You still need to sell at least 66% as many copies as you would at the lower price point to balance it out. I don't expect it will. I think at MOST it will sell 50% as many copies as if it were a lower cost.
Without a physical item to fall back on, it has to be about impulse purchases. $15 goes outside the realm of impulse for most consumers.
I made a lot of the same arguments you made back when we were debating the price of Braid.
But I don't agree about the impulse purchases part. I think the only impulse purchases are the 200 and 400 price point ranges (200 only found on Community Games titles), whereas the rest are purchases where you think about them.
The only impulse purchase I've made was the first mini-golf game on XBLA, and that was a waste. I did play the demo, and was hoping for more after purchasing, and I was wrong. So now if I'm not having a blast with the demo, I don't buy it.
I think people are on the right track here, if they don't have Live Gold, or don't have many friends interested in playing it, then it's obviously not worth even considering a purchase. And if they do have friends, but just can't afford it, then they shouldn't buy it.
Simple as that.
Anyone arguing that it's
only $5 more...it's more complicated than that. One other perspective is percentage...how would you react if you found your haircut cost 50% more overnight? Also, that $5 could be purchasing another XBLA/XBCG game. So for 1200 you could get 2 good games. And finally it's all about budget. I've been making budgets and living by them for the last year and so I totally live within my means and debt free (thank God), and if that means not spending another $5 on something I didn't plan for, then so be it. I've specifically budgeted $30 USD a month for XBLA, PSN and XBCG games. Not going to change that to $35 for anything, I'll simply wait until next month.
Someone mentioned here that Flower was a short experience, so that saves $10 USD this month.