April 6th 2009 2:47 pm PT

1600 damn. I’ll demo it and we’ll see if I get a bailout to buy this.

Flock looks pretty decent, keen to try that one out. However, not a chance in hell for Puzzle Quest xD

I would have liked to get Flock, but not for 1200 MS points. I don’t want to support this new pricing scheme as it appears to be the new standard.

Woooow!
We’re going for an all time new high right here boys!

I expected PQ’s pricing, and from the PC demo, and pricing on Steam, seems well worth it for 1600 (£13.60, £15.99 on Steam)

Flock on the other hand, I was expecting an 800 price point, so the demo is going to really need to impress me to get a purchase.

Wow, Flock was something I was intersted in as well, it’ll have to blow me away for $15. Puzzle Quest for $20? No thanks. That’s now two $20 games in a month.

“I expected PQ’s pricing, and from the PC demo, and pricing on Steam, seems well worth it for 1600 (£13.60, £15.99 on Steam)

Flock on the other hand, I was expecting an 800 price point, so the demo is going to really need to impress me to get a purchase.”

Saves me typing it XD just what I was expecting, 1600 for PQ and 800 For Flock meh so Flock better be good, I was going to punt it if was 800 points.

two games this week, and two GREAT ones, wow I’m gonna have to go get myself a 2400 points card right away :0

Is LODE RUNNER being held back till the last week?

Yep, I am glad I stopped buying MS Points and buying their stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, love the games and there are some I would love to play but their new pricing policy (which seems to go up every time I look at it) just makes it seem wrong to me to support such a hike. I understand developers and whatnot need to make their $$ and that times are hard right now but, lest we forget, the people who play the games are mostly comprised of those who are not getting paid as well as the developers are and whos jobs are teatering on the brink of collapse.

It is like McDonalds and their double cheese.. $.99 for a double cheese for years and then the economy hits and people are poorer which, in turn sends them to McDonalds for fast food (McDonalds earnings ROSE when the economy went down) and so, in their greatness, they chose to remove a slice of cheese from the sandwich and make you pay extra if you want it back. God bless America…. or something like that anyways.

Of course, I am sure there are those who will buy anything thrown out even if they cannot pay their water bills hahahaha

Much love to everyone.. if it is worth it to ya, buy it, if not or you are, as I, outraged by the recent price hikes, then don’t. People will surely tell me to stop complaining but, well, if no one ever complained, nothing in life would ever change.

i just buy 1600 but i prefer to wait for “the king of fighters” 1600 seems a little too much for a single game.

and i think 1200 for Flock is too much also because it doesn’t have online multiplayer.

I’d been eagerly awaiting the new Puzzle Quest game, holding on to my points for its release, only to find that I’m shy of the cost by about half.

I understand that, with a higher quality of game there is a feel that a higher amount wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable. In most cases it seems the pricing scheme is right on, since Dig Dug shouldn’t be anywhere near the cost of The Maw.

That said, I guess I’ll be waiting a while longer to own either of these games. Probably worth their price, but too rich for my blood at the moment.

To be fair, Galactrix costs $20-30 on the other platforms it has released on.

Having said that, I picked it up on DS and was sadly disappointed with the game. I loved the first PQ, but this one lacks the charm and adds a level of frustration with unnecessary minigames and convoluted interface/navigation.

TheGreatSilence, do not forget, as with everything.. as graphics improve so does technology making those graphics easier and more accessable.

Dig Dug probably took more thought and coding power when it was created back in the day than The Maw did with todays equipment. (Not to say either was easy or hard, just stating a fact)

I do understand your point though.

Good games, too bad I can’t afford them. I guess I will keeps spending my gaming budget on Steam’s weekend deals. Xbox Live is becoming too “elitist” for me. I’ve been a hardcore console gamer since original Xbox launched, but Xbox Live pricing is sending me back to PC gaming. $10 for map packs now? NO THANKS! On PC, games are cheaper and maps are free.

Galactrix is junk, just try it on other platforms and you’ll see.

There’s a pc demo out for Galactrix, check that out and I am sure you won’t pay 1600 pts for it. Flock I will have to see how it is before I pay 1200 for it.

LOL, WTF such high prices for trash games like this?
Live Arcade is going to hell.

I quite appreciated the demo on PC, Twilight Now, and as such, this is a purchase, for me. The game-world is HUGE, so there’s plenty of content for your comparable $20. It isn’t overpriced, far from it, especially when comparing to other formats and soureces. It also has matchmaking, which the other versions apparently do not.

I don’t know where everyone is getting the 1600=$20. In Canada, it’s closer to $25 then it is to $20.
I can’t believe people actually buy 25 dollar arcade games. You could get a used copy of Halo or COD for slightly more then double that.

so when are there going to be “good” arcade games out?

Well, I’m not working in Canadian Dollars. there’s no CDN$ there is there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Points

Flock off.

I’ll give Flock a go – if you can create your own levels and share them over Live – that could be worth the 1200 points price .
Hope lode runner and out run come in at 800 points each.

Oh by the way, there’s been a PC demo of Flock available for some time now, here it is: http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/?u=17969735

I was honestly all set to buy Flock but I’ll pass at 1200 MSP. I could have swore I read somewhere that it was going to be 800 MSP.

Xbox Live Arcade pricing has gotten completely out of hand. No wonder I don’t buy XBLA games anymore.

@looping star : Level editor: The level editor allows for custom puzzles to be created, shared, and rated. From the Flock xbox.com page.

Man XBLA game prices just keep going up 800mp is the new 400mp, 1200mp is the new 800mp, 1600mp is the new…… Overpriced crap. Doesn’t Microsoft know this will hurt them more then help them. Meh, Why I’m I bitching I rearly buy XBLA games but Microsoft better keep there hands off Map Packs. I will not pay $20 for 3 maps.

@ PzR Tak
It just pisses me off that LAST YEAR I could get 1600 points at Best Buy for 20. Now, it’s 1400 for 22.

Again, both games are one category above their would-be-normal prices. Puzzle Quest should be 1200 Points just like the first game. And Flock is just a standard 800 Point game, nothing special, absolutely no reason for it to be 1200.

I will not buy any of these games, and again, because of their prices.

@ 7raveler. I do feel your pain, buddy. Is it currency fluctuation, or just plain greed? I make no excuses for the pricing, but as I’ve said before PQ:G is competitively priced with its other versions, and flock is an unknown quantity.

I mean, let me put it this way, I recently bought PQ COTW, and played that through to completion once. I want to do it again, with each of the classes, and will probably at some point also get the plague lords expansion. PQ Galactrix is bigger than COTW, is pretty much different, yet the same basic mechanics. Why shouldn’t the devs charge what they want for it. It isn’t MS that is pricing these, either. It is the developers. Otherwise, why is it MORE EXPENSIVE ON STEAM?

wow Expensive…….. why wasnt Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid Live part of ‘Days of Arcade’?

Man…

I’m…………….shocked. I really am. I didn’t expect PQ: Galactrix to be $20. Maybe because I just wasn’t keeping up with it. I said in a previous post (Days of Arcade) that I would purchase this, but I can’t bring myself to buy this game at that price. I bought the original at 1200 points, before it had been discounted to what it is now (800 MSP’s I believe). I found the original pretty much worth it, but I have a feeling that this one won’t deliver at the price that MS has set.

I’m fully aware that all of our rants will do little (read: NOTHING) to decrease the prices of these games, but I would have considered buying the new PQ game at 1200 MSP’s but this pricing is getting outrageous. I see most of the people that post here are Gold Members, so besides the Deal of the Week, give us Gold Members some incentive to buy these games at these high prices!

I’ll wait until Flock drops to 800 points. I once paid $15 for an arcade game (Braid), and I regret it. I’m not making that mistake again.

wow, ridiculous prices, get lost microsoft.

Flock @ 800msp = def. purchase.
Flock @ 1200msp = no chance in hell.

Its not even as if we EUROPEANS have much else on the Marketplace to occupy us besides these, either… can you not sort it, Hryb?

I can’t believe it
MS should stop this insane price raising

the days of arcade quite frankly blows harder then Courtney Love.

Just done a Steam check, and it turns out Flock will be available for £11.99, rather than Xbox Live’s £10.20. So on both games, XBL is cheaper than steam. Now tell me it is MS causing this, and not the devs…

Some people really need to do some research before they go blathering on about how “Oooh mummy, it’s so UNFAIR”

This is getting ridiculous. R-Type was overpriced (1200 when that kind of games are 800), then Uno Rush was overpriced (800 when it was going to be 400), then Flock is overpriced (1200 when it was going to be 800), and I could keep going.

Sorry but I´m getting really tired of this. I usually buy the games I like, but maybe I´ll stop doing that. I´m not going to pay 1200 points for Flock when I clearly know that Lode Runner will come at least at the same price.

And then what? Some kind of dlc for them with achievements associated like in the Maw? Day after day I´m starting to hate the marketplace, few worth content, and much overpriced things. Where are the days when there was free content for the games, or cheap Arcade ones???

These prices are the same as they are for their counterparts on other platforms, including PC. I don’t know why you people feel it should be any different.

darkjester74: these prices are too high no matter what platform they’re on.

It’s same price on the PS3, do what i do don’t smoke cigarettes or buy achochol and other cra* you waste money on each week.

i’ll play trial of flock, then if i like it, i will buy it simple as that.

BTW for all you RE5 fans, it was just announced on the Capcom blog that the Versus mode DLC is going to be available TOMORROW 4/7 for 400 points. It’d be nice if it were free like the upcoming Left 4 Dead DLC, but it’s still worth it for the added extra multiplayer. You can also see the TEN new achievements that come with it on xbox.com right now.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/snow_infernus/blog/2009/04/06/resident_evil_5_versus_mode_available_tomorrow

I don’t care about other platforms. The Xbox Live Marketplace is getting ridiculous. From XBLA, to themes, and to add-ons. They are all overpriced.

For example, the “FIFA 09 Ultimate Team Theme” is 250MS points on XBLM. On the PS3 it is free (along with MANY other free themes), and I don’t even own a game for my PS3. There is no such thing as a “microtransaction” anymore.

Cool, flock is coming. Resident Evil 5 VS Mode too!!!? “Yummie-yummie!”, but The Dishwasher is more than enough for me for now along with God of War 2 (just picking it up and playing it as a tired request before GOW3). Man do I feel a bit flooded.

Economy goes to hell and prices skyrocket. Doesn’t seem to make sense but if there are less customers you have to raise the price to keep your revenue at the same level. In any case I was looking forward to buying Flock since E3 but won’t do so for 1200 points. That’s 6 good community games I can get for the same amount.

As for Puzzle Quest: The game just sucks. I bought the PC version, I played for half an hour and then I was so annoyed by the average graphics, the boring story and the repetitive gameplay (hack 300 jump gates) that I never started the game again. And the first Puzzle Quest ist one of my favorites. But Galactrix is without a doubt the worst game I’ve played in years, they got rid of everything that was fun in COTW and added a couple of ridiculous minigames. The 360 version would even be overpriced at 800 points.

@PzR Tak: You’re totally wrong. Xbox Live prices aren’t made by developers, they are made by Microsoft. The dev can veto their suggestions, but that’s about it. It’s Microsofts store, they make the rules, they decide pricing.

Dang, I was thinking about Flock, until it released for 1200msp

@pandapadawan. Prove it.

Hey big surprise, I won’t buy either of these at those prices. You win this time MS… or do you?

Flock will have to impress me greatly for me to pay 1200 points for. At first glance 800 seems more reasonable, but we’ll see.

For the record:
I’ll pay 3200 points, for a HD, Xbox Live enabled, port of Killer Instinct or Killer Instinct Gold. Pretty please? Money is not important here.

800 is the most i’ll pay for an arcade, will only go higher in extreme cases (castle crashers)

And all these bad arcade games at 1600 points make the GTA DLC look like a bargain for alot of people.

Rockstar really did a great job with the pricing!

Fact is, you could just get the original Puzzle Quest for 800. Then, if you really have to be ripped off you can get the 700 point expansion, thereby bringing us to 100 points less for THE SAME DAMN GAME.
—
Or you could just not buy any of it. Microsoft, Dishwasher is supposed to be the rule, NOT THE EXCEPTION.

Oh yeah, Resi 5 expansion can go Flock itself too. The japs only have to pay 160 MSP for it, and a tenner says the file size is 108KB or 124KB.

I have to agree about the resi 5 expansion. Why oh why was it not in the game from the get go. Why do we have to pay for it if we want it. (not that I’ve played Resi 5, nor am I interested)

Way too expensive for both games. I really wanted to try Flock out, too.

Hi Microsoft,

Hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to let you know that the reason the App Store over at Apple is doing so well is that they offer lots and lots of impulse buys. Start to offer games that are $1.99 or less and your sales will go through the roof. Also, at best a game like Puzzle Quest: Galactrix shouldn’t cost more than about $5. It costs very little to develop and is distributed digitally which should cut down even more on the overhead. At $5, both you and the developer should be able to make a nice profit. I LOVED the original Puzzle Quest, but even I’m not willing to spend $20 on a game like this. I’m a big fan of Xbox Live, but the prices are getting to be outrageous for games which I won’t be able to play 10 or 15 years from now because I never got a disc. Anyway, think about it, ‘kay? I’m looking out for you, buddy! Hang in there.

Your Friend,
NomadicGamer

Just plain sad to see what M$ has done to the XBLA. Completely out of touch and out of their minds with the pricing on this stuff. Congrats, you have lost a sale.

What the Flock?!

Games that would cost 800 are 1200, games that should cost 1200 are 1600… What’s next? Games costing 2000?

That’s just too much for downloadable XBLA games.

That’s what I was expecting Galactrix to cost. I’ll be picking it up but not right away since I want to get the RE5 dlc tomorrow and I don’t have enough points to get both.

Lol ouch. I already figured PQ would be 1600 since that is the PC price. But Flock… 1200 to herd sheep. Sorry if I’m missing something but Flock doesn’t seem my kind of game. Still looking forward to Lode Runner tho, hopefully it doesn’t come out until MS finally decides to honor my valid service contract that I paid for and repair my console….. I love paying for a service that is not honored in good faith.

This pricing is a total joke.
You can’t resell the game. You can’t lend it to a friend. So it has 0$ resale value. ‘Major’ Nelson flock your himself.

No thanks, won’t ever be buying an Arcade game over 800.

It’s like Microsoft wants these games to fail. The manager of XBLA should be ashamed of himself.

i think they should hire a new xbox live staff, obviously this one lacks vision and are definitely out of touch with the buyers want. Whats real sad is that the economy is messed up and MS wants to rape people of the little bit of money that they have left.

What is happening with outrun after peggle it is the only arcade title i am after

Lame. I love PQ but I’m not dishing out 20 bucks for this. Haven’t they realized that if this were priced a 10 bucks they’d make far more money?

Again, crazy pricing.

I really don’t understand why MS can’t see the business sense in pricing these releases at impulse buy level, I am SURE Flock @ 800pts would make more money than Flock @ 1200pts.

For me, its all about justification, I can justify a £6 (800pts) impulse purchase, however, when things start rising to £10 (1200pts), and £14 (1600pts, which incidentally you can pickup full priced, discounted boxed games), then it all goes a bit mental for me, and its no longer an impulse purchase.

XBLA games should be pocket money games, they should be impulse purchases, you should download the demo, play it for a bit, and think tou yourself, meh, its only 800pts, I’ll have that, not sit there and think, hmmmmm…1200/1600pts is a lot of money for an impulse buy.

Its basic economics, stack’em high, sell’em low, and see the returns.

TOO EXPENSIVE!

Is there a way to trade in my food stamps or maybe donate my blood for microsoft points? How about I name my first born after the xbox 360 for some points. Would red ring or e74 sound good as a boys name.

Yet again another bad week for LIVE Arcade.
How on earth can people be expected to pay the same price for a pick up and play arcade game compared to a massive expansion for GTA VI.
I made a promise not to buy anything of marketplace that is over 800 points so these are definately a no-go.
Gonna download the trials though just to bring the game’s attach rate down so hopefully it will get pulled from marketplace in 6 months for having less than 6% conversion.
If you are gonna abuse us then we are gonna abuse the rule that you brought in.

How is that even a promotion?

One way to slightly appease the masses microsoft may be to adjust the achievements available for each game:
800pt arcade title = 200 achievement points
1200pt arcade title = 350 achievement points
1600pt arcade title = 500 achievement points.

It stands to reason that this should be happening anyway doesn’t it?
It won’t affect the fact that SOME of these newer titles are over-priced, but it will add some kind of extra value to justify the pricing.

(just remember I came up with the idea eh?)

Looks like I will only buy “Deals of the week” in the future. I will not support this new pricing strategy from MS. MS, you have lost another sale. Already the third lost sale during these disappointing “(rip-off) Days of Arcade”…

@T360UK CHIEF

I like that idea, might have to have a crack at doing that myself.

For those who are interested who sets the price: http://www.destructoid.com/jonathan-blow-talks-braid-pricing-98393.phtml

They “agreed” – so blame both: MS and the developer

I’m glad it’s almost unanimous that this pricing scheme is pretty outrageous. It’s a shame because this game looks pretty good. But the price is too much. Arcade games used to be where you went for well priced games, not pricing you because you MIGHT buy it.

Again, no sale here either.

sorry too expensive.i cant afford it at this time

I wish Lode Runner doesn´t become 1600, because I really want that one

@Pandapadawan
If you’re a ‘seller’ what would you do when many well-known businesses start to go extinct or on the verge of it, competition really doesn’t seem to be up to par (Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3) and you have opened a door of pandora (XNA) for the good of things. I know some high prices when I see them, but at times some things (Castle Crashers) were worth the price to me. As long as we keep buying ‘all is good’. I do not complain, I’ll point out what I do not like. Some games are not worth their price, but yet many people buy them. Keep that in mind.

@Protonus
For the LAST TIME, I’M FIRST in line for Killer Instinct! Now if it is Killer Instinct Gold or Killer Instinct X comes out first, sure go ahead, be my guest. I’ve been waiting on a Killer Instinct since that terrible KI Gold – man the sprite animation truly s-u-c-ks. And yes, I have both in my collection – SNES and N64. IF I had to put a price on it – I want a ‘true’ to arcade version, with all the old bugs and glitches (especially the rooftop TJ Combo Ultra Combo glitch I’ve never seen that since its glory days in the arcade when I was in high school), a 12 man tournament lobby so that we winners/losers can see the ongoing fights (no voice chat during tourneys), a true ranking skill set on manual combo and auto combos and possible a match up arcade like in SFIV (on off). I’d gladly fork over $80 for the disc as the Limited Editions of games lately are geared toward ‘you didn’t know any better did you’ types which = me. and my DSi….(sigh).. Peggle Dual Shot (DS game, not DSi) not as sweet as Xbox Live’s (graphics, sounds, controls) but just as addictive AND portable.

@T360UK CHIEF
The ONLY promise I made to myself was to ALWAYS play the trial BEFORE purchase. Paranoid, I even played The Dishwasher for 1 minute in trial, THEN bought it, JUST in case the ‘fun’ had been removed. It was still intact, purchase. To go with it the 120GB HDD, until the price get to a ‘respectable’ consumer price, I will not buy one. I’m not being negative, but I was hurt a bit when everyone was shouting they had a 20GB HD, but yet formatted with NONE of my games or videos mine always read 13GB. I felt like I bought a three bedroom house and the third bedroom was the garage. So, as I delete completed games, ehhh, I can wait.

Hey, at least this region gets it for 800 ms points.

http://www.xbox.com/zh-SG/games/f/flockxboxlivearcade/

So… the total cost for new games this week is $35 on XBLA? Chingame!

I would have snatched up Flock at 800MSP. The game looks interesting, but not 1200 MSP interesting.

I bought Braid at 1200MSP and loved it. I bought Penny Arcade at 1600MSP and hated it. Price increases do not guarantee quality games. It’s especially annoying that there is no guaranteed price drop system on XBLA (since there’s not form of competition you monopolistic money grubbers). Penny Arcade at 800MSP is a slap in the face. If they would allow devs to drop pricing after a few months, I wouldn’t complain. The way I see it, I got Dark Sector at Newegg for $10 and that is a way more developed game than Flock. I can wait for the next “Deal of the Week” promo when Capcom and MS feel a little less greedy.

BTW: Is this the end of 400MSP games? I know you ran out of retro titles to p1mp, but surely you can find something to run a promotion on?

1200 Points for Flock?? Come on, I really was expecting 800 for this title! I don´t believe that MS is really trying to raise the prices for all Arcade titles!

I wanted to buy specific games from the days of arcade and bought me some points, thinking that the games would be 800 and now I am screwed!

First no Dishwasher in Germany on day of release and now these prices….MS is really screwing Arcade up.

Great work!

Another 2 games I WONT be buying

keep up the good work ms

Major, I thought there would have been a a bit more publicity over this week releases as this week marks the 200th XBLA game release.

I’m still buying Flock, because I actually like to SUPPORT developers.

They are cheaper than Steam, yet people are still calling them overpriced?

You havent even played them yet, how do you know that they will be overpriced?

Also FFS, 400 MS points is about £3. Is that really too much to spend extra?

Flock seems worth the price to me. I demo’d it a few months back on PSN through Qore and it was an excellent game and seems a steal at $15. While I would love the pricing to be lower I think that it is a well deserved price for the quality and fun factor of the game judging just by my time with the demo alone. So they will get my money.

On the otherhand, I have PQ: Galatrix for the DS and was sadly disappointed with it compared to the great original. The charm and fun is far removed and while the concept works n paper they just seemed to fall flat in execution with this title so buying it for XBLA is a pass for me. The game really lacks that something special that the original had in spades.

Complain all we want about these prices, at least we get to actually demo each game. You don’t always have that luxury on the other systems…

Are the games any good?

Holy crap! Whats with these prices!!??

1600 points for a glorified FLASH game, that is pretty mediocre.

Game: Yes.
Price: No.

Its definitly to expansiv, first you must buy a Harddrive thats overpriced and now the Arcade Games to, Thats realy bad.