July 9th 2009 2:00 pm PT

1200 points for TMNT? Kinda disappointing :/

Pure greed. Only way to explain why these titles are now 1200 points. $15 for an “arcade” game? And before some white knight comes in telling me to get a job I work 40 hours a week. I just don’t see the justification for the price point on these games. Does this help develop more ads for the 360 dashboard?

4/5 are 1200 points? I don’t like this trend.

hrm i’m about to end up even more broke than i thought.

Man, 1200 MS Points the norm now for XBLA? That sucks. Only one I might buy is Shadow Complex.

What is it with these prices! Seriously MS, stop trying to screw us every chance you get. Ugh! Forget it, you can keep them all.

This seems a little weird to me. 1200 points for TMNT 2, an old short arcade game that has just basically been enhanced with graphics? And then 1200 points for an awesome looking original Metroid style game from Epic? I’d have thought TMNT for 800 and Shadow Complex for 1600. That said, I hope you don’t expect TMNT 2 to be as popular as 1. That game was only $5 and much easier to recommend at that price. TMNT 2 better play perfectly online and off for me to consider $15 for it.

4/5 games are 1200 Microsoft Points. Wow, what a fail.

Unfortunately, at 1200 points, none of those games will be found in my library.

Shadow Complex is the one I really want.

Cool, Splosion Man coming *waits impatiently*…

I’m surprised that the Summer Of Arcade isn’t considered ongoing already, what with Monkey Island SE coming next wednesday and all… But sure, I can dig it

I for one am NOT complaining about 1200 MSP for a game, some of those are well worth it to me, tho I also live in an expensive country, where the 15 dollars can either buy me a game to last several hours of entertainment, OR I can spend it downtown and get 2 pints of beer for it… In terms of value the games easily win it

@Ready2Rokk: Shadow Complex is not like Metroid. It’s more like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

1200 points for TMNT… I’m still hoping the orignal version will be an unlockable but it doesnt look like thats going to happen

For those complaining about the prices, Trials 2 on PC costs $20 and is an incredible value for all you get. If Shadow Complex lives up to its heritage, it should also be worth $15 easy – 10 hours of 2D Metroid style gameplay with lots of upgrades and exploring. It’s dubious whether or not MvC2 is really worth $15 nowadays, but could go either way, depending on the player. The only price that really seems “wrong” to me is TMNT 2, since it’s a 30-45 minute arcade game with “enhanced” graphics (which I personally don’t like as much as the hand drawn look).

!!Please put 1200 point as a purchase option via the Xbox. It is insane that I need to buy 1000 points then another 500 points to buy these games. Epic Fail!!

@Jonah Falcon – Really, Metroid (2D old school style) and Castlevania (2D new style) are the same thing. One really big map, exploring back and forth, upgrading weapons, etc.

Oh, and 15 USD would get me 1 Burger King meal… And since I am a fairly big eater, when I was in the US, 15 dollars only got me 1.5 meals at KFC…

So honestly, what is with all the complaining all the time, sure, it’s money, but what does everyone manage to do with 15 dollars that makes it such a huge amount in their mind… For me 15 dollars is not much really…

(And no, I am not rich or anything, it is just a fact that a fast food meal in the US for me is 10 dollars or more, so 15 for a game that will give me 5-10 hours of enjoyment seems well worth it…)

(rant over )

Jonah Falcon: Actually it’s what you would call a “Metroidvania” game.

Wow. Easy decision for me. I won’t buy a single game…1200 points for 4/5? No way. Epic fail MS!

How long will it be before 1600 points is the norm?

If anyone is unfamiliar with the titles, I previewed all of them at E3 this year:

http://www.gamestooge.com/2009/06/04/e3-09-summer-of-arcade-preview/

Shadow Complex is ultrahot.

@shane86 No-one knows… Prices always change, it is called inflation and the mechanisms of economics… 10 years ago an icecream also cost 20 cents less than that it does now…

Getting Kinda costly here…..Turtles shouldnt be anymore than $10

is everyone insanely cheap or am I missing the point here

how can everyone judge these games before they have played them?

if some of the games is worth the 15 dollars then you won’t complain then will you

I mean seriously I don’t understand how everyone can judge the games now – I totally understand if you play the free trial and then like – oh this isn’t worth my money, I won’t buy it – but to write it off before its out just because of the price – don’t understand it

@macktiger Amen Brother… Amen…

Turtles in Time 1200 points? No thanks I will pass on that one. I’ll just stick with the SNES version (it has extras that this arcade version won’t have anyways). I would rather have the classic Turtles in Time on XBLA for 400 points rather than a crappy reskinned port.

@delta 1200 is the new 800.

A big “no thank you” off me. Some games are worth the 1200, not all of them, as the case is here.

Trials HD looks interesting I would love to get Marvel vs. Capcom 2 but I hate the Dpad and I don’t want to buy a arcade stick for 2 games. I also have Street Fighter HD that I never play because of the Dpad.

I don’t think 1200 points for Shadow Complex, MVC2 or Turtles In Time is unreasonable at all. Don’t know enough about Trials HD to comment on it, but we’ll see.

MVC2, Shadow Complex and TMNT are all definite buys for me.

Looks like MvC2 will be the only game i’m picking up this summer. At 15, its actually a steal compared to the 90-120 dollar prices that console copies had been going for before it was announced.

1200 points == guaranteed NO SALE from me.

no Monkey Island price?
anyway, I’d better get some points next week >_>

I understand MvC2 being 1200 points but TMNT?! It’s just a graphical upgrade of the original with 4 player online. For a beat’em up game it should not be 1200 points. I’m sorry but that should be 800 not 1200. I was actually thinking about getting the new TMNT but now I’m not even going to touch it. Thanks alot Microsoft & Ubisoft.

Darn MVC2 comes out the day im jetting off to Tenerife for 2 weeks, what timing :S

Strangely enough, Monkey Island is no longer part of SoA. But it’s out next week, at least!

With the odd exception I think the price is reasonable for the majority of live games. However I still find the points system totally unacceptable. If Valve decided to implement STEAM points the PC gaming community would start a riot. Just because there is a lack of competition via digital distribution on a console doesn’t mean they have the right to treat customers like that. C’mon ditch the points and let me pay in real money without making top up with more credits then I actually need.

Lately we nearly got only 800 point games…. and now all is 1200?

Its wrong to charge so much when you et so many good 1200 point retail disc games in store now.
I may only buy 1 or max 2 of these games.

I was waiting for TMNT remake, but at this price i wont buy it. I refuse to pay local store budget prices for short downloadable games.

So far I’ve not paid $15 for an arcade game, and I don’t plan on starting anytime soon. Also, with the economy as it is…what does xbox think its doing charging $15 for remakes of all arcade games? :-\

I was only looking forward to Shadow Complex, but now Trials HD looks pretty fun too. Guess I’ll try some trials before I buy anything.

yawn @ all the same comments

1200 per game seems like a lot, especially for Turtles and Trials HD.

i may pass on a few of these that i was interested in at first.

Major please have a word with those in charge about the prices. TMNT seems VERY overpriced for a tarted up re-release. Do Microsoft think people are going to pay £10/$20 for that? Just look at the comments above. Even the loyal customers know when they’re getting shafted…

Only 2 interest me – Trials HD is a must have , and Marvel vs. Capcom is a maybe !

For those having issues with having to buy 500 or 1000, you can purchase points from zune.net in 400 and 1200 points increments.

SWEET. Rob us some more so you can further richen yourselves with ads on our dashboard on a PAID FOR SERVICE. $15 for an arcade game, what a joke.

Why can’t there be a 1000MSP price bracket? Is it really that hard to have a game that’s more than $10 and less than $15? Really?

Wow, some people are really stingy, it seems. And don’t whine on about THE PRINCIPLE of it all, because that’s no argument either. Look at the price of some things on the VC… now THAT is overpriced, no improvements to buying your old consoles again. MvC2 sells for upwards of £60 these days so £10 is a BARGAIN. Trials is 20$ on PC so 15$ is a bargain. Turtles in Time seems to be a misnomer though. I’d buy it at 800, probably not at 1200. Depends on the quality of the netcode. Shadow Complex looks like a full retail game so is very likely to be worth the 1200 tag too.

Lame price for the turtles games. I don’t care for the new look in the first place which was my biggest turn off. I was even debating at getting it if it was at 800 because of that.

@macktiger: And yet you will continue to read them. What a smart fellow you must be.

And onto the topic of this blog post…I paid $15 for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 on the PS2 new. So I can’t really justify buying it again…for the same price without the disc, case, and instruction booklet. And Turtles In Time should only be $10. I would rather have had it just be the original version if it would’ve made it cheaper. I was looking forward to getting it…now I don’t see myself buying it…or possibly ANY of these games. And this is coming from someone who got all of the games that came out during last year’s Summer of Arcade.

They should have just released the original Turtles in Time for 400 ages ago. Giving an old game an arguably rubbish makeover does not triple the value. Castle Crashers this is not.
I’d have considered it at 800, but 1200 is a “no chance” price. For that you can get TMNT 1989, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage 2!
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MvC I’ll likely fork over money for, eventually. Seems not too bad considering the value of it elsewhere.
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Not seen much of Splosion Man but it looks like it could be fun. Not to mention the price alone means it has something going for it at least.
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Trials HD looks like utter crap to be honest. And for that price it looks like it’ll be getting a lot of -TRIALS- (followed by swift deletions). ;D
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Shadow Complex looks good but it’ll have to blow me away for me to part with 400 more points than I had been willing to, even for some Dude Huge-endorsed Metroidvania.
Not to mention it’s a game from the creators of -ugh- Undertow.
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Summary: Take your Summer of Arcade and shove it.

The price of XBLA games has gone up, but so has the quality and length of the games, especially since the file size limitations have been removed. I see no problem with big games like Shadow Complex being $20. If you guys don’t like the more expensive games, get the smaller cheaper ones like ‘Splosion Man.

@WinterSnowblind – Agree, I think that Shadow Complex is a good price I was expecting $20.

Yeah, these aren’t just 80′s coin-op games ported into an emulator.

these games are priced too high. may be for 400-500points. when it comes out, i’ll just play the demo several times and move on.

damn you guys are cheap. You can’t even go to the movies now a days for under 15$ and you only get 1-3hrs of entertainment. But with a 15$ arcade game you could spend a month on it. Seriously you guys are cheap.

Me I’ll be buying TMNT for sure and checking out all the others.

I was interested in several of these games but not at the 1200 price point. I was willing to spend that on Battlefield 1943 for the replay value and sheer amount of hours I will put into it, but I dont see any of these giving me the same value for my money.

To me 1200MSP is too much for the majority of Xbox Arcade games. 800MSP was about right for larger titles and 400MSP for the simpler games. To buy the points needed for a single 1200MSP game it works out at £12.75 due to the unfriendly points system. That probably wouldn’t be an unreasonable price if it was a hard copy on CD including box, manual etc. But Live Arcade games come with overly restrictive DRM and cannot be sold once completed so there’s isn’t any resale value. Personally I prefer to spend my cash (usually much less than £12.75) buying the original games off eBay or a secondhand shop. IMO people are too willing to accept a shafting off Microsoft.

That is one expensive summer!

Sneeches

Can’t go to the movies for under $15? Things must suck in Canada. I’m going to see “Bruno” on Friday for $6.50.

I think all the positive commenters are trolls from Microsoft trying to get us to think that the pricing is alright.

The only one I agree with you guys on is TMNT. Even considering it’s a fully HD remake, I don’t think anyone is willing to pay that much to play a game like that.. Seems like a very bad idea. I would have prefered the original for just 800. But at 1200 that’s going to be a hard sale, it certainly doesn’t have the replay value of Castle Crashers.

@i touch my nuts: Or they’re from people with intelligence that understand bigger games = more development cost.

Woot: http://twitter.com/lucasartsgames/statuses/2554933023
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Secret of Monkey Island remake is 800 points!

@WinterSnowblind: Yes yes, emulated games are a huge dev cost. Don’t forget your kettle is on the stove.

whatever happened to the Turtles,they are rubbish now….their eyes are all white and they have no character now,and even April is no longer a yummie…bring back the 80s early 90s Turtles!!!
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Splosion man looks like the real winner,here 800 points and that looked like its a real fun game

Hmmmm kinda pricey but not too shabby!

just love how they keep jacking up the prices on every damn thing…

metallicorphan: I guess you never read the original comics.

800 points for splosion man? With 4 player local and online co-op? Score!

I’m going to be picking up Turtles, Splosion Man, and Shadow Complex. The only one that feels a little mis-priced is Turtles – but it looks like they’ve put a ton of work into it, so I’ll withhold a final judgment until I’ve beaten it.

The big pricing win came with the Monkey Island announcement today. 800 points. Bought so hard.

Shadow Complex comes out on my birthday can i have a discount

Shadow Complex looks cool for 1200… rest na, I’ll wait for them to drop.

BTW, the number/size of the achievements for XBLA games should be based on price. Eventually when these games start costing $20-40 I would like to see 400-600 achievement points per game. 200 achievement points for a game that is 1200/1800 points seems low.

I agree with you r3dreck, personally a few extra achievements would be nice for the 1200/1600 point games.

Why do we need a remake of Turtles in Time? so they can charge more for it? god forbid a simple re-release for 400 points like the other TMNT arcade.

Monkey Island 1.. I finished it several times.. i bought it on Amiga floppy, PC Floppy and PCD CD. I bought it 3 times.. and at only 800 points.. i will buy it again..

I can afford all these 1200 point games, and money isnt an issue. Its just that some is overpriced, and i refuse to pay 1200 points for TMNT for like 45 mins of gameplay, and probably no replayability.
The exclusive games on PSN is actually overall cheaper than the Live games. I like Live better, but i buy games in both console shops.

BF1943 was clearly worth 1200 points thou.

Prices are too high. 800 has to be the standard, not 1200 …

Trials HD is the only I think is overpriced. It goes for less than $10 on STEAM. Go get it there.

Aww… Why does the only game I’m excited for this summer (Shadow Complex) have to come out when I’m 500km away from my xbox at ProgNatoon ’09? :’(

i don’t comment much on prices, but these are pretty ridiculous. any old game, regardless of how re-done or HD’d up it is, should never be more than $10/800MSP. to me, shadow complex is the only game worth $15/1200MSP. however, i’ve played tmnt and mvc2 multiple times. maybe it’s worth $15 to someone who has never played those games. anyways, i would’ve bought tmnt and mvc2 for $10 each but, at $15, it’s no deal like howie mandel!

Yea I agree that the prices seem a bit high for some of these (especially TMNT since the SNES version only takes like an hour to play through). Solid line-up though. Not quite as good as last year though. Last year I got every game released and this year the only one I am even 90% about getting is Shadow Complex (game of the show from E3 IMHO, mainly because it was the only game that I hadn’t heard about before that really got showed off and not just teased). Splosion Man is like 80% just because The Maw was so good. I think Twisted Pixel could be a heck of a studio if they stick to their guns and don’t let the business people ruin it.

Wow. Any deals coming? No more Arcade Hits?

THANKS MAJ!!! Now THIS IS HOW YOU ANNOUNCE HOT TITLES!!! Love it man! As for the prices, I’m on my own, but agree with macktiger. These prices are nothing for the fun I KNOW I’m going to get one Day 1+, Hour 1+ from MvC2. That is IF there is little lag on the online play. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD suffers little lag so I expect the same – especially for the price, but then “Happy-happy-joy-joy…” If not, I’ll still but it to have it, but play it on PS3 as it is smooth as butter on that system for some reason and the D-Pad obeys my every command. “Photon-n-n-n-n-n Canon-n-n-n-n!”

I also agree with r3dreck that 800 MS+ games should have more achievement points added to them. Shadow Complex by Epic Games should not disappoint, so that one is on my buy lineup too. The rest, hmmm… We’ll see. And to the price whiners, hey, remember, Deal of the Week for those games are only XXX Months away. But then, remember starting THIS WEEKEND (not sure if ONLY this weekend for now) you can win prizes on 1 vs 100.

Turtles in Time is totally re-worked, hence the price. I’m not afraid of the price, but the new style is ‘not old school’, but I’ll try the trial if there is one for it. 4 Player Co-op online and I’m sold on that too.

My HDD is getting full….

no Monkey Island?

all great games…and all about 5 bucks more than I’d like to pay. Thank goodness for the deal of the week.

@i touch my nuts: What are you talking about? None of these games are emulations, infact emulations aren’t even allowed on XBLA. Games like Marvel vs Capcom definitely shouldn’t be as high as they are, but the point is that the increased price we’re seeing is because games are no longer limited to 150mb, and the more expensive games are typically far bigger, such as Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex, where even at $15 are better value than most full price games.

I was relying on TMNT being 800… now I’ll have to get Shadow Complex and have some extra points floating around for a while… oh this works I’ll spend it in Mass Effect DLC thx.

i’m gonna check out Splosion Man & Shadow Complex.

2000 Microsoft Points for 2 games, not bad.

So they will cost me £6.67; coz i just bought 2100MSP for £7.00

Shawdow Complex I may get Trails maybe also. The rest don’t look like my type of game even if they were 800MS

BrooksterMax: next week!

Splosion Man, Trials HD and Shadow Complex for me.

i think that people are forgetting that these games are not just “arcade” games now, its not like robotron or frogger, (lol) indeed it aint no joust either, but these r basically proper games but just via dlc. so maybe 1200 is justifiable. perhaps ms should invest in a new name for the service, as more n more of these games are not arcade remakes but remakes of dreamcast and psone games. however i agree that i wont buy any games above 800msp unless they are oober lush! (still need to try battlefield 1943 demo) guess ill stick to worms 2: armageddon for the next 10 weeks

also where did u buy 2100 points from for that price killer hornet!!?!? :O

Thank You Gannon255…I thought I was the only person that knew points come in different increments in different places. Here is the breakdown, in case you are having trouble with the MS pts (US only, of course, as i have no idea what they have going on overseas!): Retail prepaid cards: MS pts, 1600/ 4000, Zune pts come in 800 and 2000 in stores that carry them (Wal Mart). Using the “marketplace”, MS points are in 500 pt increments, while Zune pts are in 400 increments (meaning you can buy 400, 800, 1200, 1600…or ALL THE PRICES OF XBL GAMES!!). Zune pt purchases are easy, go to zune.net, link your g/t, purchase pts. And in case all that is simply too much for you, or you just don’t want points, USE AMAZON! They have almost the complete XBL library available to purchase for “real currency” (800 pts game cost $10)…it really isn’t that complicated, and I have a very hard time believing that someone can buy points for one game, and then won’t ever spend the last bit of points towards anything, ever. And Marvel vs. Capcom 2…REALLY? People are complaining that one of the most sought after games, EVER, “cost too much”? Oh, you bought it “new” 5 or 10 years ago for the PS2 for $15 and its the same? I don’t remember the PS2 version having online multiplayer, leaderboards, achievements, or being in HD? But it came with a book and a disc…probably a relevant detail, THEN, but to buy one NOW, it cost, what, exactly for a new one? $500? I’ve seen them go as high as $800 for a sealed new copy, and even Gamestop sells scratched up used one’s for $60. I’ll take the $15, thank you. And to anyone who wants to complain about the D-pad or how they don’t like fighting games…DON’T BUY IT! Hori makes plenty of good controllers for 360, MadCatz made some nice fightpads (with excellent D-pads) for SFIV, and Tekken 6 even has a wireless Hori, so there are plenty of options out there.

Disappointed in TMNT. Like the looks of the new 3D graphics but at least make it an option like R-Type Dimensions!

Not having the original graphics is a HUGE let down.

1200 points for TMNT is a bit much, but the rest of the games seem appropriately priced.

I can understand games like shadow complex and trials hd being priced at 1200ms points because of the investments made by the studios into the overall production value of a new arcade ip. What I don’t understand is why studios simply porting old games onto a next gen platform can get away with charging the same amount of money. You can’t tell me that the production costs for TMNT or marvel vs capcom are anywhere close to the costs behind a game like shadow complex. Whoever is coming up with these prices really needs to give their head a good shake. Terrible. F.

Where are the arcade hits? I cant afford 1200 point games. I will just have to divert more of my gaming dollars from XBL to Steam. Always great deals there.

Not sure what economy Microsoft is watching and deciding it would be a good idea to bump up arcade games to a 1200 point high-end.
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Let’s be honest, there’s only two games in that entire lineup worth $15: MvC2 (only because compared to the price of hard to find console counterparts, $15 would be a steal) and Shadow Complex. That’s it. TrialsHD is a port. TMNT? NO WAY that’s worth 1200 points.
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Sorry, but I’m a consumer that is limited by this current economy and that means only ONE of those arcade games will be a purchase for me at the current price point. Way to go.
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Frankly, I’m getting REALLY tired of being nickle-and-dimed over everything and then watching as things that were rightfully positioned as cheaper microtransactions start to creep closer to RETAIL GAME PRICES.

I don’t care about the price points for these games… There is nothing here to interest me.

Wow, just wow. Are you people comparing a cheap port like TMNT or Marvel VS Capcom 2 to completely new jewels like Braid or Castle Crashers. Do anyone remember the times when you needed to be REALLY special to get into 1200 points?

Hello there! Online distribution means near to 0 distribution costs, and there isn´t a shop who needs the money. There is no box, no manual… In some cases of Arcade games, even no localization. And literally, you are telling me that is normal that these games cost more over time. Ok, then, as we are paying around 60-70€/$ for each box game since 16 bits era, we should be paying around 100, shouldn´t we? Games like Gears of War 2 surely costed a lot more than any game from that era. But still, they are the same, with distribution cost, shop profit, box, manual, localization…

I´ve bought many XBLA games (more than 60 right now), and some of them over 800 (Braid, Castle Crashers, R-Type, Sam & Max…), but this is getting stupid. It´s a 50% increase in prices. And I don´t really like any of those games. Arcade wasn´t created to have huge games, that shouldn´t happen at all.

And I´m even more afraid of 800 point games like Splosion Man. 800? Yeah sure. Wait for 3 or 4 dlc content that´s “cheap” (100-150 points), like in the Maw. You will end up paying nearly the same price tag as the others.

XBLA games have really lower costs of making too, but I don´t see that in the price. Most of them didn´t have that much developing anyway. Shadow Complex is the only game that seems to be like that.

Let´s start killing the XBLA. Let´s start making huge games that doesn´t fit the XBLA at all, let´s overprice everything, and let´s start making bad ports in gameplay like TMNT seems to be. But then don´t ask you why new games sell 5000 copies when they sold three times more last year.

Oh, and if Monkey Island is 800, that would completely spit at Marvel VS Capcom 2 and TMNT price. Both are remakes, and shouldn´t cost that much. Indeed, Monkey Island or Prince of Persia Classic surely had a lot of development cost behind them, but they were 800 points games.

@ Radical R – totally agree with you pal, its not like a geometry wars or a cloning clyde or whatever – games like castle crashers( which totally justifies its 1200 price point) or whatever are basically inbetween a basic arcade game and a full retail game hence the price – like I mentioned in my earlier point – if people play the trials and then make a judgment then thats fine, you don’t have to pay for it if you don’t want to – shadow complex and trials hd look great games, I’ll def give them a trial and see what they are like – just out of curiousity, is anyone who was def gonna buy one of the above games before they knew the price of it, are they put off because of the price now?

ffs 1200 points for 4 of them, i was thinking of buying all of them.

can’t afford your robbing prices, sorry where in a bloody world wide finance mental down at the moment, and you bump up your prices. Nice thanks very much.

Looks like i’ll only be buying MvC2 then.

stick the rest where the sun don’t shine.

And fix the license tool, been 2 weeks now since it says i can redo my license, but yet it still doesn’t work.

I’ve been pretty happy with XBL for years now, but now it’s just getting to the point where it’s transparently obvious that MS is going on a “Screw the fans” kick. We still have to pay for Gold accounts, yet now there will be MORE ads on the dashboard AND prices for everything are going up. $15 for TMNT? Come on…updated HD graphics or no, 10 used to be a rare high mark and now it’s the norm. Why? These games aren’t getting any more elaborate or fancy. There are no new features. Now I hear that it may cost an additional fee eventually to do things like play 1vs100. So I have to pay TWO monthly fees just to play a TRIVIA game? Now there’s rumors MS will be forcing community games to raise their prices as well (though the current system of pricing based on game size is equally ridiculous). This is what caused the major economic problems in the music industry: continually finding ways to nickel and dime the customer while putting out inferior product and then wondering why they’re losing money when they keep asking people to may more for the same old crap. The video game industry is heading into a perilous realm if they keep up this attitude of gaining success only by siphoning the customer’s wallet. You can’t go wrong with reasonable prices on quality product that people will buy. If you can’t deliver the “quality” part, trying to cover it up with price gouging has NEVER WORKED ever in any business model. It only brings short term cures. In this economy, this new trend we’re seeing on XBLA is worrying and sends a very disappointing message from MS.

Lets all keep some perspective here – the games that we’re getting now are much bigger and better than the 128MB-limited ones we started off with. Yes, they’re going to be more expensive, but you’re getting more game!
That said – it would be nice to see some more of the lower-priced “arcade” games hitting XBLA aswell – my favourite reason to turn on my console is still Uno…

@Warrengonline – Fan boy lol.

man you spend two many microsoft points lol.

If I pay 15$ for it (the price is even worse in Euros), I demand a packaging, a manual and a DVD. This is digital distribution, it costs you like what, five Cents per copy?

‘Splosion Man + Shadow Complex are instant buy for me.

And yeah, the price for TMNT is a joke.

I don’t like how expensive a lot of new titles are becoming.

Just as a quick note to add on to what I already said:
I know that digital distribution is not as cheap as a lot of people think it is. While no physical medium or marketing costs are present, there are still a tremendous amount of costs to pay for the bandwidth, storage space, and server farms required to keep something like XBLA going. I appreciate and understand that. However, passing the costs of your overhead to your customers is always a very poor way to run your business. Raising prices does have to happen in some instances to defray the overhead, however in this case, I think that clearly MS has just gone that route without thinking of a better way to do it. Also, MS has started passing on the costs of their overhead to marketing partners. HAve any of you wondered why you don’t see a lot of things anymore like, for example, movie trailers? Because MS starting charging massive storage/bandwidth costs to advertisers to do that sort of thing. This is the kind of thing that really hurt and nearly killed third-party support for Nintendo, and they’re still recovering. In fact developers often have to pay money to have their game put up on XBLA, just to help pay for the service they’re using so it actually takes a lot of sales of a game before a developer even starts to see profit.

@KMetalmind: Like I said, I don’t think the price for TMNT is a good idea, but it’s not a quick port, it’s a full HD remake, which is going to have cost a lot to make. I can understand why it’s priced how, but considering how much it’s going to sell, it would probably have been worth making it cheaper. Marvel vs Capcom is the only port here, that’s the only one that definitely shouldn’t be so high.

People complained when we were limited to 150mb games.. Now that the limit is gone, people are complaining that the bigger games are more expensive.. Come on, what do you expect?

For those of you complaining about turtles in time then why dont you just play it on an emulator over kaillera with four friends and be quiet about it. If you don’t like it then why would you spend your time complaining knowing the game is still going to come out at the price and still be number one that week.

I have absolutely hated the new $60 standard for this generation of games but you know what I did, I spent my money on something else and just dealt with it.

Did you honestly expect prices to stay the same on Arcade games over time? As the games have grown to be higher quality graphics wise and content wise of course the price would go up. There is no way the cost of development for some of these games are the same as some of the original arcade titles on Xbox live that used to be cheaper.

Believe me, I know this economy sucks, I feel it every single day. But if your finances are that limited then ah well. Life isn’t fair, there are a TON of five star games out there that I would love to get my hands on but I haven’t and you know what, it didn’t kill me.

If it’s a game that you truly want and think you would enjoy then grit your teeth and bear it. I knew going in that Ghostbusters was a short game but I was a huge fan of the movie and up to that point SFIV was the only game I ever spent $60 on for the 360 but I knew I would enjoy it so I dealt with the price tag and bought it because it was a game i really wanted.

As for people complaining about turtles don’t forget how much us old schoolers (heck I’m only 27) had to pay for the game when it came out on consoles back on the SNES. But guess what, we did it, we enjoyed it and we went on with our lives. Just because a game is old doesn’t mean it’s value should decrease. For 1200 points you’re getting the entire game, better graphics, acheivements and ONLINE MULTIPLAYER! Compare that to what we got in the original game and that’s a steal. We got a cartridge, an instruction manual and a box and that was it.

Bottom line is if you want a game and you think it costs too much then save your money and buy it or just don’t get it at all and move on. We aren’t meant to buy every great game that comes out and if you think that you should then you might as well prepare to be dissapointed.

More overpriced tat that i wont be touching

No comment from Major? Hmm. Put a word in for the community Larry!

Mr Knocturnal said a mouthful and well said it was.

may pick turtles up, but deffo Mvc2 there rest don’t interest me at all now looking at them.

lost interest in epic’s games after the joke gears2 was.

Warreng, take it your buying them all ?

1200 MSP for 4/5 games. I’ll stick to retail games this summer I guess…

you ppl all forget, its still a BUSINESS! and they are out to make money. It cost money to make these games, they wanna make a profit and survive in the world like everyone else with a job. remember when arcade type titles didn’t exist? and if you wanted a video game for your system, it was $50? no matter how crappy?

the world we live in, revolves around MONEY. I don’t get why everyone is always “shocked” when a game is $15 or $5 more then they are willing to pay. lets be lucky they are not more.

Too bad the only game I am NOT interested in (Splosion Man) is the cheapest. Well Turtles will probably be a day one buy (maybe…the 1200 points for a short game is tough to swallow), but the others will have to pass the trial. MvC2 I may pass on since my original Xbox version is enough for a fix. Shadow Complex is meh so far…I’m kind of over side scrollers. Trials HD is the only one that I am truly excited to see…

1200 points?. No thanks.

1200 Points :’(

Uh oh, five more dollars than normal. Let’s all not buy them because it’s a rip off… Give me a break people. Play the demo. If you like it, buy it. If you don’t, then don’t buy it! And if you people are as cheap and stubborn as you sound, video games shouldn’t be your thing. They’ll always be over priced.

But anyways, I’m looking forward to picking up MvC2, thanks for the post Major!

@WinterSnowblind Aren´t Monkey Island and Prince of Persia Classic in the same boat? Then why do they cost 800 points? Comparing prices, I would assume Gears of War 2 costed only four times more than TMNT. Did it? Nope. I still see an overpriced game. And if you don´t think that, then retail games are underpriced.

@Mr Knocturnal Where were you in the 16 bits era? Games like Sonic 3 had a 72€ price. And 60$ price tag has been there for many years now. In fact, if more quality means more price, I don´t see why Xbox360 games aren´t more than 100$. I can clearly see that time has passed and they are really bigger games. Yet they retain the same price. Why can´t XBLA games be the same?? I don´t see Modern Warfare 2 or Halo Reach costing 80$ because they have more content or replay value than other games. Oh, and TMNT 1989 was 400 points with multiplayer too.

I´ll try the demos if they seem to be good enough, but come on… This doesn´t happen in the retail market. And yeah, they are only five dollars… per game. Maybe I´ll start buying old games, many of them have the same price tag with much more content. Because that´s the worst, there are really low chances of them being discounted.

Oh lord I’m so sick of people bashing a game just cause it’s $15…slowly losing faith in gamers….

@ ll 1337sauce ll
The only place video games are over priced these days is on Xbox Live Marketplace. Btw I’m not cheap or stubborn, I just like to get value for my money. DRM riddled DLC games that you don’t physically own, costing £12.75 a pop (and continually rising) don’t cut it for me. There are alternative and cheaper sources for getting retro video games, Xbox Live Marketplace isn’t the only option. Microsoft and their increasing number of fanboys seem to forget this.
I bought dozens of Arcade titles in the past when they were still reasonably priced at 400-800. Since these 1200 games have started appearing I’ve stopped and spent my money elsewhere. For the bulk of what’s on offer it’s simply just not worth it anymore.

Drop the prices or I’m not buying

yay Splosian Man earlier.

The Demo has to be reallly bad for me not to buy it.

Well, I’ve decided to pass on the TMNT remake at that price. I’ll wait for the sale price next year and get it then, or just not bother since I’ll likely lost interest in that time period.

Splosion Man™ first what?? I was more exsited for TMNT first.. *dies* Why do they need to change everything.. I wont be geting a game this month then..

@KMetalmind: I’m not trying to defend Turtles, I’m just saying I can see why it costs more for a game that would have required more work. Monkey Island is cheaper, simply because they seem to have someone with more sense working in marketing. Monkey Island would not sell at 1200 and neither will Turtles. Lucas seem to be more keen in reastablishing the Monkey Island franchise, rather than making as much money from one game as possible.

Nice series of arcade titles for summer while I anticipate the crazy Fall/Holiday season of retail games.

Great price for Shadow Complex which looks to be a great upcoming release. I love that Metroid/Castlevania-esque style.

Not as excited for games like TMNT for 1200 points. It will need to impress me just that much more at that price point. 800 would have been an easy purchase for that particular title.

Reserving judgment on the rest until I see more.

I’m not going to get Turtles in Time unless it has unlimited continues in the multiplayer. That 3 continue thing from the original game was not so much fun when I was just trying to get four people together for some multiplayer fun.

amm you guys at microsoft should start thinking about every other country in the world, i mean in the us you get 10 or 12 dollars an hour for work, but in pretty much every place else, 12 dollars is a whole day of work. besides, 15 dollars is a lot for tmnt 2.

I can’t believe there’s not more hype for Splosion Man. It looks amazing, and unlike the Maw, seems to have a decent amount of levels

Kinda funny, I remember when the average Arcade title price was 400MP, years later at 800MP, now every title that comes out is MINIMUM 1200. The worst thing that could’ve happened is allowing big-name developer/publishers to release games on XBLA. I will be buying MvC2, but because Backbone does good work and all of my friends will be playing it too. I was REALLY interested in TMNT but at 1200 and in this recession, I find myself being more picky.

Here’s hoping that the price-gouging stops.

I’ll be getting all of them but Turtles and maybe Trials. I don’t care for their make over and was even going to debate getting it for 800. I don’t know what Trails HD is so might get it. I don’t mind the prices on the others.

I loved The Maw so ready to play Splosion man and I’ll be getting tons of play from Marvel vs Capcom 2. Shadow Complex looks sweet and I’ll most likely get it with the trial.

The only way to get them to stop charging higher prices is to not buy the more expensive games. But Microsoft has seen through the likes of Castle Crashers, Braid, and especially Hasbro Family Games that people are willing to spend more. And I don’t suppose there’s much you can do about that, short of tracking down and beating up everyone who buys it at a higher price.

Terrible pricing. Not even going to bother.

And Microsoft’s goal is making money, not pleasing the community. So they’ll listen to the community enough so we keep paying, but won’t get rid of the MS points system, let you cancel your subscription without calling, remove the ads from the dashboard, or make Live free. They also didn’t care that the gaming community and many game designers wanted the HDD to be required. Because these things make them money. That’s capitalism for you. Of course, people (going back to Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840) have noticed that Americans prefer cheaper things of a lower quality than more expensive things of a higher quality.

Pricing fail.

Good change of the release schedule.

yeah waiting for shadow complex

1200 for Turtles? Ouch.

I think the disappointment with the Arcade pricing is that we all know they will NEVER come down in price, so we dont have a choice of waiting for the bargain bin if we’re too cheap to buy it day one. So if something we had our eye on shows up at 1200 points and thats over our budget, then thats it.

NOOOOOO!!!

I’ll have to wait more for TMNT!!!!

This would be ok if the Digital Marketplace acted like a real life market place. After a game has been out for a year it should be so much cheaper, not just the short term mini-discounts that they are doing on some select items. So because that is not occurring making a judgment on initial price I think is very valid.

@WinterSnowblind Yeah, I agree with you. I´m not telling they doesn´t have a huge job behind them, just that I think it´s not enough to warrant that price

Personally, Splosion Man doesn´t make me smile because, although I enjoyed The Maw, it was too easy, and had so fast new content that it couldn´t be developed after the game, it was planned till the beginning. Okay, it´s cheap, but final price makes 1100 points, so it isn´t really a 800 points game as it seemed. Anyway, if Splosion Man is harder, and gameplay it´s cool, I will buy it surely

@Joergen8 Yeah, that´s the worst problem. You can either buy at the price tag, or wait forever for a lucky week discount.

Sorry MS. For $15, I’ll have to stick to playing MVC2 on Dreamcast. The demo was great, but I just can’t afford it.

I see you reshuffled the schedule. Shame you couldn’t reshuffle the prices TO SOMETHING THAT MAKES SENSE.

All five look like good games, and the prices seem fair. My only 2 comments would be that we know nothing about Splosion Man, and I don’t know why TMNT Turtles in Time needed the 3D update. The original 2D art direction was fantastic.

Oh, and thank you to Capcom. MvcC2 was probably a licensing nightmare. Looking forward to having one less reason to have a Dreamcast hooked up. Keep them coming, after this! Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2, Powerstone 1 and 2, Vampire Chronicle…

You know you losers are all missing the point. You all paid (I’m hoping) for a $400 estimated machine, do you REALLY expect everything that releases on it that is worthwhile of your time to be cheap? God, every single time Major Nelson releases things it’s always the same whiney cuntwagon-fan parade of complaints every time about “pricing” this and “Pricing” that….I saw complaining about 400 points once because some users felt that the content should have been free! Heck, we have thousands of people complaining (but for good reasons) that Left 4 Dead 2 should be free…are all of you going to just keep going about doing this incessantly? Give it a rest, good lord. I remember when people would pay upwards $50 for a Genesis cartridge when the system was hot and nobody complained. Nobody went “$40 used? That’s too much!”, or at least in all of my experiences they didn’t. Who are YOU guys to judge how pricing goes about and why the prices are high? Sure maybe some stupid decisions (Look at Lode Runner, a game nobody cared about for its gameplay AND price put together) hinder business but for the most part if you pay higher you get more quality; getting Banjo Kazooie for $15 compared to going to a pawn shop (maybe) and seeing it, box and manual included, for $20+ or $40+ on Ebay is a deal when also considering the Live capabilities and HD enhancements to the visuals.

You guys will just never be satisfied, that’s what I’m predicting. Just like the Sonic fans. :\

Also, just remember guys, nobody is forcing you to buy these games. Just a friendly tidbit.

These are all fairly pricey. Probably not going to buy any of them.

XxLightkunxX: I think the main problem is that Microsoft originally set up a pricing structure of 400 points for old arcade ports and 800 points for new games. They kept that for a while, so long time buyers certainly noticed when Microsoft raised the prices on some new games. If the base point had been $15, people wouldn’t be complaining.
BTW, does anyone remember that breakout type game that was released for Live Arcade on the original Xbox? I was considering buying that, and probably would now if they released it on the 360.

@Big Guino
Fan boy? I hope not, but until Trip Hawkins releases another system, Xbox360 makes do and it ‘does’ very well. I’m a gamer, so if I like what I see, hear or feel while playing the demo/trial, then PURCHASE! My Nintendo DSi + Peggle Dual Shot and Professor Layton and the Curious Village = Frustrating Good Times also. Fan boy? Fun time boy? You choose while I play.

Re: Trials HD. Shouldn’t the description say …test your mettle… not metal? heh.

@XxLightkunxX We are the consumers, so the first right we have is to complain Anyway, the problem isn´t the price (games like Braid or Castle Crashers deserves the price). Problem is quality/quantity VS price, knowing that there are near 0 posibilities of the game being permanently discounted. I could buy Perfect Dark Zero or Dead or Alive 4 for cheaper than Street Fighter II (non HD version). That´s sad.

I dont see buying 2000 points and using 560 points.. I rarely get to 0 on points, because i buy alot of songs for Rock Band and Guitar Hero… and then i buy alot of DLC with strange prices.
I mostly buy 2-4000 each time.. at some point it will reach near 0. but the something new comes.. then you need to buy more points.

Major, what about availability? Where will TMNT be available? Is it just US release?

I think the prices are ok even Turtles because it ain’t just a port its a remake and i prefer that they remake them and charge a higher price than just porting them at a lower price.
i will buy every title there and think it’s a good deal.

People keep going on about how high priced games are buy to me they are a hell of a lot cheaper than they used to be,i remember paying £80 for a copy Streetfighter 2 and every game i bought was £50,now i can pick games up for £20-40 and i earn 4 times as much as i used to

The prices arent really “OK” at all. Take Madballs this wednesday, the devs are reputedly furious its been priced at 1200 points by Microsoft, and its basically going to harm them financially as less people buy at the higher price, thus less word of mouth gets out about what is a potentially fantastic XBLA title, thus another decent game gets buried by Microsofts daft pricing policy. MS of course are happy to sell the same games on the cheap to various other benefactors/outlets (eg: Amazon) whereas the actual public gets hit in the wallet the hardest. No coincidence the prices have gone up since they have have started doing this, and the so called xbox live gold only “deals”, which arent really “deals” per say at all, but the original prices the games should have been priced at in the majority of cases.

It’s all very well people saying don’t buy at the higher price to teach Microsoft a lesson, but this is what I mean about the developers missing out on a substantial amount of money, causing them to think twice about developing arcade titles for XBLA in future. Microsoft need to start listening to both public and developers alike rather than trying to justify some of these ridiculously steep prices which only serves to line their own pockets in the short term and not the creators of these games we are buying.

Sounds like Summer of Greed to me.

I think MS needs to have another name for these 1200-1600 MP Games, because when you think on arcade game you think 400-800 MP. Just my opinion.

@Biomonkey…I had the same thoughts…maybe this is just me being “old school”, but when I hear the word “arcade”, I think of Dig Dug, Ms. Pac Man, Frogger, etc. Surely there must have been a reason for the 1600 MS points cards you can buy for $20 at your favorite store. Are we going to be seeing new 2400 MS points cards for $30 soon? The prices for these games are disappointing to me, and I’ll be waiting for a possible “deal of the week”, along with several others, before I make the decision to buy.

Seriously? “Robbing” us? Should they give away the games for free? No, I bet that would still be “robbery.” I don’t know how any of you even own 360′s or retail games, considering those prices are far higher than any XBLA game. Oh, well. More fun for the people who don’t cry over every single XBLA game over 800 points.

You switched Turtles In Time?! Fuck you!

No dont f’ing censor me damnit! I said F U C K YOU! Making me wait another two weeks for my Fvorite game of all time, a butchered version too may I add

@Biomonkey and PriusGuy2004: Just because you think it, doesn’t make it true. The prices may have increased over the last few years, but (in general) the quality of the games has increased too.

@SeeUInTheFuture: Mate, I think you need a bit of perspective. You have to wait a couple of weeks for something, and it’s got you so mad that you not only swear at someone who probably couldn’t change it if he wanted to, you do it again just to get around the censor filter…

1200 points for tmnt is too much

Shadow complex is the only game in that list that I will most likely get, because it seems to be in the same category as Castle crashers for me (new game, old awesome gameplay), the rest of them are overpriced.

I figured TMNT would be 800, but I also thought Shadow Complex would be 1600 so it all evens out for me. I don’t see the problem with $15 games as long as they are good. If they can charge $60 for all the crappy movie games, I’d say $15 for an arcade game that is great isn’t that bad. That’s just my opinion though. I know I’ll definitely be getting Shadow Complex, TMNT, and ‘Splosion Man. I might even pick up MvC2.

Simply put, I’ve yet to play an arcade game that’s near worth that much. I wouldn’t play those after just two weeks. So why bother throwing out that much?

TMNT 1200 points…. Very dissapointing…

SuburbanBoy hit the most important detail. When the developers of a game think that the price is too much, something is seriously wrong. Jonathon Blow didn’t want to charge 1200 for Braid, Jeff Minter had to fight to get Space Giraffe at 400, and Bizarre Creations didn’t even want to charge at all for Geometry Wars! It is simple economical fact that more people have £1/$1 to spare than have £5/$5, and more people will buy games that cost them below ten of their local currency than will buy games that cost more than ten. Such short-sighted thinking will only hurt you long term, MS.
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Here is what I am talking about. This week’s deal is Ikaruga, at 400. I have wanted this game since it was launched, but since I still have the DreamCast version I never bothered. I have just never had enough spare cash to justify the 800. Now, though? That price is extremely hard to resist. I am willing to bet that sales of Ikaruga this week increase by a few thousand percent. Ok, knowledge that it is for a limited time only will help to concentrate the figures, thus making single week sales more of a blip than the norm, but I would guarantee that it would sell more over time at 400 than it ever will at 800.

1200 MS points is too high for these games. Please go back to 800 being the norm.

I will not spend that much on a downloadable game. Castle Crashers taught me that – fun long game, but 1200 for it I was not happy about.

I don’t have to play these games on the 360 to know they are not worth the 1200 points.
For example – why soup up Turtles in Time for 1200, when I would have paid the 800 to play it in it’s classic form?

Please keep the lower price point in mind, Microsoft. We are in a recession here.