March 1st 2010 2:13 pm PT

wow… just… wow….

LMAO, really? I mean..really?

I don’t choose ‘em, but if you leave feedback I’ll share it.

Thats pretty lame, Have you run out of Live Arcade Games to discount?

Where’s the deal?

A little underwhelmed here.

Thanks Major for the heads up, but I’ll pass. If anyone buys this can you please mark their live account with the word IDIOT in super large letter for everyone else to see.

Could you tell us who does choose them, so we could ask them wth they were thinking lol? What a weak way to start off March. I definitely won’t be taking up this ‘Deal’ as I’m sure many others won’t. Let’s see some more great arcade titles, for 400 (from 800) or 800 (from 1200). You’ve gotten many points from me with those, so you’ll only help yourself if you keep those coming.

So what does choose them?

Do you have a blind-folded chimpanzee throwing darts at random sticky notes in a padded office?

*SALE*
Get something you don’t need or want for less than someone that did want it at the time…

Sorry, but this really isn’t a deal in the slightest. The Avatar clothing is pretty pointless (and yes, I have bought some), and people that would drop points on these already will have. Arcade games, Add-ons, even Xbox originals or GODs, but Avatar Clothing? Seriously?

Feedback to share – Lame, just lame !

Avatar Items should be free anyway horrible sale

This is a sale?

SALE FAIL.

Deal of the week… more like deal of the century.
I’m sure the 3 people who buy it will be pleased none the less.

I do not approve of this week’s sale! Avatar clothing and accessories should be free.

Major, since you aren’t calling the shots personally – who is responsible for these deals? Given the uneven quality of the deals, I think the Xbox 360 community deserves to know – don’t you?

I’d have picked up the shoes if they were on discount. Don’t know why but I kinda like em, just not 160MSP like em.

I’d apply my iPhone logic here. I’ll pick up almost anything on there that looks reasonable if it’s 59p (or 99c). It’s not really a big enough price to worry about and many of the apps are pretty good.

On XBL though it’s twice that or more for a pointless piece of decoration. If I’m going to drop 160MSP I’d much rather it was on a Rock Band track or I’d save up a few T-Shirts worth and grab an Arcade game instead. On the other hand if all this Avatar stuff was only say 40MSP (clothes) to 80MSP (costumes/accessories) then I probably would pick up a few bits and bobs whenever I had the odd few MSP left on my account.

Thinking back to all the items I’ve said “hmm, not at that price” to I’d probably have spent a fair bit by now if they’d been cheap from the start. As it is, I’ve spent 80MSP total.

Hey Major. Sure would be nice if we could see deals like that awesome Arkham Asylum deal on PC replicated on XBL.

I’d be encouraged to upgrade to Gold if DotW wasn’t so lame.

If it was for free, than I’d see how it’s a deal.

Consumers want games discounted.

Major, it’s all well and good saying you’ll leave feedback but by now it’s more than obvious that you, and so by proxy us, won’t be listened to.
We all know calling this any sort of deal is an insult but your bosses plain don’t care about the users, as evidenced by high prices, DLC costing the same now as it did in 2006, and a complete lack of generosity for paying customers.
Whenever we do get something good it’s with the utmost reluctance.
You might as well can passing on that feedback for all the good it will do. The whole hierarchy needs restructuring.

Maybe for 40 points (but doubt I’d buy it), but any avatar stuff for a price is laughable.

Although I think this is a poor deal I’m not really bothered. Ultimate team was last week, there are 3 xbla excellent looking games coming out and I still haven’t finished bioshock 2. Whoever does pick the deals might as well save the best ones for quiet times.

Wow. This DotW is filled with fail — I think this hits a new low. It’s almost like Microsoft doesn’t even *want* my money.

I know that you don’t choose the deals, Major, but could you maybe pull some sneaky ninja moves, take out the guy who is responsible for them, and get a real deal for us? I mean, really, I’d consider a video of that going down to be a lot more of a deal than this is.

You say you have been and will leave feedback. It’s obviously not being heard. That is what is disappointing.

man major, how quickly everyone turns on you. the deals have been pretty good recently and the second it is avatar items or old dlc people go crazy. that being said, i do agree that this is not one of the better deals. my take on this, is that there are hundreds of xbla games out now. a quick check on the xbox.com games marketplace show 274 arcade games out there. why not have a deal of the week for an arcade game every week and then a separate deal for other items?

Heh, at 240 points it’s still an insane ripoff. The most expensive outfits should be no more than 100 MSP and even then I’d probably not buy many.

In other words it’s a promotional tool that should be free.

Forget deal of the week. I’d like to see more arcade games get to the Arcade Hits level where they become permanently discounted. I picked up Marble Blast Ultra, DOOM and Worms that way, and I likely wouldn’t have picked them up at full price.
Considering the extensive list of games in XBLA, can there not be one game every few weeks, or even once a month be moved to “Arcade Hit” status and potentially breathe new life into it.

How sad is it when something still costs more than it should when it’s supposed to be on sale?

The problem is that they must be making money on these, or they would stop doing them. I just buy what I want if it’s a good deal. Personally I don’t think these are worth the money, buy others like them. No one is making you buy them, but you obviously want it, because you wouldn’t be here complaining if you didn’t.

As for DOTW, I think they should stick to games or DLC. Not avatar items.

Yes, quite disappointing. You probably know by now that personally I’m hoping for Halo Wars DLC, but ANY game or DLC would be better than this.
—
I think some overall permanent price reductions are in order for old games. Something like any game from 2006 or earlier is 400 MSP (or less). Any game from 2008 or earlier is 800 MSP (or less). Some examples of old games still priced high:
Mutant Storm Reloaded (Nov 22, 2005 – XBLA launch!): 800 MSP
RoboBlitz (Dec 6, 2006): 1200 MSP
Penny Arcade Ep One (May 21, 2008): 1600 MSP
Braid (Aug 6, 2008): 1200 MSP
—
Not a complete list, just examples. Price reductions for DLC would be harder to put into a set algorithm, as above, since the prices and amount of content is so variable. But certainly for what they are and what you can buy the actual game for now, some price reductions seem in order for:
Samurai Warriors 2 DLC: 2400 MSP (OK, I’m not personally familiar, but used copies go for $7 and new for $20. This is the craziest example I know.)
Halo Wars DLC: 1600 MSP (ought to be 800 MSP since the Platinum Hits comes with free DLC codes)
More evidence to give the decision makers
Platinum Hits HW (free DLC): $20
Standard + DLC: $20 + $20 = $40
GoD + DLC: $30 + $20 = $50
—
Thanks for bringing our concerns to the higher ups. Lowering prices would make us happy and actually bring in more money to MS. I’m stubbornly holding out for some price reductions, and I’m sure others feel the same.

Lame. Deals should be for games, not crap like an avatar costume.

Here is my feedback. I want to see a deal on Trials HD, or Braid. I enjoyed both demos, but I never pay full price for anything, so I won’t buy until it goes on sale.

So, what`s the deal for Germany? You offer it as a feature for Goldmembers and I am a goldmember. So i pay for it. I want to get ripped off by lame deals as well please.

@Ryan
If you are not willing to pay money for 2 wellworth games, then you have to wait. In my opinion it is just stupid. These 2 games are worth every single spacebuck.

hmmm… thanks anyway Major, but I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed on this one. Avatar clothing is just something that seems overpriced even if it’s on sale. In general, it seems to me like it should either be free or tied to game achievements. Asking people to pay for the privilege of advertising and promoting someone else’s product seems odd.

If you (MS, not you personally) don’t see any new games worthy of a discount, then do some reruns of games that were previous big-movers when put on sale.

You didn’t discount any actual games or content, but some (already overpriced) cloths if an avatar. Yeah… I am going to have to pass on this one…

I want a TRIALS HD deal !

SIGNED

have you got any more of that old rope, cos i have some money left

can somebody please ring the ‘deal police’. this is a clear violation

Terrible deal, I want a TRIALS HD Deal of the Week, please! There… feedback! Now will you guys listen?

I think it’s safe to say most people know Major Nelson is just the messenger…

I don’t know why anyone would buy virtual clothing at any price. But that’s just me.

I agree with everybody, Avatar ITEM should be free. (Shame on me I bought one) who hasn’t???
Or at least have a code to D/L them free if you bought the games or more avatar rewards..

This is exactly why Steam kicked MS bottoms and pretty much put their entire original GFWL plan out the window. It’s greed. Every single weekend Steam has about a dozen games or major game content on sale for 50-75% off. Every weekend. A company like MS who is 500 times as big can manage 1 lousy Avatar suit discounted or if were lucky 1 game that doesn’t suck?

Take some notes off steam MS. Start taking about 5-10 games and content of the literally thousands of content out there and start putting out sales. Maybe it will help the poor developers of older content who’s sales have dwindled to nothing.

Meh gets me to save some money. I’m all for them doing some avatar clothes discounts just wish they would have discounted something else also. Maybe one of the 2 year old arcade games that sit at 800 points still.

Well this deal is certainly in sharp contrast (in the wrong direction, obviously) to the fantastic deal Games for Windows had this past weekend. I’m hoping we start seeing some deals like that (Arkham Asylum PC 75% off, which I immediately purchased) on the 360 Games on Demand titles. I certainly will never spend a single cent on avatar stuff, no matter how much you discount it (unless, of course, it’s 100% off ).

Like many others here… I have to agree that Avatar items shouldn’t be in the: “Deal of the Week”.

To put simply, all Avatar items and clothing should be free, or at-least half the price that they are at currently anyway.

I would love to see some MORE deals of the Week, not a single item, but several. – Heck why not have a Deal of the week for Full version Games (Arcade and Games on Demand), Avatar gear AND DLC, those that bargain hunt might jump on more than just a single item then, and then everyone will be happy because at-least one of their preferences have been met.
And then you… Microsoft should be able to get more profits gauged from us paying customers than what you do already.

Well, I don’t think I need to comment on how worthless this deal of the week is. BUT, I would like to raise a deal suggestion – how about Mega Man 9? The release of Mega Man 10 is right around the corner, why not release a Deal of the Week on Mega Man 9 to hype it up? Win-win.

Wait a minute! $3 real dollars is a discounted price for this plus another $1 for a helmet? That’s the insane part to me. How much does this usually go for?

As I said on a previous post, avatar gear feels overpriced due to its utterly useless value.

And still it is a promo weapon: you pay to cry out loud to the world your love for -insert brad-game here- so anyone who see that may came to conclusion that it has to be any good. So it should be cheaper (some gear cost as much as let’s say getting full version of Worms, wich is insane).

Once avatars will have plenty of apps and games to show arround (like Wii games using Miis everynow and then) people won’t be so reluctant to get more gear, even if it’s for combining body A with head B and get a combo noone else did before so people could tell the difference while online playing.

Following my own example, I’d be glad to buy this one even if I dislike by its own merits but I think it could be ace to combine with metro gasmask or blue reckon halo helmet…but again, I have more important things to spend my points on like well, games and some add ons.

And as some other users pointed out yeah, it’s a shame to see 2+ year old games at the marketplace, rotting out due lack of gamers’ attention that still are at 800/1200. I’m sure a permanent price drop on those will pump up their sales.

It’s amazing to see how Microsoft have such a great (and free) feedback here, where sure someone in the industry would find a lot of crap but in between can find unvaluable ideas and advices and still, most of it is wasted.

On sale, this deal of the week is still WAY OVERPRICED! Not much of a deal for me then…oh well. Currently, Games for Windows Live, Games on Demand has the right idea for deals of the week. The avatar stuff should all be permanently reduced to SIGNIFICANTLY lower prices, and really most of it should just be free. However we all know the likelihood of that happening. At least halo waypoint has some cool avatar awards. More avatar awards need to happen to counter the price gouging on this stuff. Most of us knew this kind of crap would happen ever since the infamous ‘Horse Armour’ for Oblivion. Speaking of that, the horse armour STILL sits on the marketplace at 200pts. Amazing. Most of this stuff is Digital Distribution FAIL. Batman: Arkham Asylum for $12.50 is what we call a ‘deal’…not this kind of rip-off. Way to go GFWL on the true deal.

Great, not only Avatar items are pretty much totally useless and i would never buy them (you can even get an Indie Game for the cheapest Avatar item), it is the second time the Deal of the Week doesn’t apply to germany. Gears of War wasn’t released here.

Please stick to DLCs and Arcade Games!

wow,worse deal of the week ever….was the cog armour not selling or something?

80 points seems about right for a full body outfit. To bad I don’t care about GoW.

I’d rather see more games on sale. How about Games on Demand? Those need to come down as much as the avatar gear before I’d consider buying them.

It’s really a joke, if you should have avatar items as Deal of the week, make them free for us gold members.

Gears of war locust armour+helm is still the most expensive avatar combo on the marketplaces, why did they discount the lame COG armour instead ?:P

LOL ive spent alike 500ms points on Avartar crap lol but my guy looks cool as u can see on my gamer pic and yes ladys i am single isnt my avatar sexy lol again Fail Deal how about a Discount on the GOW DLC

Guys i dont think there is any point to asking who is responsible for the DotW becuase the MAJOR knows that we would find out where the guy lives, Drag him into the street and have 10 year old pelt him with stones.

I know you are just the messenger Major and I am sure this is just a test on the marketing team’s part to see if people will pick up this stuff while “on sale”.

I won’t buy any avatar gear until I can share it with my sons’ profiles like I can with themes. I understand this can be abused, but they are too expensive to buy 3 copies. Not to mention the fact that you have to add points to ever account on your system, creating the MS points ecosystem of points left over that MS wants you to use to buy new stuff with.

Avatar items should either be free or close to free. End of story.

Warning: this is off topic

@L0rN
Thanks for your opinion and I agree that I have to wait, and I will. As you can tell by my GS I am a very causal gamer. I get maybe 1 hour a day to play (some days I don’t play at all, and I almost never play online). I am also not a big fan of LIVE games for several reasons.
1. Microsoft can just one day decide to stop offering them like they did with the original Xbox games.
2. The price stays at full price whereas retail games slowly go down in price over time.
3. I cannot resell them when done and I cannot buy discounted used LIVE games.

I have about 20 games right now (most of them on disk) and I paid less than $10 for nearly 90% of them. For example, I recently bought Gears of War 2 for about $10 during a Christmas sale. If I can get an awesome game like GOW 2 (which is better than Braid or Trails in just about every way) for $10 then I should be able to get games like Trials and Braid for even less. In addition when I am bored with GOW2 I can sell it or give it to a friend (what do I do when I am bored or completed a LIVE game?). Once I buy a LIVE game I am stuck with it forever.

So with all the negatives to LIVE games it takes a much lower price for me to pull the trigger.

@Major Nelson
Please pass this feedback on to the Xbox team.
1. Build some kind of automatic depreciation into the LIVE games so they go down in price over time (like retail games)
2. Offer the ability to transfer the license of a LIVE game to another gamer
3. Give us the ability to download canceled LIVE games to DVD so we can keep playing. Whats the harm in making them freeware? They cannot be bought anymore.

Well I am done rambling.

Stuff like this should be given as rewards in games you have bought, you shouldnt have to pay for it.

Feedback incoming.

Lamest deal ever. Pass the word on Major!

I do prefer games. But perhaps there are people interested in this kind of DotW. Anyway, Ill pass on this gamestyle item.

Not a bad deal for Gears fans. I’ll be passing on it however. I don’t think it’s worth bitching and moaning over, but yeah, it’s not one of the better deals. Guess we’ll just have a to wait a little .

What would be some good ideas? Lucidity half off .

Hi Major.

The team should have a sale on the Gears of War 2 “All Fronts Collection” instead of on GoW2 Avatar items.
It is just a suggestion.

Thanks for passing the feedback to the team.

@Lohengriehn
The point for you and for me is WE have to pass since we don`t have this AWEZZZZOME deal.

“I don’t think it’s worth bitching and moaning over”

What The Mad Fiddler said, especially the quote above.

Pointless much?

Ok, so, I’ve never posted here. I read almost daily but rarely have anything to say. However, this weeks’ deal is TERRIBLE. The worst ever. I understand trying to make a profit, but come on… There’s nearing 300 games on XBLA and you guys choose… Avatar items. I’m thinking about running to Wikipedia and posting this as a definition of Lame…

What was the price before this reduction? Just so I can see how much of a reduction this is in comparison to previous deals of the week – like the half price Marvel vs. Capcom 2, or a third of Braid.

Let’s see, a slightly smaller amount for a virtual avatar item which shouldn’t even cost money.
We have a crazy amount of new games and DLC that could be the DotW, who chose this?

How about Darwinia+?

I’m afraid that adding anything Gears to my avatar would make it lag, glitch, stutter, disappear in the background or suddenly disconnect me from live by “The host has left the game”. Also while in a party with friends, somebody could jump in, freeze the whole thing and shotty us all while we cant move.

Heh, what you have to remember about the internet is this:

1. If you do something they like, people will be your best friend.

2. As soon as you do something they do not like, they will turn on you because for some self-centered reason they figure “by God, you’re supposed to do everything *I* personally would like! How dare you not do something I disapprove of!” And then commence to be grumpy out you.

Think of it like teenagers or toddlers not getting what they want. The first will grump and complain and stomp off to their room, the second will cry loudly, pretty similar it would seem

That being said, I do think this Deal is a tad silly, whoever *did* decide, probably randomly selected a file from the database and said “this one”

- D

@Skunk175 Why shouldn’t avatars cost money? Simply because you don’t want to pay for them? Xbox Live is a service, a for-pay, business model. If you have 20 Million users that may or may not be willing to give you $5 for an item on your service, wouldn’t you charge for it? Even if 20% of those people bought it, that’s 400,000 people, x $5 = $2,000,000 in profits. That’s not to shabby.

They give a lot on XBL, they don’t have to give avatar items in the first place – but figured people might like them. So they devoted employees work time, to which they also get paid for, to creating this feature.

Not everything can be free, and its nowhere near as simple as “Bah, I don’t want to buy that, it should be free because I say so!”

Or the old saying “get a job!” :\

- D

Anyone who buys Avatar items, either on sale or full price, needs to have their head examined. You are dropping real money for useless, virtual things for your useless, virtual self.

Major Nelson, You seriously have no idea how many people will start to hate Microsoft because of these what you call “Deals”

I can’t believe people actually buy this crap, no matter what the price. I guess it’s a case of “more money than brains”.

I will NEVER pay for crap for my avatar (unless I can pay to make mine, and my friends, go away completely). That’s the only way Microsoft will get any money out of me for avatar crap.

who actually needs all those avatar items? anyway, in my opinion offering avatar items as a “deal of the week” is customer-unfriendly. i would appreciate it if i could save some money for buying arcade games or dlcs.

but… the real reason why i leave my comment here:
this week there is no “dotw” for people who live in germany?!
well, this also happened last year in october (“dotw”: RE5 versus mode, but no “dotw” at all in germany!), so it´s no big surprise! but it´s unfair, isn´t it? i pay for my gold membership and i´d like to have the advantage every gold member has!

@EdgeJ: Armour 240 MSP, regularly 320 MSP (25% off)
Helmet 80 MSP, regularly 160 MSP (50% off)
—
@RyanMC: There was a previous DotW on Braid, though I missed it. Still a rerun would be better than Avatar items. Just tried the demo this weekend and liked it. I would buy it for a DotW, but didn’t think it was worth 1200 MSP due to the lack of replay value.
—
I disagree with those who think this is the worst DotW ever. I’d say second worst. At least others can see your Avatar gear and it can be used inside some games, unlike the Halo 3 Splatter Spree Theme.

“man major, how quickly everyone turns on you. the deals have been pretty good recently and the second it is avatar items or old dlc people go crazy.” – That always happens. So many threads on here get rated 1 star. Go to Sony’s blog where they took 17 hours to admit that there’s a fault with the PS3 and that permanent data corruption might occur and even that thread has a rating of 2 stars. Owners of MS products are largely miserable f*ckers. lol. Whatever deal or game comes out, they always want something else.

I don’t have a problem with the deal. If Epic hadn’t already lost me as a customer and I was a GoW fan I might be happy about this. As far as feedback though, is there ever going to be any free additions to the Avatar wardrobe again, or is everything new going to have a tag associated? I haven’t seen a permanent free item since the avatar marketplace kicked in. I don’t mind shelling out for the unique items, I really don’t.(I love my Halo beret) What I don’t like is something like a generic set of black boots or a set of pants that isn’t tagged or branded or a costume piece that somehow gets thrown in to a pay package as part of a collection. (I’m looking at YOU styles collection) In fact, some times a cost is associated with simply wanting a different color of pants. Can you see a brand name? Is there some specific styling on the pockets different than the free ones? No.. just color.. and just silly. Perhaps we could get a basic color swatch added to the existing free items? This would eliminate most of the grief except for the fact that women get a free set of boots and men do not.

Where’s the deal?

Oh right, i get it. It’s a joke. Good one!

@DiatomicMaster Agreed, but avatar items are generally a go-to for me when I have extra Microsoft Points that would be virtually useless otherwise, since Microsoft Points can only be bought in bulk; which, in itself, is an issue as well.

You know how avatar dlc could be a good Deal of the Week? If it was free. Sounds nuts but since Deal of the Week is exclusive to Gold members it would be yet another incentive for users to upgrade to Xbox Live Gold.

There should be an XBLA game, DLC, and Avatar item Deal of the Week, every week. I haven’t bought any xbla since Marvel vs Capcom 2 holiday deal for 560msp.

There are a couple avatar items I might consider, if there was a store wide 50% off sale.

Poor Larry. Clearly a case of don’t shoot the messenger. However with that said, Microsoft hod better consider taking notes. Your customers are speaking and you should be listening. Piss off your customers and your business will suffer. Everyone on here is correct. Your deals of the week suck, and your games on demand are well overpriced. i could go to a game crazy and pice up any game you have on “GoD” for 1/2 if not 1/3 of the price. Trust when I say this Microsoft. The “people” your customers will flock back to Sony if you don’t wake up!!

I personally like alot of the Avatar items. But no Avatar items are so expensive that it requires a sale. Games on Demand on the other hand?

Things like this are why people get so frustrated. It obviously has less to do with a “deal”, and more to do with squeezing whatever you can from loyal consumers. If this crap continues, which it’s obvious there’s no reason for you guys to stop, then at least stop calling them “deals”. It’s an insult.

@rob18 You can’t have extra points. It’s exactly like saving your change from a day at the mall until it adds up to something useful. Have 200 points on your account isn’t an excuse to pay for this sort of stuff. Save it for the next time you buy points, then what’s left over from your purchases will add up and you can buy something worth the money.

If people want to spend points they paid for on Avatar gear, let them. It’s not up to anyone else to dictate if it’s a waste of their cash or not.

Complain about the deal, not about people’s choices.

Yeah, why should anyone’s choices be scrutinized? What a wonderful lesson.

You’re perfectly aware of the context I said that in.

I was actually told by one of the XBox Support people on Twitter that avatar clothing is actually on the rise…but based on many of these comments, I have to agree…is this really a deal? What’s the point? How does this enhance one’s game? I think we would all like to see more frequent deals which include a combination of XBLA games, XBLA add-ons, and game disc add-ons. Am I out of line here? I think not. Major…the XBox Community is speaking.

Wow, the poor are in an uproar. I know these deals are setup for the lower class but, is it really worth it Larry. If these penny beggars can’t be happy, I say do away with the deal of the week altogether. Remember beggars can’t be choosers.

WTF, the deal of the week should be an arcade game or some DLC, not stuff like this. Why not make avatar costumes unlockables in games instead

No beggars can’t be choosers. But people with points can, and like me they choose not to buy this rubbish. Complaining about it should hopefully discourage it happening again, which is why so many people have come to comment.

I love the few people on here that back this up, “Oh poor Larry” “Poor Major Nelson” “Look at everyone complaining” but then add that it isn’t a good deal themselves. Bad things generate more discussion than good, it’s as simple as that. Not everyone wants to give it a sugar coating either.

CARNAGE RULES, some people have lifes beyond their Xbox 360. Stop trolling.

You guys need to understand that this is nothing more than market research. Microsoft is a company, and companies need to make money. All you have to do is not buy the item and Microsoft won’t put up another DOTW like this again.

Its silly that a sale on virtual clothes is the deal of the week. And what’s worse, its clothes of an old game. Maybe if it was clothes from a current game (ME2 or Bioshock 2) or a future game (Splinter Cell or Halo: Reach), that’d be more worth it. But, GW2 clothes? Wow.

The context is irrelevant, Kroesis.

next week they’ll be a deal for a new sound when you press the guide button, it’s gonna go ‘boo boo’ instead of ‘swoosh’ – for just 200 MS points

@Major
Pass this feedback on to whoever needs to hear it. Avatar clothing, themes and gamerpics are ALL advertising; we will never pay for advertising. Is it really worth the backlash of the community for the miniscule amount of revenue this generates from some cashed up idiots?
This may seem absurd, but can you guys at least try to do the right thing now and then.

This is very lame!
Here the original announcement of the Avatar marketplace was that “we will never charge for items” and now they’re to the point where a sale is happening. I like the deal of the week, but I’d prefer to have no deal this week rather than this.

This purchase should also force your avatar as your gamerpic. This would satisfy a lot of request for identification of purchasers. Great way to remind people how much they normally are too.

Stuff we could create for free if we were given the tools.

Most likely one of the lamest DoTW I have seen yet.

Deal of the Week?

More like: Deal… of the Weak. (yeah I know, bad pun haha)

F-F-F-FAIL

What the *Beep* is this?

talk about rip off. another free game or good deal be best.. like Splosion Man for like 800 points or Trails HD for 400 points.

Look at STEAM look at their deals!

No disrespect Major, overall, the whole avatar thing has been a flop in my humble opinion. Very few games utilize giving avatar awards, and avatar marketplace is simply too expensive for decorations which only grace a SELECT FEW avatar titles and my friends’ “Friends” tab.
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Almost all the avatar gear is extremely overpriced. It doesn’t really do anything special. 320MSP (3 USD) for certain sets? I mean come on. T-Shirts are tolerable at 80 points, but even $1 for what amounts to a plain jane texture seems a bit excessive. I could rant highly about the cost of the pro sports gear, but I’ll give that a pass since I bet you have to pay extra licensing to the NFL/NFLPA;MLB/MLBPA to use the official logos and uniforms.
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I bought a couple things, I admit. However, I honestly have zero intentions of buying anything else. Most of the time I look at the prices and think: ‘No way I’m spending that many points on THAT’. Let’s put it into perspective: It only cost 10 USD for a full blown add-on pack for Borderlands but it’s 3 USD for a couple of JPGs or PNGs wrapped in a texture pack? This is why this “deal” is a slap in the face: Making something with already little to no tangible value cost less doesn’t increase its value, it simply highlights the fact that avatar items cost too much to begin with.

Sorry, “320 MSP (3 USD)” should read “320MSP (4 USD)”.
—
My math fail, sorry. The point of the post remains valid, however.

Pa-Thet-Ic

The people buying Avatar stuff and Preimum Themes, you’re part of the problem.

I think Major Nelson should choose the deals of the week.

Ehm, what the hell is that!!!!!!, really lame i hope that will not hapen again. What hapened with the arcade games????

I really think Avatar gear shouldn’t be Deal of the week. If your bosses are going to do that at least have a second item on sale.

For people saying these items should be free.. Remember, much of the time they are paying to liscence the franchises. Star Wars for example isn’t cheap, hence why the avatar items for that series cost so much. Also somebody does need to animate and model them, people don’t work for free. That being said, I’d be much more inclined to spend money on them if they were cheaper.. they should be something to spend left over points on, not a serious investment of money. At first I thought it was 80 points for the armour, which is much more like I’d imagine these things to cost in the first place, but who’s going to spend 240? Let alone 400.

FACEPALM. I bet major & the team have a good chuckle every monday when the DOTW goes live and the announcement is made here. Remember guys, Major is just the messenger but i secretly believe that some DOTW just dont get decided/thought out, then they go and ask the nearest person what he thinks should get a cut & go with that Lol.

major you should let the people know that this is not a deal to us. Its not even available in Germany so where is the real deal? These guys who are choosing the deals doesnt think about what they are doing…dont they? There is a lot of DLC and many Arcade Games to deal with. I hope that this wont happen again.

Wow just wow. You better make this one up by making Perfect dark deal of the week at launch

(and yeah ofcourse im just kidding, would be awsome tho).

Perfect Dark is already only going to be 800 points! Really great price for a game that has a ridiculous amount of content. Even if their strategy is obviously to sell it cheap so people will be more inclined to purchase it and then continue to buy the invetible stream of map packs.

Lame, very lame…

This stinks. We want games!

We’re gamers. We want games, not pricey virtual clothing for a virtual doll. This is the 21st Century, very few people play with dolls anymore.

My how the internet is whiney today. Well, just as I would not complain about discounts on prune juice in my local paper I will not contribute to the tsuami of tears that has come from the quarter pricing of one particular piece xbox live content. The market system is perfectly capable of sorting these “lame” things out without any tantrums required on my, or anyone else’s, part.

@Matu Flp Krawfe — Customer feedback is an important part of any business. I believe MS is happy to receive such feedback, because it allows them to better adjust their future offers and increase overall customer satisfaction.

@WinterSnowblind: A couple of counterarguments to your points:
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First of all, notice how most of the Avatar gear is tied to games? In theory, the licensing has already been paid for the game related gear through the licensing for the game. Also, licensing doesn’t apply to Microsoft Game Studios games like Halo or GOW. Sports related avatar gear is a notable exception as are the bits of gear with brand names that are not tied to games (eg. Burton, Disney) are also exceptions. I would argue further that, except in some circumstances, licensing may not even be a consideration because this gear is mutually beneficial for both companies: Microsoft gets to provide more “content” while the companies get advertising.
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Secondly, having to animate them justifies the cost? No way. I’d give you some credit for this argument, but I used to make models and textures for Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2K4 and I can tell you that the amount of work it takes to make avatar gear is minimal. There are three body types for each avatar style, all with an extremely minimal amount of polygons. The amount of animation needed for these items are NOTHING compared to making, say, a t-shirt for all available models in UT2K4. If I had access to a base model avatar rendering, I could probably make a complete, large wardrobe in the time it would have taken me to make a couple of items – not even a complete set – for ONE MODEL in UT.

@Matu Flp Krawfe: Your analogy fails on every level because Xbox Live doesn’t have any direct competition. You get what you’re told. Now apply that to your analogy. You have one grocery store. They regularly put sales on items every week but this week, out of all of their products, they decided to put ONLY prune juice on sale and there’s really no information on how well prune juice sells overall.
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Tell me you wouldn’t complain. And if you say you wouldn’t, you’re a liar.
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XBOX LIVE IS NOT A MARKET SYSTEM. Market system economies have competition. In a market system the Xbox Live sale may be lackluster, but you could go to another business and get something better. Can you go somewhere other than Xbox Live to get XBLA or Avatar goods? Didn’t think so. If your idea of a “market system” is a system where the only choice is “buy” or “don’t buy”, then, in your world of economics, Soviet Communism was a “market system”.

Besides all of this, it’s amazing to see how many peope actually did the chocobo avatar pet thing (it required to subscribe to whatsoever, wich means time, and time is said to be money) or are using the waypoint stuff and still they complain about the deal.

Simply put people in general do care and actully likes (in most cases) avatar gear. Actually what they don’t like is to pay for it

It sounds pretty funny to me cause as soon as there is something that is liked or wanted by someone, someone else will try to make money out of it. It’s a golden rule in life.

The smartest move should be to offer both a game, dlc and avatar gear as deal of the week, so people that dont have the given game can pass the dlc but still spend some points on a full arcade or avatar gear. Anyway, the DOTW is condemned to fail to some and appeal to other as people have different interest and is virtually impossible to keep everyone happy in a such big community.

Me still thinks people will be eager to get more avatar gear as soon as there will be more avatar games out there.

On a side note, it’s sad to see how people gets judged by what they buy. People is free to shove their hard earned bucks to their *beep* if they want to and there’s no excuse to judge that since anyone else earned those for them.

@WinterSnowblind
This is advertising!!!! All advertising costs money and takes effort, that does not mean we should pay for it. The idea of avatar clothing, themes and gamerpics is to advertise upcoming games and content; the stuff we should pay for. The very term ‘Micro-transactions’ should be banished by the internet – its a shameful cash grab.

LOL….. this all reminds me of the song by “Insane Clown Posse” called “Hellalujah” For just $600 we can heal this boy. For just 600m$p you can download this junk.

Avatar Marketplace= Epic fail…….

@RuairiAU
— And in the same way, it could be argued that you shouldn’t have to buy shoes with a Nike logo on them, all you’re doing is advertising that brand, therefore they should be free. This arguement has been around forever, it makes no more sense now than it when used against other products. In the end, people buy avatar items because they want to make their virtual avatar look cool. Like I said, I do agree items should be cheaper, but expecting them to be free entirely is ludicrous.

OMG, I only registered after a lot of lurking in here to say… that’s the worst deal ever!
How could anyone thought that this would be a deal? I mean, we have a lot of games on XBLA, many of which didn’t sell much: someone really think that this could be a deal? Some lame clothing for a virtual puppet? Come on, be serious and pass this feedback to whomever plan the DotW. That’s pretty a lame…

No Deal for Germany yay…

Again we get nothing (like the Biohazard 5 VS Deal).
Yeah sure the Avatar Deal is worse, but we don’t even get the chance to complain about lol

(Instead we can complain, there’s no deal at all hrm..)

“One more thing…”

Please don’t give us Avatar “Deals” anymore ><” (It’s a waste of money to actually pay for that..)

I’m not blaming Larry, but I have little faith that anybody at Microsoft is actually listening to consumer comments or criticism because it all comes down to money.

The *only* avatar wear I’ve ever purchased was on Playstation Home, but that gained me access to the Salt Shooter game. That same pilot suit also has a visual indicator of my progress running up one of the sleeves. In essence, it’s both a key *and* a trophy; show me something that useful on XBLM.

@WinterSnowblind
I object your reality and substitute my own. I’m not the lone voice saying this, look around mate; everyone is complaining. Avatar clothing, themes and gamerpics are of no real worth and only serve as advertisments for upcoming content. You may think putting snazzy shoes on your avatar is worth your pocket money, but I’m an adult and I work for my cash.

I’m not defending this deal, and I’ve never payed for any avatar items myself either. (and yes, I’m also an adult who works, let’s not make personal assumptions). I’m only stating that your argument is flawed. Again, I think the items SHOULD be cheaper, but if you expect them to be free you’re living in a fantasy world. Yes, they’re of “no real worth” but the same could be argued for gaming in general and many other real life vanity items. How much do you spend on games and DLC? If somebody wants to buy snazzy shoes for their avatar, whats the problem? I’m sure there a lot of people out there who think just as little about what you’d consider good value for money. As for your advertising arguement, again, I point you to Nike or any other brand name covered clothing you might currently be wearing. We live in countries that revolve around consumerism. You and I may not something is worth spending money on.. But it’s very clear others do.

I think that all avatar pieces shouldn’t be “free”, but should require you unlock through various achievements Much like Halo waypoint, Left for Ded 2, and Splosion Man have done. (Those are the only ones I know of personally). I also think the same should go for Premium themes because if nothing else when people buy this stuff they are paying to advertise that product.
Deal of the week should be exclusively for down loadable games such as Arcade and Originals, and game ad-ons. Also games on demand, but only if they change it so you can buy them using the equivalent in points. (Game cost 19.99 or 1600 points)
On that note I will be awaiting Monday for the map pack and earning achievements while I wait.

P.S.
Comments are not directed to Major Nelson, but to the people he can relay this message to.

Whomever chooses the deals should have a 3-strikes policy for being this out of touch w/ the community. Get someone that can give the people deals they want.

Major — here’s some feedback for you to pass on to the appropriate people. I doubt they’ll listen, but it’s worth a try –

I think that we should see three deals of the week each week: one on a game, one on DLC, and one on an avatar item or a theme. There’s plenty of content in the Marketplace at this point to be able to support all three, and I think that you’d see an exponential increase in sales.

I know that I, for one, generally only end up buying on a deal when it’s a game. I also consider most Live games overpriced for what they are, so with few exceptions I’ll generally *only* buy them when they’re on sale. That being said, I have bought a number of the games when they’ve been on sale — even games that I would probably not have been at all interested in otherwise. Therefore, at least from my personal experience, the sales are a great marketing tool for selling me games.

On the other hand, I have bought very little DLC on sale. That’s not to say that it doesn’t ever happen, but the honest truth is that when I want DLC for a game, I want it when I’m actively playing the game — I don’t want to wait for a sale which may or may not ever happen. Occasionally DLC going on sale might cause me to revisit a game, but generally not, because if I liked the game enough to bother, I’ve already bought the DLC anyway.

I have positively no interest in avatar items, and will never pay money for them, on sale or no. The few that I have (Beatles Rock Band t-shirt, Splosion Man t-shirt, Sherlock Holmes outfit) were ones that I received free with games or through other promotions. Honestly, I just don’t care about my avatar that much. Likewise, I have no interest in themes — when I turn on my 360, it’s to play a game, not to sit and stare at the dashboard.

My point in my specific example is that you are considerably more likely to make a sale to me on a week that there’s a game on sale than at any other time. I’m not saying that I’m interested in every game, or that I’m always going to buy, but the odds that I will go up exponentially on any week when the deal is a game. On the weeks where you don’t offer a game — well, thanks for saving me money that week, I guess. Though I don’t think that was your goal.

That being said, I can see that some people might have different priorities, and might care more about DLC, avatar items, and the like. Fair enough. So hey — offer a deal for me *and* a deal for them, and then we’ll all buy. Who knows, you might even get some people who will buy a game *and* a DLC, or a DLC *and* an avatar item, or some other combination, and make even more money. I can’t see how offering more deals each week could be anything other than a complete win for Microsoft.