That's a fair point. I don't really have an issue with the intial pricepoints of most downloadable games, be they on PSN, XBL or WiiWare/VC. However, they all get screwed at some point by their never changing price. If there was any price reduction for older games I'd throw down for a lot more. Off the top of my head I can think of at least half a dozen games on WiiWare that I'd pick up if they were half their cost. And I have to imagine that for a lot of the older games there's much less interest in them now than there was at their launch. Why not offer a discount on those? I don't think there's as big of a line to download the original Lost Winds anymore for instance.
You pretty nailed it that they could all take a lesson from Steam. Do a huge sale once in a while and let all the games on their get a nice rush of extra interest and money that they normally wouldn't get.
Most all DD services on PC have discounts, not just Steam. Gog, Impulse, GamersGate, D2D, etc. Indies on their own do collaboration bundles or discounts too, like the "pay what you want" deal for World of Goo and plenty others. Steam is cool and all but it's not a monopoly. That's the best part of PC gaming, there's no first party to regulate everything so everyone tries whatever they want. If you're so into indie titles it's the best place to get them on too, since they don't need the approval of anyone to publish their stuff however they want.
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Agnates said:Most all DD services on PC have discounts, not just Steam. Gog, Impulse, GamersGate, D2D, etc. Indies on their own do collaboration bundles or discounts too, like the "pay what you want" deal for World of Goo and plenty others. Steam is cool and all but it's not a monopoly. That's the best part of PC gaming, there's no first party to regulate everything so everyone tries whatever they want. If you're so into indie titles it's the best place to get them on too, since they don't need the approval of anyone to publish their stuff however they want.
Pretty much. Because of its open nature, PC is the platform of choice for both indie devs, and people interested in indie titles.
SteelAttack said:Agnates said:Most all DD services on PC have discounts, not just Steam. Gog, Impulse, GamersGate, D2D, etc. Indies on their own do collaboration bundles or discounts too, like the "pay what you want" deal for World of Goo and plenty others. Steam is cool and all but it's not a monopoly. That's the best part of PC gaming, there's no first party to regulate everything so everyone tries whatever they want. If you're so into indie titles it's the best place to get them on too, since they don't need the approval of anyone to publish their stuff however they want.
Pretty much. Because of its open nature, PC is the platform of choice for both indie devs, and people interested in indie titles.
if you guys have specific recommendations i'd be very glad to hear them as PC is not my scene most of those fly well under my radar I suppose. Genres i'd be most interested in for this sort of thing would be space shooters, platformers, beat-em-ups, even puzzlers ... anything really except heavy strategy
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Just follow sites like TIGS and Independent Gaming once a day/week or whatever. RPS covers indies occasionally. Then there are stuff like Retro Remakes. There's also the TIGDB but it's not comprehensive yet, although it's a good start. There was a huge shmup resource site I wanted to link to but something's funky with it atm.
For titles, I dunno where to start. Check Knytt & Stories (free), Aquaria, The Spirit Engine 2 (free now), Drawn 1 & 2, Spelunky (free), Merry Gear Solid 1 & 2 (free), Hydorah (free), Torchlight, Trilby: The Art of Theft (free), Uplink, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Minecraft, Noitu Love 2, Dungeons of Fayte (free), Genetos (free), and tons more.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds while the pessimist fears this is true. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
I think bugs would dig Aquaria.
I hate some of the VC prices, I can't afford to get them anymore. They don't need to be really cheap but something that feels fair at least.
You mean, "A licence to play a downloadable game is overpriced"
One good deal right now is Pac-Man CE DX for 800 points on XBLA. It's going to end up on some GOTY lists fer shur.
aspro said:You mean, "A licence to play a downloadable game is overpriced"
One good deal right now is Pac-Man CE DX for 800 points on XBLA. It's going to end up on some GOTY lists fer shur.
i did enjoy the demo. don't know if the full game would have a much bigger appeal to me than that as sadly I'm not much of a "hi-score" gamer these days
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Even XBLA/PSN titles and DLC go on sale.
I agree some stuff is too expensive. I really wanted Hydrophobia, but $20 isn't really worth it. Neither is Sonic 4, and I'm a big Sonic fanboy.
The Scott Pilgrim game is worth the $12 if you have friends who want to play it with you. Perfect Dark is the same price, and I'll probably be downloading it soon. Some of the Indie Games on XBL that are a dollar are a great deal.
Listen to Iced Earth and play Doom
As you have - I hope - noticed, I'm all for wacky new concepts in games, or left of centre ideas and a sense of originality and individuality in game development. I aim to, and (to the extent that I can) do support such efforts if they look interesting and worthwhile. Now in this current generation many of these efforts came in the form of downloadable games as each of the 3 major platforms offers this possibility. It's a very positive development in my opinion. It allows small teams of developers to work. It makes availability of smaller games possible etc etc Overall a great thing for any gamer and no one can argue against this...
But there's no getting away from the fact that, without being absolute, a lot of these games are comparatively overpriced. Games like Limbo, Super Meat Boy, World of Goo etc cost around £12 each and their price is set in stone forever. Now while it's true that a lot of them are worth every penny, it is hard to justify buying them over full-retail efforts the price of which reduces down to those levels sometimes very quickly (knowing that a lot more effort and assets went into their development).
It may be that I'm a spoilt hobo gamer but I think it would be fairer if the price of downloadable games was somewhat lower to begin with, and/or at least reduced as time wore on. The costs involved are a lot smaller, both in development as well as in manufacturing, publishing and marketing. That should be reflected in the price and I don't think it is at present.
NB The one notable exception is Steam which very regularly has ridiculous sales and offers but same as most of us here i am to a very large extend a console/handheld gamer so can't benefit from PC game deals
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu