Lumines Live: Insert Coin to Continue - Total Cost $24 (Rumor)
Lumines Live: Insert Coin to Continue
Topic: Online Gaming
http://www.gametab.com/news/662554/
The parade of nickel-and-diming over Xbox Live Marketplace is set to continue. Only this time, Microsoft is giving us the parade's Grand Master, riding the biggest float of all, sitting fat and happy on his throne of micropayments.
Like the lights-and-sound orgy that is the puzzler Lumines? Sure, we all do. Want to play the Xbox Live version? Well, you'll first have to pony up 1200 "Marketplace Points" (US$14.99), already a premium price for downloadable content.
But then, once you hit a certain point in the "Mission" or "Vs. CPU" modes of the game, you'll be asked to pay up again for the ability to keep on progressing. All in all, you'll have to spend another 700 points ($8.75) to get the rest of the levels, bringing the real cost of Lumines Live to nearly $24.
What lesson can we take from this? Clearly, Microsoft understands that there's a major disconnect here between what they'd like to make off direct-download game sales and what customers are willing to pay based on their perceived value. That's why, rather than go with straight dollar amounts, everything is priced in "points." 1200 points seems somehow cheaper than $15.
But when not even that is enough, they split a once-complete game up into chunks, then hit you up for extra payments while you're playing the game you thought you purchased.
I'm hardly against the idea of modular downloadable content in general, and honestly I think Lumines Live, above all other Live games, is well-suited to the idea. After its release, the developers could get crackin' on brand new levels, then sell them later. That's added content. This is just subtracting content that was already in the original release until they decided to yank it out and charge more.
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