Lumines Live! Creator Defends Content Downloads 17
Eurogamer reports that Lumines Live! creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi is defending the extra content downloads required to play the entire game on the 360. From the article: "Mizuguchi told IGN that one reason for the download/pricing strategy was technical ('We have to include everything in 50MB') but that the other reason was the desire to let people customise Lumines. 'We want people to look at Lumines and, depending on the artist, or the season, or the music, we want to give them different reasons to consider buying the game,' he explained." Relatedly, the Live service hit 4 Million users, Microsoft has announced. "Microsoft reckons it's on track for six million users by June 2007. 'We openly welcome other console platforms to join us in [the online] space,' [they say], a bit mockingly."
Content Download = BS (Score:5, Insightful)
A) First like all other live games, they say many times, "Pay to Unlock the full game!" all over the place.
B) When you do, there is no indication that any of the other modes are optional. You don't actually discover it till after you've played the first level or two and the screen pops up and says, "HAHA, you suck! Give us more money, fool!"
What they should have done is have the options listed as Main Game and Download Content. As you download the content, it adds items to the menu. Perhaps a "Test Downloadable Content" section or something for the try before you buy action. It's not what their doing, it's how sneaky and evil they do it.
Re:Content Download = BS (Score:4, Insightful)
So... (Score:4, Insightful)
The mere fact that the "Full Game" (according to the description in XBLA) has locked content inside of it is gonna piss a whole lot of people off.
not hardly (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
A Question of Semantics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
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It's too simple to begin with. (Score:4, Informative)
They've got a bit more of an argument with the 50 MB limit, but really, we're seeing some amazing games being made chock full of content that are sneaking in at under that limit (Roboblitz made with the Unreal 3 engine with hi-res textures, the upcoming sprite-animation-heavy Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers)... I doubt that's as big of an issue as they claim it is (although, to be fair, music tends to be the big size hog for casual games, and Lumines is big on the music).
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
There's no reason why we can't get a full game for $29.99 at the store and then still have the ability to purchase 'updates' via the marketplace. The game is reasonably priced if purchased in a store since you get a disc and a package and booklet, etc. But taking all that away should lower the price...
I'm sure after all the packs come out, one will be able to buy it at the local gaming store at a lower price then us su
Next time give away the engine for free. (Score:3, Informative)
Then of course they blame Microsoft's 50 meg limit? That's easy, make a 50 meg game that costs 1500 points, and then give all the add ons for free, again I get a customized game, but I'm paying one cost. not 5.
As for Microsoft, or shall I say Weasel soft? Those numbers suck.
We have 4 million LIVE users, how many Gold users? Still no numbers, people arn't paying for the system (I am and a couple buds are but they still are avoiding those numbers for some reason)
Factor in 1 year ago at launch they had 2 million. So for the 6 million consoles they sold, only 1/3 are new subscribers and at most 2/3 are online with a FREE account (and remember 2 accounts on the same console, so it could be lower then 1/3)
70 million piece of content? Include how many patches, How many freebees, how many 'oh we forgot to add this in the game"?
12 million XBLA downloads? that's 3 a person... except that's DOWNLOADS again. Not purchases. so with 24 percent of the demos becoming real purchases the minimum actual purchases are around 2 million (likely moremore)?
Time logged on? Who knows. I leave my console on over night some times. I hang on Xbox live and chat with my buddy while playing Ps2 games (tales of Abyss rocks) It all counts towards this goal.
9 million text and voices weekly are the only one that's impressive And that really is an impressive number.
These are interesting, but Microsoft is touting these numbers because they have 0 competition. First thing I do with my Wii will be put it online too, if I got a PS3 that's the same thing I'll do. Since both are free, I'm guessing we'll see similar numbers from them too.
I love my 360 but god Microsoft, stop being Microsoft.
Nobody's pissed about the downloadable content (Score:3, Insightful)
As usual, it's all about expectation management. When people spend $15 on the most expensive XBox Live! game, they expect a complete experience, even without the add-on packs. When people see an option for a game mode in the main menu of this (relatively very) expensive game, they expect to be able to play that game mode without buying an add-on pack. When these expectations aren't met, because that game mode is merely 5 minutes' of play time followed by an advertisement for the add-on pack to unlock the rest of the greyed out menu options, people naturally get pissed off. When this pattern repeats itself multiple times in the same game, people naturally get REALLY pissed off.
Nobody likes paying to receive advertisements. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it feels like to play Lumines on XBox live. If the base Lumines game were cheaper (say, $5), we'd put up with it, but when the game is the most expensive one on the service, people naturally get pretty pissed off about it.
Microcontent is a bad thing (Score:2)
The second a company introduces microcontent, they set themselves on a slippery slope from which there is no return.
It begins with them charging a tiny amount for an addon that has good value, then