On The Rain-Slick Slope

Two recent events have caused me to be very concerned about the prices we'll be paying for Xbox Live Arcade games in the near future.

First, Microsoft announced that they will be restructuring the XBLA. Basically, this means they will be de-listing titles that don't perform well or get low scores on Metacritic. You know this will include mostly retro titles that debuted at 400 points. I don't know why they don't just discount them and try to boost sales. The whole point of having digital distribution is to save money on packaging and shelf space. Arcade titles don't require any of that, so why take them off the service?

Second, the Penny Arcade game sold over 16k copies so far according to X3F. This means that, even with it's hefty $20 price tag, it still sold extremely well. Now, there's nothing wrong with a game selling well. The problem is the message that is sent by those numbers. Pricing the game at $20 was a risk, but it was also a way to test the waters to see if the world is ready for a 1600 point arcade game. Well, according to over 16,000 of you, we are. Thanks for fucking the rest of us!

Now, everyone makes the argument that the game is 7-8 hours, which is more than some retail games. And they say that those of us that speak out against the prices are just too poor to buy them. I call bullshit on both those arguments and I'll tell you why.

First off, 7-8 hours of gameplay is fine, but that's all you get. There's no multiplayer. There's no real replay value unless you want to play the same story multiple times. Also, if it were a retail game you would have the option to trade it in for credit or sell it on eBay. With the digital distribution, the game will just sit on your hard drive forever.

Finally, just because I don't want to drop $20 on a 8 hour game does not mean I'm poor. It means I'm not willing to support higher prices for the sake of higher prices. I'm all for the advancement of the industry, but this just smacks of the fleecing of the 360 install base.

Some people who are big PA fans may think the game is reasonably priced, but I say it's just one more step in the direction of higher prices and less value for the consumer.

Vacation: Day One

I'm on vacation this week. I'm sure you can guess why. Halo 3 is coming out tomorrow. I'll be waiting till Wednesday to get my copy in the mail. Liongames.com is sending it out today, so I should have it by then. Once I have it in hand, Alana and I will be tackling the campaign in co-op mode. It's gonna be teh awesome!

As for today, I had to do some work (yes, work) since they asked me to do 2 hours a day even on my vacation. I'll have to remember to thank them for that gift whenever I quit. After that I played a bunch of the Fantastic Four game, Rise of the Silver Surfer. It's just a smidgen above suck, which would probably equate to about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I really should start my own grading scale. Suck would be 5 and anything above or below that would be above or below suck. I think I may be on to something here.

Anyway, the Halo 3 frenzy is being whipped into a...well...frenzy. The big party is going on in Seattle. Some of my friends (and an enemy) are attending. It's all getting to be a bit much. I'm as excited about the game as anyone, but I don't know how many podcasts and websites can say the same thing. It's an incredible game. Duh!

I actually turned to the Sony Defense Force site just for a change of pace. Whoever runs that site is an absolute genius. If it's real it's fascinating, and if it's fake it's brilliant.

I've also been entering every day to try to win The Ultimate Halo 3 Setup from X3F. I'm sure I won't win, but dammit I'm trying. It would be nice to win something bad ass like that. And shoving it in the losers faces would be even better! lol!

Father's Day

It's Father's Day. I went to the parents house and played with the new dogs. I took pictures, which are on my flickr. Buffy got a haircut and I gave Buttercup a bath.

The fans recorded an episode of ACFriends today. I posted it a few minutes ago. This is the second one they've done. I'm hoping they can continue to do them. I think it's a cool thing to do for the our loyal listeners.

I downloaded a few things yesterday. The new Queens of the Stone Age album. Gonna listen to it tomorrow. Then I got this cool song off X3F, Ring of Fire.

Rhea got me an awesome watch with a spider on the face. Then you hit a button and the webbing lights up. It's a Fossil and it rocks! She also got me some cool boxers and a picture frame. The picture in it is of Ethan and I. I love it!