I got the Fool's Gold achievement! Man it was a pain.
EternalGamer said:
They are worth less because the production values (and consequently the production costs) are far less. Condemned 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 had huge budgets and took staffs of 50+ people over a year to make.
And they were mediocre sequels that no one will remember in a year or two.
The last movie I saw in a theater was The Wrestler. It cost like..$6mil to make, I think? Yet my ticket cost the same price as a ticket for Madea Goes to Jail or Bride Wars, both of which I'm sure had significantly higher budgets. And you know why this didn't bother me? Because I don't mind paying for quality. Also because I'm not retarded.
I am getting more quality gameplay with Lode Runner than I am out of Condemned 2. LR doesn't have voice overs or cutscenes or graphical effects that'll be painfully dated by next winter. But it has gameplay, y'know? It's pretty enjoyable? And I'd rather pay for gameplay that fucking "production values".
Now, I realize that they were $60 (and I wouldn't have paid $60 for either of them either), but my point is simply that games that are made by a handful of dudes on a shoestring budget in 6 or 8 months should be CHEAP.
No, they should be sold at whatever price a dev/publisher thinks is most likely to turn a profit. Because if they don't make money they can't make more games. Do you know how many XBLA/PSN games turn a profit? If you've got the numbers I'd love to see them, because I have no idea myself. I am pretty sure the games aren't that CHEAP to make, though. I bet a lot of them lose money. I hope not, though!
I don't think pricing Lode Runner at $15 was the best idea, but the game isn't fucking Crazy Mouse. They're not asking a high price for a low quality product. Aside from the terrible character art it's a really polished downloadable title that's a cut above most retail budget games. It does not feel cheap at all. You're just knocking it because of its genre, and because you have some crazy definition of "value" that has nothing do with actual gameplay.
And to me, cheap is under $10. Live game are meant to be bite sized games at bite sized prices. $5 and $10 are cheap small games that have a clear distinction from disc based releases. When games become more than that the distinction begins to dissipate pretty rapidly.
Shit, recent XBLA and PSN games have been better than most retail games I've purchased this gen. They have not been cheap, small games at all. I think half my GOTY list last year was made up of downloadable titles, and two of them cost $15!! I FED THE BEAST. It was worth it!
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