In our continuing effort to bring you fresh and interesting content, X3F presents Would You Rather ... a weekly feature that asks you the hard questions. The point? If you had to choose one or the other, which would you go for?
This week in WUR we're tackling today's hot button issue. With downloadable games evolving we're wondering which titles you think should be the future of the service. While shorter (in terms of features and development time), smaller titles have been the lifeblood of Xbox Live Arcade since the origin of the service, larger more substantial games are gaining steam. But, as larger games ask a steeper price should developers shy away from a service with, seemingly, set price-points or hope they make an entertaining enough experience that the price won't be as big a factor?
Or, from a different perspective on the question, are developers wasting time creating larger games if the title demands a higher price and should they only focus on smaller titles, which is what some believe the service was bred for? Vote. Discuss. Or, you know, ignore.
Feel free to share the reasons for your vote in the comments. We'll share the results of the poll during the next edition of Would You Rather ... which hits X3F every Wednesday.
Last weeks WUR results can be find after the jump ... take a look!
Last week we asked which demo from GDC you'd want most if you had to pick. Too Human and Ninja Gaiden II were in a dead heat, and with a 1% chance of error it's essentially a tie. So we're about to break it. Which demo would we prefer to play? Barbie Horse Adventure V: The Revenge of Sparkles the Cat. Now that's next gen.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-21-2008 @ 8:50PM
Keith said...
I thought this post had something to do with an "Ahh! Real Monsters!" related game and I got really excited for a second....
Reply
5-21-2008 @ 9:25PM
zourskittles said...
i did too.. we can only hope..
5-21-2008 @ 10:25PM
Andrew said...
Why would they make a game for a show that ended in 1998?
5-21-2008 @ 11:48PM
BananaBoat said...
I thought it was "Ahh! Real Monsters!" as well.
What the hell is wrong with us?
5-22-2008 @ 12:52AM
Xav de Matos said...
Well that was the inspiration for this gag.
5-22-2008 @ 2:01AM
BananaBoat said...
Well, atleast we aren't completely insane.
Pulling out random references to ancient Nickelodeon cartoons? Good show sir.
5-22-2008 @ 4:01AM
Mrblonde said...
Ahh! Real Monsters! is a classic. As is The Angry Beavers and Rocko's Modern Life
5-22-2008 @ 5:19AM
sean said...
thought the same thing lol. everyone must have grown up in the 90's here lol.
5-22-2008 @ 11:47AM
webster1990 said...
same here, i would love anything real monsters related.
@ andrew:
they made a game for rocky and bullwinkle and that ended much earlier
5-21-2008 @ 8:51PM
scottygee32 said...
Are alien hominid and N+ considered large and substantial? Or small?
Let me put it this way, I'm from Australia, MS points here do not match our stronger currency, on top of which, we pay more to get the prepaid cards too. $30 AUD for 1600 points. 800 points = roughly $13.20 but should equal $10 if comparing to US currency (to match).
So what happens is that I am paying $30 for $20. I'm not a fan of losing $10 for nothing...
I bring this arguement up because I dislike doing it, and if I dislike doing it, I am less inclined to purchase large games because I'm not a fan of being ripped off.
So if we had fairer pricing, I would be all over larger, more rich games for XBLA, but for the current time, no, they can die. The funny thing is, we get the shaft (higher price, lack of XBL content, game delays [except for big launches]) because we're not a big enough market, but we're not a big enough market because things have a 50-100% markup over other countries.
Its like rock band for Europe too. I hope that fails because of it
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5-21-2008 @ 8:57PM
scottygee32 said...
Woops, my apologies...Its $30 for a 1500 MS points card. So I'd have to purchase 2 1500 points cards to afford the 1600 points games. So I'm then losing $20. Making things worse...
5-21-2008 @ 9:04PM
AoE said...
You say it like if you don't use all the point right then and there you're screwed and that $20 just evaporates. .. Sure it's not fun to have to buy more MSP than you need for a particular purchase; but unless you plan on only ever buying a single thing from XBLA, I'm guessing you use those purchased points at some point in the future; it's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.
Also, regardless of the fucked-up pricing of MSP worldwide, it's not like the "i can't buy the exact number of points I want" is unique to Oz... that is one way at least that all 360 owners the world over are united. :(
5-21-2008 @ 10:34PM
Anticrawl said...
By your shit online.
5-22-2008 @ 4:57AM
IncredibleBulk92 said...
Um just a suggestion but you could try creating a US account and buying points and arcade games from that, as long as the profile is still on your hard drive you can play any of the things that that profile owns. Its kinda risky but it might save you money in the long term. I downloaded the free US game Aegis Wing on my US profile and my main profile can play that fine.
And yes and also what actually counts as small? N+ has something like 500 levels so I wouldn't call it a short game, but yea everybody wants more for their money, the longer the better.
5-21-2008 @ 8:58PM
AoE said...
I hope we can have it both ways. I welcome larger/deeper games to the service, but hope it won't put an end to the smaller arcade titles.
Reply
5-21-2008 @ 9:27PM
Van said...
I vote for larger, more substantial downloads as long as they don't decide to jack up the price like crazy!
1200ms Points should be the max for most XBA games
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5-21-2008 @ 10:02PM
shatzmcpants said...
Ahh! Real Monsters FTW!!!1
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5-21-2008 @ 10:40PM
emirabal said...
I just played the demo and it was awesome, brought it back old school.
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5-22-2008 @ 2:25AM
Deck said...
Ok so far it looks like the majority of people are voting for "Bigger more sustainable content for download".
That is exactly what Penny Arcade has done with RSPD yet everyone seems to be crapping on the $20 price tag. They think it is too high for an XBLA game. This seems rather contradicting to me. If one is wanting bigger more sustainable content for download on the XBLA, a higher price tag will come along with it. Plus one must consider $20 for 7-10ish hours of gameplay...that is more than many games that people put down $60 for.
So to me what I can see is that this vote is saying "Yea we want more content for our download games, but we don't want to have to pay any more for them". That just doesn't make sense. To me anyway.
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5-22-2008 @ 4:09AM
Rob K said...
I don't really care.. If a game is good and fun I will buy it. Doesn't matter if it's 50 MB or 5 Gig. Obviously I'd expect the price to reflect the size/production values, but choosing one over the other doesn't make sense to me. It's comparing apples and oranges..
Reply