http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2002-2006 by the authors Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:09:19 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397746 I would wager ($15 just for the comic value alone) that it cost Ubisoft quite a bit to develop this Chapter 2 add-on pack. Lets be honest, the slope got slippery when Microsoft introduced micro-transactions on XBLM. It has already headed into bad places. I certainly hope that Lumines Live does not charge extra for multiplayer, but that is the latest rumor. People will always complain about higher prices, as everyone should. No one wants to to pay more for something than they think it is worth. But the market will determine the price. We complained about the $10 extra per game, the cost of themes and gamer pictures, the cost of Bankshot Billiards 2, the cost of Table Tennis, etc., etc. The only complaining that has had any resonance is the Horse Armor mod for Oblivion. Everything else has sold well. It seems to me that a lot of people have bought the Chapter 2 add-on pack. There have not been a shortage of people to play on the four new maps. The bottom line is that I have justified the cost of the add-on to my self. And that is all that really matters here. It is a shame you feel screwed over by this, but at this point in the, I would much rather spend another $15 on GRAW then on any other 360 game. Is Ubisoft capitalizing on the summer gaming slump? Sure. That is called a wise decision. Would it have sold better at $10? Probably. Would $10 recoup the costs involved? Who knows. Has Ubisoft made back the money for the initial development of GRAW? Won't the sale of the Chapter 2 add-on help defray those costs? True, we don't get tired of the old maps, but having more than four choices sure is nice. And meeting more people on Xbox Live is hardly a bad thing. Well, unless you are playing Halo 2 :P ]]> 397746@blogcritics.org Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:09:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397719 I'm sorry Ken but cost of next-gen only matters when there's actual next-gen development costs attached to it. You'll be hard pressed to prove that 4 maps and some trvival bits cost Ubisoft any major amount of money to produce. If people just bend over and accept this rediculous price, then you're heading down a slippery slope where it's ok to charge $15. If $15 is acceptable then what's to stop then from charging $20? Inflation only happens in the gaming world because we allow it to. Right now the acceptable level for that ammount of content is around $10 (check the boards, you know it to be true) and the only reason it will ever go higher is if we allow it to. Maybe GRAW Chapter 2 is worth the money for the entertainment value, but that entertainment comes from the people you play with, not the maps themselves. So why not just put the $15 towards some beer and then replay the original maps with some friends? We hardly got tired of them. The bottomline is that there's no way you can justify Ubisoft charging that price for maps. Even if the experience is worth it, the content clearly isn't. Getting screwed is still getting screwed, even if you had a good time. ]]> 397719@blogcritics.org Sat, 24 Jun 2006 10:20:38 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397682 ... so bitch about the cost all you want. I am enjoying a great extension to an already great game. Would I like to see a beefier expansion for $15? Sure I would, but they haven't given us that. They have given us more multilayer goodness though. ]]> 397682@blogcritics.org Sat, 24 Jun 2006 06:41:03 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397681 Your point works until a point, at which point it becomes pointless. Why? Because there are a lot of people playing right now with this new Chapter 2 content. I will go play GRAW with them. It is your loss in the long run. Cost of everything is going up in the next generations. And lets not forget that the XBLM is in business to make money. ]]> 397681@blogcritics.org Sat, 24 Jun 2006 06:38:12 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397586 Well here's a point for you both to consider. What made Co-Op in GRAW fun? Was it the maps and design themselves? Or was it the people you played with? People who may not, and in the case of at least a few of the people you game with WILL NOT, buy Chapter 2? Just some food for thought. ]]> 397586@blogcritics.org Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:12:13 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397392 I agree about how fun the co-op campaign is. I also agree that it is worth the $15. But I do not think the free pricing of the PC version content is irrelevant at all. What is irrelevant is what three levels and three maps the PC players got. They got that stuff for free. We paid $15. There should be a happy medium here. Oh and just a warning. Download the frickin' Title Update before you spend an hour downloading the GRAW Chapter 2 DLC. Because if you don't install the Title Update first, you will have to grab the Chapter 2 DLC again. And when you say "Download Again" it doesn't just zip right away. It downloads it again. Minor oversight? Yes. Annoying as hell? You betcha! ]]> 397392@blogcritics.org Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:18:18 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/23/074930.php#comment-397338 The PC content is completely different and nowhere near as varied. The free pricing of the PC version is irrelevant, aside from the map editor. This is priced content that's hovering in the slightly overpriced territory. Would I like it cheaper? Well of course. Is it fair where it's at? I see no reason why not. The co-op campaign is by far the most fun I've ever had on Live. ]]> 397338@blogcritics.org Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:39:01 EDT