Value

The other day this comment was posted on my Braid story by reader Zombinate:

So I finished the game (Braid), the main story anyway, I haven’t gone to get the stars yet, or whatever the hell they are. I’ve decided that this game is the movie “Brazil”; It really doesn’t make any sense, but is just compelling enough to be enjoyable. That said, like Brazil, I feel it would have made a good rental. I really enjoyed my time playing the game, but wonder if the $15 was really worth it. Honestly, if I could, I would sell this at (insert favorite second-hand game store). It is kinda like Bioshock, once you are done with that game are you really gonna do it again and again?

On a bigger level, this is the problem I see with the live arcade. It isn’t a true market, as no price deductions take place as interest in the property wanes. For example Geometry wars 2 was just released, any change in the cost of the first? Nope. This is fine for classic arcade like games, where the point is a high score. For story based games though, which have limited replay value, I am disappointed that they are treated the same way.

With regard to Braid, the topic of value in story based games have been discussed before. With this game, it was fantastic, but i don’t think was a good value.

Bionic Marketing

This week’s entry in the Summer of Xbox Live Arcade promotion was the long-awaited revamp of the classic NES game Bionic Commando. Bionic Commando Rearmed takes the original game and jazzes it up with updated graphics and music and adds new features like a couple new moves, challenge rooms and two-player co-op. Unlike the previous games in the Summer of XBLA promotion, I bought Bionic Commando: Rearmed and didn’t receive a free download code, because I was a huge fan of the original game. Nostalgia alone is rarely enough for me to drive a purchase, but in the case of Bionic Commando Rearmed there was another compelling reason for me to check out the game: It is a perfect example of the phenomenon of selling marketing material to the audience in the guise of a stand-alone product. Bionic Commando Rearmed is, at its core, an advertisement.

Are We Ready for Braid?

Microsoft’s Summer of Xbox Live continued this week with Braid, the highly anticipated game from indie developer Jonathan Blow. Microsoft’s PR firm was kind enough to provide me with a download of the game, and while I’m far from finished with it, I did get a chance to play through the opening stages. It’s a game that brings up many questions, like “how do I get that puzzle piece?” or “how does this story end?” While I’m certainly interested in finding those answers, there’s a much larger question about the game in my mind: How will the first art game on the platform that Halo built be received by the audience?

The Summer of Killer Shapes

The nice thing about the summer game lull is that it allows players to clear up the backlog or try some games that may have been overlooked in a more crowded environment. Microsoft is currently pushing its “Summer of Arcade” promotion in an effort to highlight some top-tier downloadable games that are being released over the next month. It’s an interesting tactic – Microsoft won’t move any significant number of of consoles because of the promotion, but should be fairly successful in generating revenue from existing users. If the company was trying to push just any old Xbox Live Arcade games right now, the promotion would fall flat on its face. Fortunately, the Summer of Arcade is built on some of the best downloadable games around, starting with the excellent Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.

As the built-in leaderboards showed, I was far from the only player obsessing over Geometry Wars 2 last night, but the actual gameplay is only part of why this title is so fascinating. The release of this game has a lot to stay about the state of the games industry as a whole. Read on for more: