Decker

That's interesting. I think Poker Smash is easily one of the best games in the Arcade. Screwjumper on the other hand is such a turd, I deleted it after like 2 minutes. They have a lot of nerve even calling it a "game".

Michael Corvin

They should definitely just discount em for good and put them in their own category. $1 each.

Decker

I don't know about 80 points, but some discount makes sense. A three month window of selling downloads at 50% off should be better for the game publishers than to never see a red cent again.

Jeremy517

If they want to remove something that it makes sense to remove, they should get rid of demos for old sports games that have demos for newer versions. There is no reason I need to be able to download FIFA 2006 and FIFA 2007 demos, for example, when there is a FIFA 2008 demo available. Obviously this wouldn't help the Marketplace overcrowding issue, but the demo area is fairly crowded too.

The game companies shouldn't object, since it might keep someone from buying a cheap used or clearance game from the previous year rather instead of the newest version.

Groucho

This is true, but this can be done without disabling games completely. Unlike a B&M retailer, the XBLA format allows for unlimited "shelf space". It would be better to move these games to their own section -- call it "The Vault" or something else non-derogatory.

At first I was on board with the idea of discounting these titles. Now, I disagree with that approach. My fear is that low-priced titles would discourage people from buying better games. "Why buy this new XBLA arcade game for 800pts when I can get four other games for the same price?"

Groucho

Gallery of potentially delisted games:

http://www.joystiq.com/photos/xbla-p...isters/837854/

Michael Corvin

That's definitely a lot of crap. They should definitely keep the card/board games (Hearts, spades, Texas hold 'em, backgammon, etc) just for variety. I have no problem seeing the rest gone. Oh, and $10 for Solitaire? Get fucking real.

Groucho

They could make a lot of these games more attractive to potential buyers just by bundling them together instead of delisting them entirely. Like a "Beat 'em up" arcade game pack. Or a hearts/spades combo pack.

fumanstan

Sounds like there's a ton of easy ways to sell these games.

Music

I would buy a few of the ones I don't already own if they were like half the price.

I think this is a funny review of Track and Field:

tonyc3742

Seems to me a company would want money coming in, especially when there's very little overhead. I'm with the lowering-prices model. Leave them on, move a game a week to the "Junkyard" (obviously some other name), and drop them 100 points a week.
I agree, there are lots of games I would buy, but not for 800 points.

pinata242

^ Not a bad idea, but then it's just a waiting game if they drop 100 points a week

They already have a Arcade Hits category, but it only has 7 games over 6 months. They're half price, but only because they were popular but slowed...

I don't know what moniker you'd give these "Arcade Misses" or what price point you'd cut them to - 25% of original? That seems to make sense to me: 100 or 200 points. Packaging them into bundles makes sense too.

Give me a Namco classics for 400 points including Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaga. How about Williams with Defender, Robotron 2084, and Joust. Atari for 800 with Missle Command, Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, and Tempest. A Hardwood pack with Backgammon, Hearts, Spades, and Solitaire is a no-brainer and I don't know why they haven't done this yet.

There are many different ways to breathe life into the old if they would just get creative.

tonyc3742

Maybe not dropping the price each week, but eventual price drops is more in line with the rest of the industry: the longer you wait, the cheaper it will be. Early adopters/purchasers subsidize later purchasers.
Family Fun pack, Classic Arcade, Space Shooters.
Even a pick-three: for 1000 points, pick any three of these second-tier 400-point games. Not sure how that would work (technically), but if they can make my voice go wirelessly from my headset to the person I'm playing a game with halfway around the world, I'd think they could figure something out.
There's definitely lots of opportunity here.

fujishig

The problem (IMHO) with that is that they're basically telling you that if you wait long enough, the prices will go down. This is the mistake (from their end, at least) they made with retail games... why buy a game for 60 bucks if it'll be down 20 bucks (or more) in a month or so, even popular games, and if they're really popular, down to 20 bucks or less? They get the additional sale, but then they condition the buyer to wait for a cheaper price. If there's not even the illusion of scarcity in addition to this (since the driving force behind this suggestion is to keep these games downloadable forever), then that makes it even worse.

We'll see, however. I still think they'll make more money by threatening to expire these crappy games and seeing the obsessive compulsive people jump on them. And I think they know how obsessive-compulsive we are with the whole success of Achievements.

lordwow

Retail games all price drop after a given time. What's different between those games and XBLA arcade games?

Other than Rare or OOP titles, all games price drop if you wait long enough.

Decker

Besides, how is that different from the "Arcade Hits" program? Doesn't that tell people certain games will drop in price if you wait long enough?

mr.snowmizer

"The mistake they made with retail games"?

You make it sound as if videogame companies have repealed the laws of Econ 101. People already know that just about every non-consumable product will drop in price as it ages, since demand typically drops.

If MS and their XBLA partners would rather keep on receiving close to $0 with a too-high price on rapidly dying XBLA games, rather than maximizing what they can with a lowered price, in order to train consumers that prices will never go down, that is one unorthodox business approach. It makes as little sense with digital content as it would with packaged product.

tonyc3742

Yeah, I'm only somewhat obsessive compulsive. I like achievements, but I'm not an achievement whore, I don't play crappy games just to bump it up, and I don't hunt down all 400 pigeons if the game is no longer fun, just to get an achievement.
Maybe it's the sour grapes argument, but if they have a game that they want 10 bucks for, that I think is worth 5 bucks (for me), and they pull it or threaten to pull it--then they must not want my money. The game is worth 5 bucks to me, not 10....wouldn't they rather make 5 bucks, than none?
The ability to totally control the market in order to train consumers that prices will not go down except should they deign to offer sales is one of the largest and most powerful arguments *against* digital downloads replacing physical media that I can think of.

pinata242

DRM Transfer Tool active. How-to video by Major Nelson: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=...f-af2b558b6674

I have 4 or 5 games that I bought on my first 360, so I'll be trying this when I get home. Looks pretty easy.

Michael Corvin

your video send you to a Backstreet Boys vid.

Major Nelson has it embedded so just head over there.

pinata242

Sorry, here's the real link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

Michael Corvin

You can only do this once per 12 months? So if your 360 is on the fritz and may go out soon, it's probably best to wait it out.

Liver&Onions

Good lord Pinata, why was this in your cache?

pinata242

I'm going to blame Microsoft's video player moving on to the next video and updating urls while one tries to copy the original one for his friends to see.

That's the official story I'm going with, but you won't believe it anyway.

Liver&Onions

Bold, underlined, and italicized - for giving me the .