Should More Games Follow Suit?

Last week, O-Games announced that they were bringing their next title, V8 Superstars, to the PSN. It is going to carry a price tag of $19.99. This may seem like a lot for a PSN title, but it was supposed to be a full retail game, that carries a full retail price. From the screenshots I have seen, the graphics look pretty good, and they have licensed cars. This is a pretty savvy business move. I read a story awhile back, about the break-up of your $60, when you purchase a game. It said that the publisher only gets $27 of the $60 spent. This game was supposed to carry a price tag of $40, which is 2/3 the price of a AAA retail game.

You cut the share of their $27 by a third, and they are left with $18. To my understanding, games that come to the PSN or XBLA, pay a 30 percent royalty fee to the console makers. With the 20 dollar price tag, V8 Superstars will bring O-games $14 for every copy sold, with Sony getting the other $6. This is $4 less than they would have normally received if this went retail, but they don’t have to pay for packaging,shipping or have the hassles that come with them.

This move could actually help them move more overall units, because of the price it might get higher ratings, and it really benefits the consumer. As a parent in a household of gamers and multiple PS3s, this is much lighter on my wallet, thanks to being able to put your PSN purchases on 5 machines. Titles like Battlefield 1943, Burnout Paradise, and Fat Princess, allow my family to on-line game together, and not have to make three $60 purchases to accomplish that. Plus, Sony has a pretty stringent quality standard, so this shouldn’t be released all buggy. This title may not hold up against the heavy weights, like GT 5 and the new Need for speed, but will probably end up on my hard drive.

Rewind 10 years(give or take a few years,) I remember walking into a store to drop my $40, on the newest version of EA Sports’ NBA Live. When I walked up to the cabinet, and glanced around to see if they had any copies, something caught my eye. There were this whole line up of sports titles, by this company called 2K Games. The thing that caught my eye was the price. These were all new titles, with proper pro sports league licensing, for $19.99. It put me in a bind. I was used to the NBA Live familiarity, but the price of the other had me curious. With a few indecisive trips around the store, I left with both the 2K NBA game and the NFL game, and even saved a penny. I was very pleasantly surprised, and to this day both companies are known as the standard bearers of sports titles.

It seems now-a-days, movies have a real fast turn around. They make it to DVD sometimes, and I don’t even remember them coming out in the theater. This is not the case with games. XBOX Live and and now the PSN offer full game downloads, but the selection is not all that robust, and the titles are usually older. With the gaming industry complaining about the sales of used titles, why don’t they try to usher them into the downloadable arena? One case in point, is developer Playlogic. They made the title, Fairytale fights. I ended up purchasing this one rainy day, brand new for $20 at Gamestop. This was a fun game and worth the 20 dollar price tag. It kind of reminds me of what a co-op God of War would be like on the Wii. It wasn’t great but it was a fun game to sit down and waste a wet weekend away, with my girl friend. Fairytale Fights has only sold 155,000(according to VGChartz, I know not accurate just using as a reference point) copies in a year. Now they are filing for bankruptcy, and Fairytale Fights is headed to the Japanese PSN.

Maybe if they made the move sooner, it could have turned it around. Titles like Naughty Bear and Mini Ninjas, could have benefited with a quick DL turn around. Another title that could have used the DL treatment, was the early hyped and often delayed title, Alpha Protocol. It has only sold 320,000, and Sega said there would be no sequel. I honestly can say, if it popped up on the PSN for $20, I would be all over it. Other titles as well, especially if they have multi-player, could find purchases. Look at Burnout Paradise. It released onto the PSN for $20, and followed with a bunch of free DLC. When it launched paid DLC, they were usually game changers. Like their take on iconic movie cars, and whole new island. The price of the game made me want to buy the DLC, because I felt like I was getting every penny’s worth. With the lack of games that came out this summer, some cheap full games for download would have been nice.

It also would put the money back in the developers hands, instead of people finding a cheap used copy. How great would it be, when you fired up the console of your choice to check out your weekly store update, there was a $20 dollar download of Borderlands or Alien vs. Predator starring you in the eyes. It would be hard for me to resist. Thats one of the good and bad things of the DL services. With a few clicks you are downloading. It is kind of like drunk dialing for games. The console manufacturers are rolling out consoles with bigger hard drives, and most multi-platform games run between the 4 and 7 gigabyte size, so the ability is there. What do you guys think, should developers create a DL version along side retail release, and why don’t they? Is it they feel they can compete with the bigger publishers, or are they afraid the manufacturer will make them fix their buggy mess? Tell us what you think. Would you buy more games if they came at a lower price point? What games are you curious about, that a lower price point might get you to pull the trigger?