Microsoft Money

There are a few great Microsoft Game Studios titles coming out. I know they're not being completely developed by Microsoft, but they are being published by them. Blue Dragon and Mass Effect are the two bigger ones coming out this year and there is also Forza Motorsports 2, which came out earlier this summer. My complaint is with the pricing of these titles. Microsoft went all out when the Xbox 360 first came out. Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power were all first party published games that came out at 50 dollars. The trend continued with Ninety Nine Nights and Viva Pinata. Then came Gears of War. Now, I understand a high-caliber game deserves a premium price. I can't really remember what logic Microsoft tried to use last year when asked to justify the price for Gears, but I remember it being a pretty lame excuse. Now it's the future and all that big talk about first party published games being 10 dollars cheaper are barely a memory. Microsoft has basically abandoned their lower price point on the games all for a except the stellar title Fuzion Frenzy 2. Now I know those 50 dollar games are not exactly must haves. It just feels like Microsoft is admitting to putting out less than great games. I understand the higher price for Gears and I won't ever complain at all for Halo 3. But please, Microsoft, help us out. For games that you know aren't going to completely fly off the shelves, give the game buying fanatics a price break on them and also make the price lower so that new players will go and try something new. I at least expect Microsoft to release Too Human at 49.99.

Now I know after reading this, there will be some who talking about Nintendo and their charging 50 dollars for every Mario spin-off and mediocre game (Geist, Battalion Wars, Chibi-Robo). But that's how it's always been and I've either bought them at 50 or waited until the inevitable price drop. For the Microsoft situation, a big deal was made at launch about the First Party Published Titles being only 50. I remember being very excited and I had a very positive mood about the 360 launch and Microsoft. I just have that feeling that I wish they would have never give us the 50 dollar game. It's like something if you never had, you don't know what you're missing. But now that they've given it to us and taken it away, I hold more of a grudge against them.

For those who don't remember what I'm talking about - [Article]