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Microsoft: XBLA Game Prices Rising Slowly
With recent releases like the incredible Bastion, it's undeniable that the quality of downloadable games is sharply increasing. XBLA is host to dozens of amazing downloadable titles, but over time customers have steadily paid more for the digital delights.
"If you look at Live Arcade, and do the math, and look at the publicly available sales numbers, you can see that average prices on XBLA have crept up over the last few years, which has been an interesting trend because on some app markets there's been a race to zero as fast as possible," Chris Charla, Xbox Live Arcade's portfolio director, told gameindustry.biz.
Take a look below to see how exactly downloadable games priced at 1200 MS Points ($15) have increased in number:
- 2009: 21 out of 86 games priced at 1200 MS Points
- 2010: 27 out of 85 games priced at 1200 MS Points
- 2011: 20 games released by half of the year priced at 1200 MS Points
"We've seen a little bit of the opposite happening," he continues. "I don't really know where prices are going to go - ultimately, that's set by the market - but it has been really gratifying to see that people are willing to a premium price for digital content."
Many of the games on XBLA offer worthwhile experiences that are a refreshing change of pace form sometimes predictable big budget retail blockbusters. The scope and length of downloadable games appears to be the biggest differentiators, While my wallet always whines whenever I see prices increase, I'm happy to fork over $15 instead of the standard $60 to dive into a great new experience.
What do you think about this steady increase? Would you consistently download $20 games if the games keep getting better??
[Via Joystiq]
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