Penny Arcade XBLA game priced at $20
by Terrence Stasse 
{ Mar 27th 2008 at 8:00PM }
The XBLA game with the overly long title of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One finally got some real details. Hothead games, the developer, released the game's final price, $19.99 (1600 MSpts). It remains to be see how the game will sell with a relatively high (for an XBLA game) price. It also remains to be seen what form of episodic game Penny Arcade Adventures will end up being. With a price of twenty dollars it seems more likely to be Half Life 2 style episodes (which debuted at the same price). The only other real episodic gaming example that would apply would be the Sam and Max episodes. Those however are $8.95 and have a monthly release cycle. What path PAA takes remains to be seen, but if it does end up following the Half Life 2 model, expect at least a trilogy of games with an overarching story across them all.Via Joystiq
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Deck @ Mar 27th 2008 8:15PM
Its a lot more than just a basic XBLA game. It seems to have quite a bit more depth and hey, its Penny-Arcade! But that being said, I don't think it will "click" quite as much on XBLA because of that high price tag. Most people wont be willing to drop 20 bucks on what they will consider an "XBLA" game even though its more than that.
Myself.. I actually will probably pick it up for the PC. Where in that case, 20 bucks is pretty cheap. :-p
xenocidic @ Mar 27th 2008 8:17PM
I'll gladly pay 1600 microsoft points for this game. I've gotten hours and hours of laughter out of Penny Arcade, and I've clicked on his ads maybe once. It's the least I can do.
The game is going to be ace.
manicbomber @ Mar 27th 2008 8:24PM
I have no interest in this game. Penny-Arcade have been raving hypocrites lambasting the prices of items on the Xbox Live service, but I never saw them mark down any of their several picture packs or themes. Now they are going to come out with an Xbox Live Arcade game (it's not more than an Xbox Live Arcade game, and that's really the most ridiculous thing I've read all day) for $20? Let the hypocrisy continue to roll!
Brian Fantana @ Mar 27th 2008 8:29PM
I gota agree with manicbomber, I do remember them talking about the high prices of XBLA games. Isn't this the highest a game has been priced?
EC @ Mar 27th 2008 8:40PM
Why is it that people freak out when an arcade game is over 800 points? I really don't get it.
Just to make this price seem better, HotHead has said (on Gamespots recent podcast) that this game will be around 8-10 hours of gameplay.
Hm, that seems to be a bit better then most 60 dollar games on the market!
I don't think it's fair to compare it to Sam and Max. Those games are awesome, but they are only around 10 because they are a few hours a piece.
iHomer @ Mar 27th 2008 8:42PM
FAIL!
manicbomber @ Mar 27th 2008 8:51PM
The whole 8-10 hours of game play fails pretty fast when you consider how many games on the Xbox Live Arcade have that many hours and more for 800 points (and less).
It's also pretty ridiculous to forget about the 1200 point increment.
Just remember this is from the same people who raved about "micro transactions" and how they were going to adopt it, and how it was the wave of the future. Then Xbox Live did, and now it's "the micro transactions are too expensive, but keep buying all of our stuff on the service".
Mr.ESC @ Mar 27th 2008 8:52PM
o-0
For their sake it better be good.
LuckyEMS @ Mar 27th 2008 8:55PM
Penny Arcade is shit and this game will be just as bad
guess i just prefer long storylines instead of shit jokes
Tony @ Mar 27th 2008 9:00PM
I can't even imagine bitching about most XBLA game prices. $5 or $10 isn't necessarily very sustainable in the long run to begin with. Some of these games are no less deep than something people would have otherwise paid two to three times for in previous generations or even on handhelds... I mean, shit, look at the PC versions of some of the same titles, most of them cost twice as much or more. We suddenly have this market of cheap ass games that are sometimes actually very good and people are still upset about it.
$20 for this isn't terrible, but it is funny given their previous complaints. I thought it might hit at 1200 points, but I don't think this is unfair.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Mar 27th 2008 9:00PM
Seems like a bit much for the first of probably many episodes.. I'm going to hold out to see how they decide to do the rest of the releases.
anton @ Mar 27th 2008 9:14PM
Oh for the love of....
That's great for you US people who can buy your points in reasonable incriments. Over here in Australia we can only buy points in 1500 or 3000 point blocks.
the 1200 point price point makes more sense simply because it puts it in line with the Xbox classic games.
Oh, and in a stroke of marketing genius - 1500 points costs $24.95, 3000 points costs $54.95 which drunk idiot figured that out?
SadisticHam @ Mar 27th 2008 9:40PM
@manicbomber Agree. Wont even bother with the demo, this could have a golden toilet with lots of sexy naked lady's dancing around and moaning and I'd not look twice. Not interested, i could buy an xbox 360 classic for the same price.
@ anton I feel for you, the morons that are making the decisions in Europe have given the UK two options as well; 1700 or 4000 odd, it works out ok for us in this situation but if we want a bloody 400 point arcade game we have to pay out £17-18 to get it.
For any Americans wondering that $5 arcade title? It works out at $36 roughly cause they refuse to give us any lower point cards. It's a scam.
Bac0nator @ Mar 27th 2008 9:50PM
penny arcade = lame.
Gemini Ace @ Mar 27th 2008 10:35PM
Unless this includes all future episodic content, it is an epic fail. If anybody was going to give us a decent price, I figured it would be PA.
Don Wilson @ Mar 27th 2008 10:43PM
"... and hey, it's Penny Arcade" doesn't turn me into wanting to waste $20 for an XBLA game. They just lost one customer, sorry!
Mr.ESC @ Mar 27th 2008 10:43PM
Just because I would like to join the Global complain line in México we have only have the 1500P cards and as everyone notice most games cost 800p meaning that if I want to buy 2 800p games the same day I would have to buy 2 points cards.Basically instead of just buying 1 card to buy both games I have to buy another card. 200 pesos = 1500p so each point cost 7.50 pesos.
Yes I can buy points online but giving my credit card number to MS yeah right ¬¬
Prox @ Mar 27th 2008 11:31PM
$20 is WAAAAY too high for an XBLA game. I love Penny Arcade, but there's no way this game contains $20 worth of content w/in the 150 MB limit for an XBLA title.
They just lost another customer.
andrew @ Mar 28th 2008 12:00AM
$20 is way too much for an XBLA game. However, this thing is going to sell like hotcakes and you know it. There are way too many Penny Arcade fans for this to fail. The only way I'll pay the $20 is if it's a fantastic game, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Xav de Matos @ Mar 28th 2008 12:28AM
I was going to grab this anyway and 1600 MS points is in line with the model they were going for on the PC. These episodes are going to be spread apart a lot further than Sam and Max is, so this looks like a good value to me.
iFester @ Mar 28th 2008 12:59AM
Xav, do you buy the 1400, 2800 cards or use a CC when purchasing stuff of the Canadian marketplace? I don't think $20 is overkill, but I think this might be past the 150mb cap. What's worse than a $20 arcade game? $220 CND for a 120g HDD to save said game to. ;)
mike @ Mar 28th 2008 2:03AM
It sucks having to buy 1400 point cards here, We need to buy 4 of these points cards and 7 arcade games just to even out. Ive only purchased 3 points cards since the xbox came out and I still only bought 3 arcade games. Looks like it might be a while before I even out still.
Im not buying this penny arcade game. Sorry but 10 hours is not worth $20 when it comes to gaming. I bought N+ for only $10 and that has a level editor which provides hundreds of hours of gaming. Besides, I hate PA. They were let thier fame go to their heads. They were way better when they just started out.
Eric @ Mar 28th 2008 4:49AM
I sympathize with the fact that Xbox Live Arcade games, some of which are ten hours or more, are priced at 800 or 1200 points but it doesn't necessarily mean this game won't be worth it.
I mean, if you take the same exact game and put it on the PC for 20 dollars it all of the sudden becomes a reasonable price point given the fact that two episodes of Sam and Max, adding up to about 10 hours or less combined, goes for the same price.
The game hasn't been released yet so we have no way of knowing whether this game is good or bad but you have to accept that some game's may be worth more than that 1200 point limit that seems to have been set up by dev so far.
Neuromancer @ Mar 28th 2008 7:56AM
Value is a hard and subjective thing to determine, a $5 XBLA game like Uno can be a better "value" in terms of enjoyment and hours played than a $60 retail title (Turning Point: Fall of Liberty for example). That said, no matter how good this game is you have to feel that Tycho and Gabe are pretty hyprocritical in that they are the first to cry foul when a price for anything is too high and their debut game is the most expensive game on the XBLA.
Ciaran Gallagher @ Mar 28th 2008 9:08AM
For those in the UK, that's £18 or $36! There are numerous great full-length Xbox 360 games I could buy instead.. eg. Amped 3, PGR4, Condemned, Hitman, PGR3, COD's, Flatout...
It would have to be extremely good for that price! Which it obviously won't be, so you can definitely count me out and I'm sure every other sane person too...