GamerBytes: XBL Indie Games Prices Change - Now 80, 240, 400MSP ($1, $3, $5USD)
The XBL Community Games as of today are now officially Xbox Live Indie Games, and along with the rebranding some some very substantial changed to the marketplace - including the pricing structure.
For developers, those in Germany and Japan can now be a part of the XNA Creators club and submit their own games - and as of August 11th, when the new dashboard update goes live, those in Japan will also be able to download Indie titles too. Developers will also now be able to send out free codes for their XBL Indie Games - no need to send off $5 to a gaming blog so they can care enough to review your game.
For buyers of XBL Indie Games, a substantial price decrease. It's been well documented that the 800MSP price point appears to be too much for a lot of people looking into these titles. Well no longer - instead of 200, 400 and 800MSP price points Indie Games will now only be able to sell games at 80, 240 and 400MSP - or $1, $3 and $5USD.
Those who are currently on the old pricing structure can now change to the new prices, and on October 22, 2009 they will automatically be changed to their closest price. This is clearly a change made to battle the current iPhone marketplace where $1 games are the norm.
As this has just been announced, those pricing changes haven't come into effect just yet. In the coming weeks we'll make it known which games have changed price, and which ones you should download.
We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that they [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine and half years? It's a learning process. - SCEI president Kaz Hirai
It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, "Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it." So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. - Epic Games president Mike Capps
We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games. - Activision CEO Bobby Kotick
