Hopefully this doesn't become the norm

[entropy13]

Well who am I kidding? It WOULD be the norm. And then bad sales would be caused by piracy.

A game for the PS Vita, Ciel nosurge, would be an "episodic" game. There are 13 "episodes" plus 3 "extra episodes", with only the first "episode" included in the game. Each succeeding episode would be released monthly at ¥500 each.

So the "game" itself (and thus the first episode) is around $65 (current "pre-order" price is $94). And the 15 episodes would be around $98. For a grand total of $163.

 

[NinkobEi]

Well they gotta milk money from the ten people who actually bought the PSP Vita somehow. Can't blame them for trying.

 

[BumbleBee]

Japanese games have always been more expensive because there is no pricing structure.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Very good chance it is going to be a market flop.

 

[TheMailMan78]

The Vita is out? Man I didn't even know. Had a feeling it was gonna be a flop just like the PSP.

 

[BumbleBee]

telltale does episodic content pretty well

 

[entropy13]

Japanese games have always been more expensive because there is no pricing structure.

I'm not even knocking on the prices themselves actually. Especially considering this game is very unlikely to be sold outside of Japan. I only converted them so that people could at least have an idea of what it was worth. The focus is more on being "episodic."

Now imagine if Diablo III is episodic as well. $20 per Act, 4 Acts in total. The first Act is part of the $60 of the "game". So that's $60+$60=$120. If there ever was a "sale" price for the "game", let's say $30 (ZOMG 50% OFF!!!), but no discounts for the Acts (they're not "games", they're DLC), So it's still $90. Still more than a $60 initial retail price for the typically "complete" game. And even if the Acts were also discounted 50%, it's still $60. As if there were no sale prices at all.

And it's not like just some DLC. Because without those DLC you can't really say "I finished the game."

Although actually Blizzard already did something similar, with the three campaigns of SC2 being individual "games" instead of one full game with three campaigns (like SC and SC:BW).

 

[BumbleBee]

Telltale has been doing this for a long time

Sam & Max Save the World (Oct 2006–Apr 2007, 6 episodes)
Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (Nov 2007–April 2008, 5 episodes)
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (Aug-Dec 2008, 5 episodes)
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures (Mar-Jul 2009, 4 episodes)
Tales of Monkey Island (Jul-Dec 2009, 5 episodes)
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Apr-Aug 2010, 5 episodes)
Hector: Badge of Carnage (June 2010-Fall 2011, 3 episodes)
Back to the Future: The Game (December 2010-June 2011, 5 episodes)

Back to the Future: The Game was $20 or $25 and $5 per episode

am I missing something?

 

[xenocide]

The Vita is out? Man I didn't even know. Had a feeling it was gonna be a flop just like the PSP.

It's only out in Japan, and not selling too well. I would honestly rather have a PS Vita than a 3DS though. At least a Vita and PSP are noticably different, where as the 3DS is just a DSi with crappy 3D.

 

[Wyverex]

TellTale does episodic content pretty well

Yup! 5 episodes of Back to the Future for $20 was awesome (and $1 of that went to charity if I remember correctly)

 

[BumbleBee]

they recently released Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park: The Game (November 2011, 4 episodes)

the only difference I see is price but it's Japan so /shrugs

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Lol the Vita is using a 3 year old graphics card. Laaaame!

Think I'll pass.

 

[entropy13]

Telltale has been doing this for a long time

Sam & Max Save the World (Oct 2006–Apr 2007, 6 episodes)
Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (Nov 2007–April 2008, 5 episodes)
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (Aug-Dec 2008, 5 episodes)
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures (Mar-Jul 2009, 4 episodes)
Tales of Monkey Island (Jul-Dec 2009, 5 episodes)
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Apr-Aug 2010, 5 episodes)
Hector: Badge of Carnage (June 2010-Fall 2011, 3 episodes)
Back to the Future: The Game (December 2010-June 2011, 5 episodes)

Back to the Future: The Game was $20 or $25 and $5 per episode

am I missing something?

Yes. What's the point of listing that? To say that Telltale was doing it already? Was I saying that "episodic" releases was something new? NO. All I said was that it hopefully doesn't become the norm. And even if we, "adjust" prices from the Japanese prices...it bodes badly for prices of games if others (especially in the West) follow suit. And your Telltale games aren't exactly expensive anyway.

Really, just f**kin' hell BumbleBee, are you simply a gender-bender FordGT90Concept?

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Whoa man... easy now.

 

[BumbleBee]

haha

 

[Kreij]

Now imagine if Diablo III is episodic as well. $20 per Act, 4 Acts in total. The first Act is part of the $60 of the "game". So that's $60 $60=$120.

You mean like Starcraft 2?

 

[xenocide]

You mean like Starcraft 2?

SC2 is the only example of this model that I agree with. That is mainly because the Campaign in WoL was pretty damn entertaining, and had a ton of replay value. If HoS and whatever the Protoss version is are nearly as lengthy, I will have no complaints. The big issue is whether or not they actually add new content. HoS will completely rebalance the Multiplayer side of SC2, as well as adding a whole new Single Player Campaign. If they were just adding a Single Player Campaign, and charging $60, I would say it was an outrage.

 

[1Kurgan1]

You mean like Starcraft 2?

If it was like SC II they would also space each Act years apart That would be great, lol.

 

[ViperXTR]

so where is my HL2 ep3? '__'
oh wait... wrong thread? D:

 

[entropy13]

You mean like Starcraft 2?

You mean you didn't read the last sentence in that post?

 

[driver66]

This sounds like COD.... just cheaper......

 

[yogurt_21]

seems to be the norm already, Half Life 2, Starcraft 2, Even Mass Effect 2's DLC Arrival (which is cruicial to the opening of ME3 rumor has it) is in that same vein.

It's a way of making MMO style updates to single player games.

personally I would prefer a subscription cloud based single player, where you sign in and pay like an mmo but don't have to deal with or see other people. Your game still plays out like a single player but content updates come down like an mmo.

This for me would end up far cheaper, ie 2 month subscription for 15$ a month after everything has been released compared with 60$ + 30$ +30$ + 30$ +.........

as with Blizzard it seems that no matter how long the game has been out, you still pay the same price.

then again I could just forget the mainstream and go completely indie as my wallet seems to like that better and even blizzards mmo's seem to want to charge for expansions when the whole point of an mmo is paying a subscription monthly that should cover those expansions.

 

[Cheeseball]

Considering Surge Concerto is a dating sim/visual novel where you can also take care of an avatar (like The Sims), the replay value would be quite high (especially for otakus) with just the first episode alone. I'm guessing the episodic content would add more locations, additional story features, etc.

$163 for a 13-episode dating sim is seriously long. Fate/Stay Night (another JPN visual novel) was ~$60 and it only had 3 paths, but was quite long to romp through.