Work on Breath of Death VII is going well. Most of the game’s graphics are finished as well as a good chunk of the game engine. We’re hoping to have a beta version of the game done within a couple of weeks at which point we’ll have many more screenshots to show off.
Sorry about the lack of reviews lately. Between working hard on BoD7 (trying to get it finished in time for the Dream-Build-Play contest at the beginning of March) and some problems with my computer (going to get a new one soon), it’s been difficult to get on. Hopefully, this will change shortly.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about BoD7’s pricing. It was a hard decision, but in the end, we decided to go with the lowest price point and place it in the 80 MS points ($1) bracket. Now, some could argue that with a game in a popular genre that is poorly represented on the service, we might be able to make more money with a higher price point, but in the end, my analysis of sales data from other games seems to indicate that the average consumer views XBLIGs as a place to pick up $1 game diversions. Sure, there are a few exceptions (like the music creation software, ezMuze), but for the most part, good games get ignored unless they’re $1. So the pricing decision is part altruism (let’s give everyone a great game for a really low price) and part self-interest (the increased sales should more than make up for the lowered amount of profit per game sold).
And to go with that, I’d just like to comment on the thought that the race to the bottom with pricing is a bad thing. I hear developers talk about how they can’ t afford to price their games at lower prices and then watch them crash and burn as their game fails in the marketplace, largely due to their price. It’s not that you can’t afford to price your games at a lower price, it’s that you can’t afford not to. Take Pixeljunk Monsters Deluxe for the PSP. Fantastic tower defense game with tons of content that you could easily spend week after week trying to master and finish. $20 price tag. It’s failing big time on the PSN and I’m sure the price tag is the primary reason – people see the high price tag and are scared away, even though if they actually bought the game, they’d probably find it to be well worth the money.
With all of the many options available to gamers (both free and otherwise), your average gamer is going to be looking for ways to justify against buying your game. Your job is to remove his excuses. Picking a low price point is a great method to that end.
