360 Arcade Title Addon Packs, Themes, King Kong Demo

[bapenguin]

According to Major Nelson (http://www.majornelson.com/) there's a bunch of new content up on Market Place. First up are 2 theme packs for Bejeweled and Hexic (http://www.majornelson.com/2006/02/13/hexic-and-bejeweled-2-theme-packs/).

Next up are content packs for Crystal Quest (http://www.majornelson.com/2006/02/13/crystal-quest-marketplace-content-now-available/).

Fight Night 3 gets in on the action (http://www.majornelson.com/2006/02/13/fight-night-round-3-picture-packs-and-themes/) as well with themes and pics.

And finally, we have the demo for King Kong (http://www.majornelson.com/2006/02/13/king-kong-demo/) available to download.

100 points for the Crystal Quest content seems kinda steep. Especially if you buy all the content it comes out to more than the cost of the game. On top of that, the game was only released a week ago, a bit too early for content.

[bean19]

I was looking at these yesterday. . . played a bunch of demos, etc.

While I really liked the space station game (where you provide galactic lemonade) and the Marble rolling game, but I totally didn't want to spend $10 on either of them.

I'll probably get Geometry Wars at some point. I could spend $10 on that, but some of the other games just don't seem to be competitively priced. $10 is not a lot of money, but it's more than I want to throw on a diversion.

I think Crystal Quest is more for people who are nostalgic for it. . . Geometry Wars provides fairly similar gameplay but is way more fun.

[Taco]

Cell phones have shown that most people(or at least enough) will overpay for dumb things. I was hoping we'd trend away from that in both cell phones and other tech mediums.

Are people really pleased to see this for the 360? If the marketplace didn't exist, or if this was a PC game, you'd be getting that content pack as part of the initial release. For free.

[Felonous]

I say that Microsoft should ride their marketplace and ride it hard. Because we all KNOW it is only a matter of time before the system is hacked and people will be getting all those gamerpics, themes and arcade games unlocked for free...

:)

[bean19]

Are people really pleased to see this for the 360? If the marketplace didn't exist, or if this was a PC game, you'd be getting that content pack as part of the initial release. For free.

Some of it certainly. . . but other bits that are just "cool" just wouldn't ever get made because there wouldn't be a dollar sign associated with them.

There is a LOT of crap in the mix though. I was browsing and there are multiple pages of downloadable gametag icons from sports games. They need to put these in folders or provide us with some other filter. Of course, I won't EVER pay for a silly gamertag or theme (okay, MAYBE I'll get a Penny Arcade one eventually. . . but I like paying Gabe and Tycho for their work since it brings me so much joy).

You make a really good point about the service being aimed at people who spend foolishly. I definitely agree with that, but I also think that we wouldn't see some of these things offered at all if not for the service, and a small number of them are really cool (for instance all of the Christmas costumes for all of you creatures in Kameo are awesome). They wouldn't have done that if there wasn't potential to earn back the artist's costs.

[MrMeatshake]

a bit OT, but me and my mates were thinking about these microsoft points. they're worth about a cent each, yes? these would be perfect as online gambling chips! :) i don't know if microsoft would be down with the whole gambling for (nearly) real money, but i'd like the idea of going into a live game of poker and trying to win more of these things, so that i can then use to buy (crap i don't need /) content on live. does any one know if there's any plans to do this kind of thing, or if you already can?

[bapenguin]

a bit OT, but me and my mates were thinking about these microsoft points. they're worth about a cent each, yes? these would be perfect as online gambling chips! :) i don't know if microsoft would be down with the whole gambling for (nearly) real money, but i'd like the idea of going into a live game of poker and trying to win more of these things, so that i can then use to buy (crap i don't need /) content on live. does any one know if there's any plans to do this kind of thing, or if you already can?

This may happen. From the rumors I'm hearing Texas Holdem is going to be free when that comes out in a few weeks or so.

[Mortis]

The V-Rex portion of the King Kong demo is bugged, the people just stand there and none of the events are triggered. I played it for about 10 minutes trying to figure out wtf to do, so I read a FAQ on the game and found out what was supposed to happen wasn't working.

[torrefaction]

Gah. There's not enough content. There's too much content too soon! People are funny.

In all seriousness, this a good thing. As far as "too soon" for content...I don't agree. Crystal Quest is an ancient game, so they're probably trying to spur people towards it by keeping it "in the news". And I think people are maybe missing the mark. I might by one or two things here and there, and so might you. The point is to have a broad enough set of content that the one-offs add up. That means being extremely content rich. It makes a lot of sense, and I hope they keep it up.

More organization is neccesary though. There's probably something I want to download from all that, there's just too much of what I consider trite nonsense (I'm sure someone elsewhere disagrees. They MUST have the PDZ Gamerpic...hence the point of the business model).

[askheaves]

I don't like that movie trailers are catagorized under XBox Dashboard something or other. That makes me think patches and features, not MI:3 trailer. That, and every trailer is doubled since there's a 480p and 720p version (IIRC), so more cruft that I can't use.

In less that 6 months, if content continues coming in, that organization system will be unmanageable.

And where is my damned Ghost Recon demo?

[Mortis]

And where is my damned Ghost Recon demo?

It is supposed to be coming a week before the games release. There is a news post on the main page here with the info.

[Cubfan]

Played through King Kong (the full length, not the demo), and thought it was a fun diversion. It was well produced, but the gameplay was pretty shallow. The FPS sections of the game could easily have been fleshed out more (very repetitive) and while the King Kong parts looked fabulous, I felt a disconnect between the controls and the character's on screen response, and the camera was a bit gimpy. Overall it didn't quite meet my expectations based on the positive reviews.

And that Jack Black npc sure would run like the dickens. I had a hard time following him. He was like Benny Hill.

[if76]

Where is Gish? No seriously

[Pluvious]

Just as I expected.. *** is nickel and diming you guys to death. $10 for a mini game??..

[bapenguin]

Just as I expected.. *** is nickel and diming you guys to death. $10 for a mini game??..

Crystal Quest is 5 bucks.

[Hizawky]

Just as I expected.. *** is nickel and diming you guys to death. $10 for a mini game??..

I did not quite see your point until I saw the $ sign.

Touche.

[bean19]

Just as I expected.. *** is nickel and diming you guys to death. $10 for a mini game??..

Yeah. It sucks. . .

Well, you can also play most of them for free. . . if you don't mind only getting to play a few levels and not earning acheivement points.

It's a good service really, but I think they are pricing themselves out of sells. There will be games that I buy through it probably, but I'd have bought the space station game (Koliki something something) and the marble jumping game (Marble something something) if they were only $5.

Maybe for everyone one of me, maybe there is a person willing to pay twice as much and that works out for them. . . but I bet there aren't. I think a lot of people will impulse shop at $5 a pop, but will not at $10 a pop since that $10 could also be spent on a really good used PS2 game instead.

[Pluvious]

Exactly my point. They are just too greedy for their own good. At $2 to $5 they would sell so many that it would make up for the low price. Get everyone hooked on dropping a few bucks and THEN start to raise the price in a year or two. Shame shame ***.

[Achilles]

Exactly my point. They are just too greedy for their own good. At $2 to $5 they would sell so many that it would make up for the low price. Get everyone hooked on dropping a few bucks and THEN start to raise the price in a year or two. Shame shame ***.Charging $10 for something with 100 levels is greedy (Marble Blast)? And that space station game actually has multiple free campagins and it's pretty involved, not some kind of mini-game. They were pricing themselves out of the market when they were charging $25 for arcade games back on the Xbox, these prices are just fine as the sales have shown.

[Pumped'Up]

this sucks - man, MS sure enjoys making their customers bend over...