I may have mistaken the price of Tekken 5 for Calling All Cars, as I did a search and you are correct and Calling All Cars was $10.
Now, I'm not so confused. I know I bought it at $7.99 during a sale.
Tekken 5, which came out nearly two years ago was $20 (and another $10 for just the online add-on).
Also Fatal Inertia EX was $30 which came out about a month before Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, followed shortly after by WipEoutHD which was $20.
Fatal Inertia is insane, as is, in my opinion, Tekken 5 with online. I bought the $20 pack, but I have yet to add the online add-on. That is just my little way of protesting getting charged extra for functionality that should have been built in.
Anyway, I really don't factor in the $15-$30 games with this. If you recall the PS2 had the games that came out at something like $10-$20. They were budget titles that didn't have all the glitz and glamour of full priced titles That is what I consider most of these games. Would I pay $60 for WipEout HD? No, that is too much. But $20 felt like I was stealing. These are the games that would be good enough to put on a disc, but you cannot justify a $50-$60 price tag. In my mind these are a on a tier above the rest. They are big enough to have required a DVD, but too small to justify a Blu-Ray.
Similarly I do not count the full-price titles, like Siren, Warhawk, Burnout Paradise, or S.O.C.O.M. It is a different tier than these small few hundred megabyte games.
There have also been a few $15 games like:
- Jeopardy
- Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
- Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars
- Penny Arcade Adventures: ep1
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
- Penny Arcade Adventures: ep2
- LUMINES Supernova
Two of which got permanent price cuts within just a few months (Jeopardy and Tongue-Tied Battle Cars). Two others I think should get them (Puzzle Quest and Lumines).
I think the fact that the price cuts happened for two of those is a sign that in some instances consumers agree with me. The PSN is still playing the iTunes pricing game on occasion, where prices move around to find the sweet spot. Although, Jeopardy had its own problems. It has to compete with Buzz! Buzz has personality while Jeopardy is apparently devoid of any life, and being multiple choice, made it not even Jeopardy any more. And to date there is no way to add more questions. I am also sure that advertising trophies in the trailer, only to have them be in-game only made a few people angry.
Now when they release Wheel of Fortune I hope they make it feel like the show.
I wonder if anyone has compiled a list of all the PSN games and their prices when they were released as well as when ever they got a price drop?
Wikipedia has a list, but not prices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Network_games
While there are certainly several PSN games that I personally wouldn't buy for $10 and I think it's crazy that they charged $30 for Fatal Inertia, but $10 has been and continues to be the norm for most PSN games, which compared to a few of the poorly reviewed $40-$60 disc based games can be quite a bargain. 👍
I'm not saying there aren't good values to be found at $10. I mean, I bought 1942: Joint Strike and PAIN! at full price and feel they were good. Albeit, 1942 wouldn't be if not for the nostalgia, which John Diamonon from Capcom actually responded to me commenting about it, saying that it was mainly only popular with the fans of the original. I've even bough the nickle and dime add-ons for PAIN! and High Velocity Bowling. Had I realized how good HVB was I would have bought that at full price early on too.
My issue is with games like the three recently released by Tik Games and Creat Games. Cuboid - basically a remake of a Flash game. Mah Jong - $10, for Mah Jong? Magic Ball - it's Breakout with personality.
Now, that said, I did finally beat all the levels of Magic Ball last night and seeing how devilishly difficult they made it on the harder levels (are your kids able to do anything with those?) I see that they may have justified their price. 48 levels, with about 5-10 requiring multiple attempts is more than I expected. And my wife likes it, which is a bonus.
My thing is that I look at these and think that if you put them in SD you wouldn't lose any gameplay and would then be able to put it on a PS1. (Note: I have not attempted Magic Ball online yet.) With that in mind, I am thinking that HD graphics and online functionality is not worth double the price. $7.99 maybe.
But maybe I get too picky. I mean I am debating a $2 difference in value.
I guess I just want some price variance based on what the game is. Cuboid is far different than Echochrome, but they are the same price. Magic Ball is not nearly as complex as PAIN (it is sort of a Breakout game...sort of) but they are the same price. Perhaps I am just not happy with the fact that the flexibility a virtual marketplace allows is not being taken advantage of.
Or, maybe I just need to realize they are similarly priced but for different audiences. Your kids love Magic Ball, but would likely get bored with PAIN (assuming you let them play the innuendo fest) in a matter of minutes. They have similar value for different people.
And I think I just talked myself out of my argument.
While they don't have much in the way of replay value, Penny Arcade Adventures: OTRSPOD part 1 and 2 (of 4) are some of the funniest games I've ever played, though they are NOT for young'ns, due to the hilariously gratuitous swearing and gore. While a lot of the puzzle games and dual-stick shooters on the PSN will give you more hours of enjoyment, these feel more like full-featured games. Remember quality > quantity.
A question about these: Are they worth it? I mean, if all four episodes came out for $60 on Blu-Ray would you buy it, assuming you didn't pay for the first two already?
I was really hoping for a demo because I find it hard to hand over $15 an episode to guys who are famous for popularizing game-themed Webcomics.
) has now been fixed. These are a lot better than 1/4th a $60 retail game 
No, and I sure hope no-one was spying on ours either 
