Mass Effect - Bring Down the Sky Now Available

It's not so much about the money, it's about the system. I looked at the article and there's no mention of 400 point ($5) cards.

In the United States, most video game retailers also sell pre-paid cards with a value of 1,600 Microsoft Points. These have a retail price of $20.00. Purchasing one of these gives a cost of ($0.0125 per point), which is the same as purchasing online ($0.0125 per point). Additionally, cards with a value of 4,000 points are also available, with a retail price of $50.00 (also $0.0125 per point).

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It's important to point this out because everyone is saying this is $5, but Microsoft won't let you buy $5 in points. They also screw users by selling points in $10/$25 intervals when the points system makes everything divisible by 8. It's the old hot dogs come in packages of 8 while hot dog buns come in packages of 10. You only come out even when you buy $40 worth on the XBox.

mactbone said:

They also screw users by selling points in $10/$25 intervals when the points system makes everything divisible by 8.

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That is the real issue - I know that people think that critics are just MS bashing, but that misses the point.

Microsoft has a system with inherent profit (nothing wrong with that) and structures it in a way that will generally have 'extra points' in the system, thereby making them more money.

In addition, it is clear that they incentivize developers and publishers to offer DLC for games, which again is fine, but much of the game-linked content (e.g. Horse Armor, Tiger Woods tutorials, *everything* about Lumines, etc) reeks of either hold-backs or price gouging. So when something like this comes along, I have seen people in articles off-hand mentioning that they aren't sure if it was added, not ready at release or held back for DLC.

I don't know if this matters to this conversation, but "Bring Down the Sky" wasn't a hold-back from Mass Effect. There was a plot originally similar to this planned, but it was cut both for time and because it would let the game fit onto one disk. When the idea of "rock headed for planet" was revived for DLC, everything about the plot was rewritten, and the scope was dramatically increased to make it more than a normal uncharted world. (The batarians were added in as villains after so many users posted about wanting to see them.)

So while the core idea was held back, it wasn't held back as a "screw people over" gesture, and it definitely couldn't have gone out in the normal game the way it went out as DLC.

PatrickWeekes said:

I don't know if this matters to this conversation, but "Bring Down the Sky" wasn't a hold-back from Mass Effect.

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I really never thought it was - but early stuff and the way Microsoft runs the program (i.e. one hand in your wallet) makes it a question in everyone's mind ... there are too few examples of stuff like this or the songs for Guitar Hero III ... and too much Horse Armor.