Is Pac-Man Championship Edition worth 800 Points? While Microsoft debates complaints, gamers make 40 Ghosts combo
Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live has reportedly countered user complaints by explaining why Pac-Man Championship Edition costs twice as much as most retro games at 800 Microsoft Points (that’s $10 / €9.60 / £6.80).
In the interview at Gamescoreblog, he said that although some Xbox 360 owners are unhappy with the price point, he felt the game was worth the cash: “Namco came to us with what they thought the content price should be and I do not disagree with it costing 800 points. There’s actually a lot of work from a lot of people to bring it all together.”
He explained that, unlike most retro titles on Arcade, Championship Edition isn’t simply a graphical update for a classic game. Instead, plenty of effort has gone into adding new modes, new mazes and high-definition graphics that take full advantage of widescreen TVs.
Greenberg also revealed how proud Microsoft was to have been supported by Namco-Bandai and to see Pac-Man’s original game designer Toru Iwatani create brand new levels for Championship Edition before he retires from the videogames industry and starts teaching. To quote IGN: “I think Pac-Man: Championship Edition will go down in history. It’s Toru Iwatani’s gift to the world, even the hardcore gamers have been blown away by how good it is.”
Meanwhile gamers have indeed been eating up the game as much as Pac-Man loves eating dots. Watch this mad skils video that shows Pac-Man’s 40 Ghosts chomping combo:
Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it full-screen.
What the Microsoft interview doesn’t mention is that if Namco Bandai charged 400 Points, then they wouldn’t have much profit left after Microsoft’s 30% fee on all Xbox Live Arcade games (I believe it was that percentage). So it just makes financial sense for them to not lose money on a new game. That being said, I agree with the general consensus that it’s an amazing game, but won’t become a must-have until they halve the 800 Points price, maybe in the future they can do a discount week and see how much more Pac-Man CE downloads they sell?
Categories: Interviews, News, Videos
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