Posted on: January 8th, 2010 [Bx4VG]: 360 to get a virtual arcade.

For the week of January 03 – 09: 360/PC to get a virtual arcade.

Long time no see. I trust everyone had a safe and happy holiday. After a surprisingly strong year for games, we are getting dropped into a oddly busy first quarter for 2010. Much like the Borg, the game industry shares a hive mind. Let’s release everything in time for US thanksgiving! Oh. No wait, there’s a lot there like every year. Let’s wait until Q1!

I welcome the forming trend of using the whole calendar to plan game releases instead of Christmas and end of quarters. Big games at the end of the year, polish uppers and late releases in spring, big downloadable releases in the summer and surprises peppered elsewhere.

I don’t actually get around to playing a lot of the big releases, which is why you don’t see me reviewing them, but the game that had me hooked like no other in ‘09 was ‘Splosion Man. I didn’t even plan on buying it, but a friend wanted to play co-op and I aim to please. Eventually I ended up playing compulsively every night until I saw the glorious credits.

I wouldn’t say it was the best game of ‘09, but it had me the most hooked out of all I played.

Game Room

Microsoft has announced this week that they’re planning on rolling out a virtual arcade this spring called Game Room to the 360 and PC. Much like Sony’s failed Home experiment, Game Room will be an environment you can take your avatar through and interact with others, only this time, the focus will be on playing classic arcade and console games.

You’re given the option to buy the arcade games to populate your own Game Room for 3 bucks each, or drop some quarters in an play by the round. Only problem is that they’re asking for 50 cents a play. Last I checked, these old ass games were a quarter. I understand they want you to just buy the game for $3, but staying in the spirit of the arcade, 25 cents is the only acceptable amount of cents to charge to play Centipede.

I think it’s an interesting idea, especially with the incorporation of leader boards, but my problem boils down to the same thing every time I’m asked to participate in downloaded content. What’s going to happen to my investment down the road? How long will it be supported and what happens when that ends? Since the games are priced low, do people not care if one day they won’t have access to the content they’ve payed for? Some people probably not, but for myself, this is just another reason why I like to own my games proper. Something I can keep and pull out and play no matter the year.

I think Microsoft is also overlooking the potential to add value to Gold account members of Live. Not by limiting access, but by doing something like giving an hour a week free play to Gold members. Then if we want to play further, there’s the option to buy it and add it to your library.

What do you think about Game Room? Excited for leaderboards or doomed to the same fate as Home?

Dale can also be found over at www.8bitcyclops.com, looking at design, photography and old video game magazines.

2 Responses to “[Bx4VG]: 360 to get a virtual arcade.”

1. Adam B. Says:
   January 8th, 2010 at 7:26 pm

   Well, from a business perspective, it makes perfect sense. From a “hardcore” gamer’s perspective, I’m not really all that excited for it. It will be fun to mess around with (especially for older gamers), but I don’t think younger gamers will have that much interest in, aside from a few titles. It’s not going to have Donkey Kong, probably one of the greatest arcade games ever. I also worry about what will happen after the next Xbox ___ is released. Will these games transfer over? Do our props/animals carry over into the Game Room? Can we play them without having to enter the arcade? Also, if I purchase one copy I should be able to play it on both my 360 and PC. No reason we should have to pay twice for the same game when the Game Room will be on both. Overall it seems like it’s going to be poorly implemented just for more $. I could be wrong, though.

2. dale Says:
   January 9th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

   My thoughts exactly. I could see myself getting into some games if my friends are competing for top score, but I can’t see myself investing a lot of time and money into this. By making it about customizing your avatar and decking out your space with microtransations, it sounds like a younger crowd type activity. But when the games are all from a generation these kids don’t have any nostalgia for, are they going to be into the games as well? It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.

   And, right, does this content carry over to the next console? It better or they’re going to lose the confidence of everyone the next time they try pulling something like this again.

   (Also, I think if you pay a buck more ($4) the games will be accessible on both 360 and PC)

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