Zombies Ate My Xbox

It wasn’t that long ago that Microsoft were announcing a price rise for the lowest tier of Xbox LIVE games on the Windows Phone, a move which thankfully never seemed to come to fruition.

Since then a number of games including big titles like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds have actually been reduced in price to the vital $0.99 (£0.79) price line, bringing them more or less in line with their equivalents on iPhone and Android.

I haven’t read any reasoning from Microsoft about this (saying it provides ‘more options for gamers‘ doesn’t count) but it feels like a pretty big departure from their pricing strategy, which was based on giving games a bigger value to increase their perceived ‘worth’ (railing against the cheapness of the ‘dollar game’ ala Nintendo) and also giving a premium value to the Xbox LIVE brand and the presence of achievements.

Obviously it’s not worked to the degree they would have liked or else they wouldn’t be introducing a new range of $0.99 Xbox LIVE games, including new ones just being released.

Next week Droplitz Delight is being released, after already finding success on the Xbox 360 through Xbox LIVE Arcade. Not only will it come with achievements and be priced at just $0.99, it is actually a dollar cheaper than its Android counterpart.

This move may in part be based on the fact that it seems the vast majority of Windows Phone users are not actually dedicated Xbox LIVE gamers*, and therefore the lure of achievements has not been the pull they hoped for. Consequently the premium Microsoft thought they could charge for games with achievements is a lot smaller (try non-existent for most people).

Of course, for those of us who actually do like achievements the new price scheme is wonderful, as it matches counterparts on alternative systems and trumps them with the presence of achievements. While newcomers to the Xbox LIVE system may not be lured by the presence of achievements, I’ve little doubt the bulk of them will enjoy the experience of unlocking them and it could give a sustained edge to Windows Phone compared its iPhone and Android competitors.

On top of this, of course, we have the steadily increasing number of free Xbox LIVE games. Most of these have been average at best, but Wordament is comfortably one of the best Xbox LIVE games available on the market, while a couple of upcoming games from Glu  look to be of high quality (hopefully much higher than the lamentable Bug Village they also released).

All in all the new pricing strategy from Microsoft for Windows Phone is to be strongly welcomed. It’s a clever move even if it is partially a sign of the slow take-off for Windows Phone so far. Nonetheless bringing the price more in line with competitors while allowing the brand superiority of Xbox LIVE and the presence of achievements to act as extra lures is a good move. I’m hopeful more existing games will be reduced in price while new ones like Droplitz Delight continue to be released on this new low price range.

It’ll be when a AAA title is first released on the $0.99 price range that we’ll know Microsoft are serious about it and aren’t just doing it for games past their peak in sales or games not quite well known enough to charge the big bucks for.

*I’m convinced I read this on WMPowerUser but I’m afraid I can’t find it on the site now. However, the gist of the story was that it turns out the vast bulk of people using Windows Phone aren’t Xbox gamers and therefore weren’t really interested in achievements and the like. The conclusion was that rather than Xbox LIVE driving consumers to Windows Phone, Windows Phone was driving consumers to the Xbox LIVE brand. Given the installed base of Xbox is in the tens of millions this is really quite disappointing, and reflective of the lack of promotion Microsoft has given Windows Phone in the Xbox dashboard and elsewhere.