So with the recent change in Microsoft’s policy allowing for a retail game to have a total of 1,250 points (1,000 to start, 250 available as an add on via downloadable content), I start to wonder if this is just to get more of you achievement junkies to pay for downloadable content that you might not have purchased previously.
Two games come to mind when I think about this topic. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Let’s start with Oblivion first. For about $30.00, and is supposed to give you about 30 hours worth of new content in the game, and of course an additional 250 points of gamerscore. Not to bad of a value I suppose, considering its comparable to an entire expansion pack (which is how its selling on other systems).
But now we look at Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In a few days there are 2 downloadable contents coming (or you can buy them both for a special rate). Let’s go with the special rate which calculates out to about $8.00. With this you get 4 new playable characters (4 of which are villians), and the ability to unlock another 250 gamerscore points. There is no new game content (except some dialog changes based on using these new characters). I do like the ability to add to my list of super heroes, but I am somewhat reserved in purchasing it simply because there is nothing new added to the game except a new character model - and I would be willing to bet that the sales of this content would be lower if they didnt include the upgrade in gamerscore, because there are plenty of people out there, which will spend the $8.00 just to get another 250 points.
Thoughts?