3 Tetris DS modes in action.

[compacho]

http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/?p=510

Definately loving the Donkey Kong mode. The music is too awesome!

[DaMenace]

Weird, but really interesting takes on the old classic..
I sure hope they got updated tunes from the older versions in there somewhere!

[Zaphod]

That looks absolutly fantasitc! I like how they actually managed to make completely new forms of gameplay based on the classic style. Push and Touch modes both look really fun.

[nukinetix]

I like push & touch, actually I don't think I mentioned it on a post here, but I did fully expect this. It is a natural extension of tetris design on a touch screen.

I think Tetris DS will totally rule.

[Shane R. Monroe]

The push mode looks EXCELLENT ... now we have traditional Tetris with a much needed extension to the play - offering a more 'interactive' puzzle type solution mode. I always thought it would be cool if, while blocks were falling, you could "reorganize" the collection you ALREADY have. Looks like another idea I should have acted on before someone else got rich off it :) Unfortunately, I can't claim it was borrowed from me - as I never posted it or discussed it publically :)

Now give me wifi Populous and I can die happy.

[nukinetix]

The idea itself has been used before, more than once. I've worked with the guys who did this for example, which is a pretty damn cool variation on the tetris theme (http://ps2.ign.com/articles/101/101340p1.html).

As the game progresses, Tetris-style blocks fall down towards the player character. The player has to grab those, one at a time, and fit them together to build a tower that will keep them above the rising water at the bottom of the screen and eventually lead them to the balloon at the top of the screen. Occasionally, power-ups also fall -- shoes increase jumping height, cement fills inconvenient holes, bombs and hammers can muck up opposing towers, and the "flash" apparently does something quite spectacular. Players are also menaced by bees, birds, and fish, while gas bubbles threaten to trap them and keep them out of the action.One for the DS perhaps? :)

[Shane R. Monroe]

Hmmm... how is that like the PUSH mode tho? I see the alternative end result, and the environmental hazards ... but not the restructuring of blocks after they've solidified.

[nukinetix]

You pick the blocks and "move them" around, or in other words "push them". The concept is: free movement of a block left and right and free placement at any gap, without the constraint of time-limited "free falling". It's somewhat the same underlying concept, without a touch screen interface (it uses analog sticks). I believe it would make a great DS experience, honestly.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Hmmmm... So the game you refer to basically queues up blocks, then - at your leisure - you place them on the game board, rotate, etc. There is no element of time? I'm not sure that would be NEARLY as much fun as being under the gun - but I think I see what you're talking about.

[nukinetix]

The time constraint comes from the elevating water levels, so you have to keep building the tower to stay above the waterline and reach the balloon at some point to escape (if you build it in an unbalanced way, with gaps and so on, it becomes unstable and sections may collapse, not good). It's very intense, especially in multiplayer mode.

[compacho]

Just read that Tetris DS will be sold at a budget price ($19.99?). This is too good. Now I will definately pick up both HUNTERS and tetris on the same day.

[davidmt]

Just read that Tetris DS will be sold at a budget price ($19.99?). This is too good. Now I will definately pick up both HUNTERS and tetris on the same day.

No, looks like it will be regular price:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/260871.asp

[Shane R. Monroe]

And worth every penny from the looks of it...

[nukinetix]

My opinion is firm on this matter:

When you sell to a limited audience, consisting of gamers, i.e. people who are guaranteed to know what they're buying and likely to play the damn thing like 10-20 hours per week at least, then setting a price between $24.99 and $34.99 is acceptable.

Fact: there's been a gradual price erosion in the past 12 months and all major publishers, including EA, have had to "adjust" their prices down by 10 bucks (that's pretty massive) on NEW releases simply because that's how the market works. I don't know if anyone noticed, it's shocking but true.

Now, when you sell a product (or you claim you try to) casual gamers or non-gamers, people who don't keep up with games in general and who have only about 30-60 minutes per day, total, to play (if that), then prices should be completely different.

* Really simple, casual mobile/handheld games should sell for $5-$8 (that 3d splinter-cell game, a GREAT buy at $5, enough said - same for mobile tetris, zuma and bejeweled).
* More involving, elaborate, but still casual experiences should sell for $10-$20 (Tetris, Electroplankton, Brain Training are good examples)

I have the knowledge and mentality of a hardcore gamer with the free time of a nongamer - it's been the case for many years now. Which is why I end up playing retro games on my GP32/GP2X more than anything. I paid 25 quid to get MK DS as soon as it came out and I still can't say I've played it nearly enough - but I can sort of justify the price versus time played, compared to say my usual monthly purchase of books that I spend both a lot of money AND time on consistently.

Tetris for 35 bucks? I dunno man .. I think I'll pass on this one until the price goes down. It's not a matter of if I can afford it but what message I send in terms of market dynamics, what makes sense, how I want the market to adjust and how our actions as consumers affect that (hell I can afford everything, so what does that mean, I should buy 5 XB360s, 10 PS3s, 50 PSPs and 100DSs? I don't think it works like that).

I suppose the gamers with plenty of time in their hands, over an hour or two per day consistently, will buy it first for that price. People who know can put in at least 10-20 hours in a week. Then the price will drop and the rest of us who may be able to play it for like 3-5 hours per week will buy it too. That's how it should work.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Why does price have to be justified in that way? Hey, I'm all for cheaper software - don't get me wrong.

Fact is, game pricing should be NO different than pricing on any other servicable goods.

Let's look at Pong vs Call of Duty 2.

I could write Pong - right now - in Blitz in probably an hour (maybe less). I can make it a buy-and-download product. Using Digital River or similar service, I don't even go out of pocket for storage or bandwidth. The cost to me was 1 hour of time (which I currently bill to customers at $35) and let's say an hour to upload it, set up the account etc. So MY COST to deliver the game to a single customer (1:1) is $70. I need to sell that game to that single client for $70 + markup to make a profit.

I can sell that game to 100,000 people at .10 a download - and still make MAD CASH. So what's the problem with me selling BlitzPong for .10 a copy? I'm making a KILLING, if you think about it. But when's the last time you saw ANY game selling for a dime? Never. Even the precious cell phone game sells for at least $5. Why is that? It's because value perceived is value achieved. Anytime you see two products sitting on a shelf together where the price difference shifts more than a certain percent, you WILL perceive lower quality (realistic or not) in the lower priced product.

Now ... Call of Duty 2 ... can EA assume 1 million sales of this product? Let's assume some bean counter says "based on our projections, this product will sell 1 million copies". The game costs $15m to make, market, and distribute. We need to make 20% profit, so we need to make $18M to make this game profitable. By these numbers, this game SHOULD cost $18 a copy. But, its $60 a copy. Why? Because value perceived is value achieved. A game for Xbox360 must SUCK if it doesn't cost more than an Xbox game (don't ask me about psychology) - I see it every time I'm at Fry's.

Bejeweled can be written for a platform by ONE man in a short period of time. It SHOULD cost no more than 4.99 because it didn't COST that much to make. It shouldn't be $4 because it happens to be on a handheld or mobile unit.

Value is so damn arbitrary, its not even funny. Apparently we can't use LOGIC to dictate game retail pricing. People will pay $60 for the same game (with minor upgrades) that was released last year and is NOW $19.

The question is - what is the INDIVIDUAL'S requirement for value? Is 10 hours of play worth $20? $30? $60? Do you believe in quantity over quality? I've seen epic games that can literally be beaten in a couple hours. But was that two hours so f'ing good, you had a woody the whole time you played? Maybe THAT is value to you. You spent $30 on a game that got you two hours of play time. $15 an hour is price for entertainment.

I work in-office for 3 days a week. Each day in the office, we throw down at least 2 sets of races - about 15 minutes each (5 races for three people). That's AT LEAST 1.5 hours a week. So far, we've been playing for a few months - that's 6 hours a month - so 18 hours total play time JUST AT WORK. Let's speak NOTHING of the other hours I've burned on the game. Let's round to 20 hours (which is insanely low - but for the ease of use). That's $1.75 an hour for a kick ass ride. That's value to me.

Since value is relative - maybe ... we should look at COST TO DEVELOP vs RETAIL.

[nukinetix]

Interesting thoughts but off topic. I never said anything that is relevant to what you said here Shane. Yes, these are interesting thoughts - especially the correlation of price with development costs and, in the light of this, the eternal problem of pursuing optimal business plans and how you decide upon risk taking versus potential profits to be made versus other marketing methods to extract maximum value from your products (pokemon: gotta catch them all, nintendogs: gotta buy them all, and so on).

That's all fair and nice from the publisher's/platform holder's point of view. But my name isn't Sony and yours isn't Nintendo. We're just consumers. We're on the side of consumers, we try to instill an ethic of making informed decisions and affecting the market positively towards our benefit - not towards the profitability of Microsoft or Nintendo or EA or whoever.

Read again my post, I am talking about selling something to two different kinds of people:
1) gamers with lots of knowledge and plenty of time (and possibly money) in their hands to spend on games they know they will play a lot and enjoy even more

versus

2) nongamers (the new target audience waiting to be tetri-fied and brain-trained nintendog style) who know little to nothing about games, have little time to play (in brief sessions, on the go mostly) and whose main interest is not gaming per se, but it's a nice distraction as part of a busy lifestyle.

You can sell sand to the arabs and snow to eskimos if you are a determined business man, that cannot be disputed. But like I said, me and you are not on that side, we're not trying to justify their methods - but let them try anyway, it's their job to try and our job to shoot them down to our reasonable expectations within a fair market framework that works for everyone in a balanced way and keeps even nongamers informed of the big picture.

No matter how you see it, there is ZERO reason for me or you to say it's ok to pay that much when in fact it's perfectly possible (and fair) to inform others to apply pressure in order to bring the prices down. We've done it many times in the past, it works. We do have power - knowledge and communication IS power. And even recently we've forced the "big behemoths" to compromise and reduce their prices for new releases by 10 bucks. If that's not reason to celebrate I don't know what is.

At the very least it's proof that we have power and we SHOULD use our brains together for OUR benefit, not theirs.

[davidmt]

1UP.com has a preview of the game:

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3148117

[compacho]

Here are some more screens. http://gonintendo.com/?p=1007

Gotta say, Nintendo is doing a great job keeping us on the edge of our seats.

[nukinetix]

A hands-on look (http://ds.ign.com/articles/690/690763p1.html)

[compacho]

Sorry to OUT DO YOU, but I found something better!

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Media/Media.htm?CS_pid={1B119A49-6199-48F3-96BC-81560395AA4D}

[nukinetix]

Nice :D