Braid (including cross-platform discussion)

[RobertR1]

That's a bit condescending isn't it? People just have different tastes - for better or worse - you can't imperically say that Braid is better (than something more popular like) Halo - I might disagree or I might not - but when it comes to a matter of taste, no one's ever wrong!

Me personally? I happen to be really enjoying this little game. I'll agree that it's challenging - but I like the sense of accomplishment that goes with overcoming those challenges. And the music - PHOENOMINAL!

Jack

What I mean by that; many people simply want their gaming experience to be one of great familiarity and repitition. As great as Halo and CoD4 type games are, they're are simple in what's being asked of the player to perform. They're reflex based with some strategy to best compliment the reflexes. Braid is 90% mental and 10% reflexes.

Many people clearly find the former to be a better gaming experience and thus sales reflect such.

 

[Malibu]

Stats: The First Week of Braid

As I write this, there are 62,242 entries on the main leaderboards. I don’t have official sales numbers for the full week, but I would guess about 55,000 people have bought the game so far.

Sales are now slower than they were on launch day, but not too much: the sales didn’t just die after the first few days, as they do with some games. As a result, it looks like I will be able to make the next game, without needing to get a job that would interfere with that. (The estimated sales so far of 55,000 are not enough for this, but extrapolating into the future, the situation looks safe). Thank you, once again, for making that possible.

 

[eastmen]

The game is very expensive. He would have sold more at a $10 or even $12 price point. Also with the word of mouth he is getting well the game should sell for at least another week or two. I think he is good for 100k to 120k units sold its first month of release.

 

[zed]

although I hate platformers, I will have to try this out when it comes to the PC later on, it does look interesting.

If 29k sales in 4 days is good, that means Live! Arcade titles need prolonged sales to be worthwhile. They aren't achieving AAA disc-title super first-day sales. 29k out of 10 million+ accounts really doesn't look to me, and suddenly download games don't seem such a hot idea!

wow! if u look back over the weeks at the numbers it seems they total about $1->1.5 million a week with live games.
which is ~$70million a year, way far less than I would of expected. (esp when MS takes ~half of that)
btw I just read the iphone app store, generated $30million in its first month. True it could just be an initial surge but thats roughly 5x the cash rate. hmmm I might have to rethink what Im doing.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

MS forced the price, strangely. Then again, it's not strange as they're the publisher! I presume they have good stats on increased sales versus profits for different price-points, and this was a very smart decision. Remember you can make money selling less unit at a higher price as long as the profit margins are suitably increased.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

wow! if u look back over the weeks at the numbers it seems they total about $1->1.5 million a week with live games.

Total Live! Arcade net revenue?

 

[PARANOiA]

Oh look its Donkey Ko.....jumpman...Super Mari....

I ment....BRAID

Heh I do hope you're joking. You'd have to play the game to understand how it takes parts from many other old-school games and turns them on its head. That screenshot you posted, for example, has a bizarre mechanic of making time move backwards when you move left, and forwards when you move right. Getting the puzzle piece by climbing that classic DK level was an absolute delight.

If you're genuinely lost as to the game and trying to take a shot, try reading the Eurogamer review. Otherwise, carry on.

As for me, I just finished it last night. I managed to complete my last four puzzles all in a row after taking a few days off to think about it. The end of World 1 ("Braid") was one of the most stunning things I've seen in gaming - absolute genius in terms of telling a story using the medium and mechanics within a game. This is exactly what I'd like to see more of in games, rather than FMV-fests and cut-scenes (basically, putting a movie in a game to tell a story, as opposed to telling a story with a game).

Does anyone know how the "stars" work, now? Do they appear now I've finished world 1?

 

[AzBat]

Total Live! Arcade net revenue?

Totally ambiguous without a proper source. Plus, you also have to consider that Microsoft also makes money on full versions of original Xbox games too. My take is that Microsoft probably doesn't give break downs on different kinds of game revenues, but instead total Live Marketplace revenues which include game add-ons, themes and gamer pics, etc.

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

Does anyone know how the "stars" work, now? Do they appear now I've finished world 1?

From what I've read you have to go back and play the game over and search for them. They're hidden throughout the game. You might remember some levels had bridges or other items that you couldn't get to or had no purpose. That's where you'll find these stars. I'd suggest a walkthrough or FAQ to help you out.

Tommy McClain

 

[obonicus]

From what I've read you have to go back and play the game over and search for them. They're hidden throughout the game. You might remember some levels had bridges or other items that you couldn't get to or had no purpose. That's where you'll find these stars. I'd suggest a walkthrough or FAQ to help you out.

Tommy McClain

You probably will need a FAQ: the stars require some very atypical behavior, like sitting in a spot for two hours while the game runs or not completing one of the worlds.

As for reviews, the Eurogamer one was particularly poor, but that's not really a surprise with Eurogamer anymore. Try the Edge one; it was spot-on, even pointing out the title's (very few) flaws.

 

[PARANOiA]

Hrmm, I still rate Eurogamer as the best online-only review site. Edge does have good reviews, too.

An interesting link for those who can't get enough Braid: http://www.davidhellman.net/blog/braid-papercraft/

 

[Rangers]

So with estimated sales of 55k so far, and the "old" deal was creators got 70% of revenue right? So 10.50 per sale. So, $577,500 should go to Jonathan Blow so far, am I correct? Now, I dont know what final sales may be versus initial sales. Lets say they end up being 50% more. So he'll make 866250.


He said in an interview he started the game in 2004, so, 4 years. I guess he has to pay the artist too, lets say they split it..he'll get ~433k. Thats enough to pay a good salary for the next 4 years I suppose (while he makes the next game).

I happen to think Braid has a lot of long term upside on that since its such a "word of mouth" title, but I tried to be conservative.

 

[catisfit]

As for reviews, the Eurogamer one was particularly poor, but that's not really a surprise with Eurogamer anymore.

Agreed.

I happen to think Braid has a lot of long term upside on that since its such a "word of mouth" title, but I tried to be conservative.

As they started high, they can also drop the price in the future to reignite interest, say after the holiday period in the quiet winter months :smile:

 

[zed]

So with estimated sales of 55k so far, and the "old" deal was creators got 70% of revenue right? So 10.50 per sale. So, $577,500 should go to Jonathan Blow so far, am I correct? .

a couple of recent stories
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19748
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19620
no doubt he will make a profit with braid though (i believe its also coming to pc/ps3 so theres some extra cash as well)

 

[obonicus]

According to Blow, Braid cost him 180k USD of his own money.

 

[eastmen]

They can allways relaunch it at $10 when it stops selling. I'm sure it can pick up more sales at that price point. The game was just too short , took me about 3 hours to beat. Meanwhile bonic commando at 800 points has taken me already over 8 hours of game time.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

took me about 3 hours to beat.

If you didn't cheat, I find that hard to believe, atleast if by beating you mean, that you collected all the piezes.

 

[Arwin]

If you didn't cheat, I find that hard to believe, atleast if by beating you mean, that you collected all the piezes.

It's LocoRoco all over again.

 

[eastmen]

If you didn't cheat, I find that hard to believe, atleast if by beating you mean, that you collected all the piezes.

3 hours and no cheats. I got all the puzzle pieces and finished the last uninspired level after the puzzle pieces.

I only had trouble with 1 puzzle the rest were mostly common sense or came to me while doing other later puzzles.

 

[PARANOiA]

There was an excellent discussion about Braid on this week's GFW Radio podcast (Games For Windows for those not already subscribed to it). There was some talk about "art games", or conceptual games, along with some other examples that are free to play. Getting into the story, they talked a lot about the idea of ambiguity and what counts as a valid vs invalid interpretation of events. It was interesting to note that Jon Blow's favourite movie is Mulholland Drive, though not really surprising.

And they also laughed at those who said the game wasn't worth the price, since those same people are the crowd that bitched about Portal not being worth it, and therefore they're instantly nonpeople