In the last generation there were consistent arguments that the DSi and Wii download stores were a little too expensive and inflexible, while access for developers was excessively difficult. We've seen changes on both scores in the 3DS and Wii U eShop platforms, while lower-priced games have begun to gain more interest, with Gunman Clive on 3DS earning plenty of early praise for delivering high quality at a budget cost.
The Wii U eShop has gone further, of course, and a range of titles now utilise price points below $2, particularly Nintendo Web Framework games. Aside from rare and limited free-to-play options, The Letter may have just brought us a new pricing low with its discount.
https://twitter.com/rcmadiax/status/498100595983929345
We're not sure that price-point's been hit before now, though BLOK DROP U has had discounts to prices a little higher. The presence of The Letter in the eShop charts in North America may frustrate some, however, as its low price inevitably tempts impulse buys despite being widely panned — its Metacritic rating is 14% from four scores, and we awarded it 1/10 in our own review.
We've discussed issues of quality control on the eShop, a topic on which we will be following up with a range of developers in the coming days.
What do you think of this discount? Are promotions like this a good thing for the Wii U eShop, or is there a danger of going too low and distorting the online market? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thanks to Ryan Millar for the tip.
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 75
I sent the devs a letter with 49 cents in it............though I forgot to put the 49 cents in!! :U
They'd have to pay me to get me to download this game I love supporting indie developers but when the quality isn't there, the developer isn't supporting me, the player. Buying games is a two way street.
Plus I ain't into horror games anyway
I kind of want to get it for 50 cents. It seems like quite the trainwreck.
Guess I'll buy it then...
Not even worth 50 cents. I'd have to be paid to play this for myself.
Treefall's dev has found the stupidest gamers on Miiverse and he's milking his fame for another 'game'.
Which is idiocy: the Letter is as bad as it is due to a failed Kickstarter. But really, looking at the Maze.. would a successful Kickstarter have helped? His engine, art, assets, controls, story, music and gameplay aren't even subpar, they are insults to the technological progression and the advancement of the games industry over these last 25 years.
I read somewhere here in the comments section:
"A thousand more of these games, and the Wii U could compete against the mobile/tablet market". LMAO
I don't think the price was the problem.
Unfortunately, those Miiverse gamers look at a game, like MK8 at 65$, and justify the Letter for being 130x cheaper (or 33x cheaper, seeing as many of them purchased it at 2$).
The Letter isn't a fraction of a percentage of a MK8, Rayman Legends or DKC. It isn't worth the handful of hours it took to program it. It isn't worth the time it takes to download. It isn't worth going through the steps to download it. It isn't worth the space on the Wii U's HDD.
I've wished the dev good luck fixing it, because 'I don't think you can or will'.
Its developer said on Miiverse he would discount it 75%, one or two days ago. He also presented a trailer of his next Wii U "game" in that post.
I often check the verified users' posts. I don't follow this guy, even if he was the last Wii U developer in the world.
Is it that cheap in Europe too?
I want to download it just to see how awful it truly is.
I'm going to buy this and have some fun
@FishieFish I don't think it has been released in Europe.
Still to expensive.
This is the Wii U's version of the Atari 2600's ET; it's so bad that it's not worth ANYTHING, but it's still something that a lot of us will want to play BECAUSE it's so bad. It's just something some of us need to experience. I, I'm ashamed to say, downloaded it when it was still $2 after reading NL's review.
This guy should be commended at least he is trying to do something about the game drought.
I'm buying this if I have 50¢ leftover from my GBA VC buying spree.
I will get it now with the new price tag, but if any game should be at serious fault it's Jett Tailfin! Awfully, pathetically, overpriced.
I doubt it's even worth 10 cents! They must be really desperate!
I wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole even if it was free. Not worth the waste of storage on my Wii U and more importantly, not worth my time.
I got it just to piss off the people on Miiverse that don't want it to sell any more copies. Well worth the 2 bucks.
Haha i got a little money left so ill bite, might try once again to do a lets play.
There's entertainment in enjoying something horrible. I don't think my expectations can be any lower in fact. So worst game on the eshop here I come! Also I have an idea..."eShop remix"
A lot of devs probably want to do free to play, but the eShop is just not set up for it. Yes, it's possible, but the implementation is really not set up for micro transactions, vs buying $5 or $10 DLC in a single go for an AAA title.
$.50 for a five minute laugh before deleting it? That's tempting, honestly.
@yoko19191 That's comedic gold! No deleting the post if something similar ever happens again.
meh, its 50 cents, so i shall take the plunge into the dark world of "the letter"
Also I want to see if he actually finishes the game. It would be pretty cool to see the game change over time.
Everyone gets so worked up on this game. Have we all forgotten Superman N64?? Bad games come in all price points, thankfully this was $2 originally, so your out less than a cup of coffee if you bought it unknowingly. Just remember, there are those games from RCMADIAX that are dirt cheap and yet functional and fun. Win some lose some, in the end its just a game.
Won't even play it >for free
Meh. Eli's not released it in Europe yet. And hopefully never will. It's an interesting experiment to release something that only obviously took half a day to create onto the E-Shop for cheap to see how many suckers will be fished in, but I really don't think he deserves any more money out of this.
If it were available here, I don't know wether I'd buy this because of how bad it apparently is, or leave it be because of how bad it apparently is...
Hopefully the developer will use the money they get from this to release it elsewhere, because who am I kidding? I'd buy this and I want this.
I'd feel bad supporting a game I know is awful, but I'm a masochist for them. Except Sonic 06. Because long load screens are my breaking point.
@SetupDisk He said he considers it to be finished....
Yeah, I'm downloading it now. Just couldn't pass it up for the lulz. Can't wait to terrorize the Miiverse community.
I saw it and did not pick it up.
The Letter could be so much better...
...because there is no way it could be any worse!
@unrandomsam The drought could never be bad enough to make me want something that foul. Although maybe I would need to be near death and mad from starvation and dehydration to find even one iota of enjoyment from it.
A rip off at 50c times 10,000 customers is still $1,000, enough for them to churn out another blight on gaming.
I'll buy for -1¢.
I'd buy this in a heartbeat if it was available in Europe and as cheap as that!
Sometimes bad amateur games have much more charm than bad professional games. Professionals know what they are doing so there's no room for randomness and abstractions. Games like The Letter, however, are more like stepping into a virtual world that feels unstable and insane; in other words, much more interesting!
Plus, that guy has some serious balls to venture into the world of angry video gamers!
With that price i would buy it if it was released in Europe. It's more expensive than those 30cent VC games in sale but still 50cent is just a bag of cheap noodles.
I bought it last night just to try it out and I cannot figure out where to access the controls screen. Nothing on the manual either.
The devastating critics combined with a cheap price will drag LOTS of curious customer to buy the game just for see for themselves how bad it is.
That's how you make money without doing any effort, in a certain way the developper had a very good idea, let's face it >_>;;;
(Sure is the same "good" idea that is slowly ruining the industry, but as long as people will buy these games then on a business perspective this idea will always appear excellent -o-;;; )
I'll bite for 50 cents.
Even if I laugh at it, it would be worth the 50 cents haha
frankly, 50 cents is worth the club nintendo survey and ddp discount
I wouldn't pay 1 cent for this lousy offering.
Just having it on my Wii U would feel... wrong.
@Zodiak13 I completely agree with you. I think people take this game to seriously. Jett Tailfin IS an offense though.
I wouldn't take this if it was free.
Buying this game even for 50 cents only encourages people to release unfinished games. Not everyone deserves support just because they're making games. Their games have actually got to be worth something.
@BakaKnight Its the same idea that was pioneered by Ubisoft on the WIi U.
@Airola Yeah I enjoyed Manos and the Hands of Fate for that reason. It reminded me of what I remembered the NES to be like more than Shovel Knight.
wow! looking at these comments I'm glad i didn't bite on that 50Cents
Buy a good game, buy a bad game, or buy this game, whatever the hell floats your boat. lol
I bought it, had to see how bad it really is. So far, it's bad, but it feels like watching a B movie, you can't expect much to begin with.
@unrandomsam MANOS! And the Hands of Fate?! Best Mystery Science Theater 3,000 episode ever. Good game too haha.
Never played a bad game knowing it was bad... Guess now's as good a time as any. See you in Miiverse, folks!
Well, I already saw the playthrough, so it's kind of pointless. 50¢ is tempting, regardless. That's why smartphone games sell well, even if they are below average.
I'm going to have to beat this 10 more times before I log an hour so I can give it a 1 star rating on the eShop.
Meh. Make it free then we'll talk.
He had a budget of $377 to make the game, people-- let's not forget that.
I bought it at full price, especially since he has promised updates that will expand-- not finish-- the game, so I will hold him to it.
I used my free $5.00 to get this. I only had .38 extra so...
And if they say it'll have DLC, its a deal.
If I had a Wii U, I'd get this for the free Club Nintendo points...assuming Nintendo puts 'em out for this!
50 cents seems... reasonable.
@TheWPCTraveler
I was thinking the same thing. 10 cents per coin is the best deal you're likely to get outside of freebies. However I'm having Club N issues right now (Super Mario Kart survey never showed up) so i don't even get that benefit now.
Huh, this discount will still be here once I arrive back at Canada. Free Club Nintendo Coins here I come.
I already tried it on my friend's Wii U and didn't like it so I'm not wasting a cent on this boredom of a game.
@reali-tglitch Not sure what I think of budgets and the importance people seem to place on them. Astebreed (Highest Rated PC game on Metacritic in 2014 so far) was made by people working other jobs in their spare time as a hobby. It is rated higher than Shovel Knight that had people working just on it. Maybe the Japanese are just better and more hard working I dunno.
I'll get it just to see how terrible it is.
To the folks getting it to see how terrible it is... you're part of the problem now.
It's why Michael Bay keeps getting handed the keys to 80s and 90s childhood franchises: people keep paying for them.
It's your cash, but flying willingly into something universally panned as horrible isn't supporting the video game industry. It's encouraging the release of more junk.
No thanks. Lol
@sleepinglion Yeah, people keep paying for them because they are entertained by them in a way or another.
I've also paid for countless of truly abysmal trash movies from the no budget 70's sleaze to the modern low budget mockbusters by Asylum Entertainment. I can't understand why Michael Bay is thrown into discussions of bad entertainment. Their artistic merit can be discussed, but his movies are at the very least really well crafted.
I see The Letter as an experiment of sort. It's really interesting to see how the game evolves as the developer has said to update it from time to time, and he tries to add things people are asking for and he's trying to change some things the game is criticized for. Sure, there are gazillions of free games on the internet that are as amateurish as this is and they are updating those games regularly, but those games are hardly downloaded and played by anyone. This is perhaps the first time a game like that breaks into the knowledge of big amount of video game players, and which breaks the gaming news threshold. It's really rare in any entertainment medium to have a product that can show the evolution of a "z-grade" amateur game/movie/music/painting/etc to so many people. And the fact that it's for sale and the creator gets money out of it just gives the whole thing a bizarre twist, a sense of rumble, a shake to the gaming culture.
Oh, I love so much that The Letter happened!
(too bad it's not on the European eShop though)
@reali-tglitch Pixel made Cave Story by himself with a zero budget, and then distributed it as freeware.
A $377 budget is no excuse whatsoever for this travesty of a 'game' that Treefall expect people to pay for.
I'm also curious to know what the deal with their other game The Night Detective is? They ran a Kickstarter for it early last year that was successful (they were only asking for $750, and made a lot of wild promises that it would cater to the casual and hardcore gamer and feature boss battles etc, as in this video. The whole presentation of the game looked very amateurish at best to me.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtATfEOK12Y
However it was delayed for a long time until they suddenly announced it was released last month. I've only been able to find a couple of mini player reviews but one of them seems to suggest that it feels short and unfinished
http://www.desura.com/games/night-detective/reviews
This is completely unacceptable. Eli's excuse for The Letter was that it didn't reach it's Kickstarter target, so what's his excuse for The Night Detective?
Sounds reasonable... I have paid full retail price for some very poor 3DS games that are nowhere near as good as this
I wonder how this guy got his game on the eShop in the first place...
@Stu13
"I'm going to have to beat this 10 more times before I log an hour so I can give it a 1 star rating on the eShop."
This made me lol. Good luck friend.
@MadAdam81 Actually, $10,000 ÷ 2 = $5,000, not $1,000.
I think they should take all the last gen DSi titles and start offering big discounts on them. Supposedly its up to the Devs to offer a sale on games. seriously those old games are going to just sit there and rot. whynot generate some interest and sell them at a reasonable price. I already have Zenonia which I payed 7.99 for its a decent game but its been. 99 cents in the android market for years. whynot do the same and lower the prices on older software? Also look at that new shooter which hit the 3ds eshop 2 weeks ago at 29.99. They havent sold 20 copies of it and will not sell much more unless they lower they lower the price. I dont even think 19.99 will be low enough to start selling a huge amount on that game. its really plain an You would think that if your game isnt selling you would lower the price to start selling it. plain and simple there are a plethora of Eshop games which should get the lower price tag. The Dev of The Letter is a freakin genius for lowering the price of his game
Tap here to load 75 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...