CXL Pricing-Is Monte Cristo serious?

[Kryptowhite 9]

How much did you guys pay for sim city and all your plugins?

I paid 20 dollars back in 2004 for sc4 deluxe. I haven't paid a penny more for the bat, plugin manager, lot editor, sc4tool, all my STEX downloads, LEX downloads, years of ST membership, etc.

It will cost 40 dollars alone to buy the basic game of CXL. Which is fine for a computer game nowadays, except for the fact that those 40 dollars don't really get you CXL, or a quality city builder. Instead you get a skeleton of a game. The good news? You can get a full gaming experience that will probably be a lot of fun by getting the planet offer. The bad news? Its about what, 70, 80 dollars a year?

So unless your idea of a fun game is making a city with 3 buildings and a road, your going to have to spend 80 dollars a year to get a good experience out of that game. SC4 has been the best gaming experience i have ever had, and if you do the math, it has costed me about 4 dollars per year i've been playing. Now, seeing as computer games ranked about 50th on most peoples list of priorities, how many of you are actaully willing to spend 120 dollars this year to buy a computer game you'll play maybe 20 times because it starts gathering dust on the shelf? MC had a big oppurtunity but IMO they really messed up with this pricing.

Which is good, because now i'll have more people to play sc4 with

[DarkDays 0]

I made this calculation the other day.

If you plan on playing Cities XL for 1 year, it would cost a minimum:

• US$39.99(pre-order) + US$18.95(3mo) x 4 = US$115.79

If you don't pre-order and renew each month:

• US$49.99 + US$9.25x 12 = US$160.99

Tax/GEMs not included. 

[Evillions 552]

That's why Im not playing or paying for CXL now. Pricing and limitations makes this a flop. Just like EA, and they didn't limited everything for SCS and such. lol

[Chptrk 86]

That's totally ridiculous! Over $100 just to play a game!?! When there's already a $20 dollar game that's been proven to last years!?! Once again, this is strike (Insert high number +1) for MC.

If anything, all this is doing is helping SimCity 4. I mean, have you noticed all the new members Simtropolis has been getting recently? These people are gonna read about Cities XL, decide against it, and after searching through this site, possibly decide to get SimCity 4.

Chptrk

[Feudal1 0]

Are you guys actually serious? You're whining over paying $9 per month to access the online features? That's the equivalent of a couple of lunches at McDonalds. I just don't get this mentality that people want everything for free any more.

[Kryptowhite 9]

Some people live paycheck to paycheck? In fact, most do. A lot of people aren't even getting paychecks these days. And if your a teenager like me, you only have X amount of money and you can't be wasting 10% of your money on this stuff. Its ridiculous that Xbox Live is cheaper than a few extras for a computer game.

chptrk [cheap trick? ] Thats the good part! Hopefully, ST is in for another boost. Seems like every few years there is a rejuvenation and a new group of skilled CJers and BATters enters the community.

[Mctittles 0]

Originally posted by: Chptrk

That's totally ridiculous! Over $100 just to play a game!?! When there's already a $20 dollar game that's been proven to last years!?! Once again, this is strike (Insert high number +1) for MC.

If anything, all this is doing is helping SimCity 4. I mean, have you noticed all the new members Simtropolis has been getting recently? These people are gonna read about Cities XL, decide against it, and after searching through this site, possibly decide to get SimCity 4.

Chptrk

quote>

I'm trying out Sim City 4 now and it seems great!  First time player and I only heard about it because of everyone comparing cities XL to it.  Only thing is I'm looking around now to try and get performance up.  The large city tutorial runs pretty crappy with or without software mode on my gforce280/4GB ram/Vista 64 pc...

[rsd6000 8]

Originally posted by: Chptrk

That's totally ridiculous! Over $100 just to play a game!?! When there's already a $20 dollar game that's been proven to last years!?! Once again, this is strike (Insert high number +1) for MC.

If anything, all this is doing is helping SimCity 4. I mean, have you noticed all the new members Simtropolis has been getting recently? These people are gonna read about Cities XL, decide against it, and after searching through this site, possibly decide to get SimCity 4.

Chptrk

quote>

yeah - i noticed many people are don't lke it - i can't understand why they against because price is good really

[thepokemaniac 18]

Originally posted by: Feudal1

Are you guys actually serious? You're whining over paying $9 per month to access the online features? That's the equivalent of a couple of lunches at McDonalds. I just don't get this mentality that people want everything for free any more.quote>

I would think twice about that. Maybe you should look at the "BIGGER" (pardon me) picture! True, $90 a year isn't very much to me, heck, I can spend that every week if I have to! But why should we pay for some online stuff? I don't see Nintendo charging to play Wi-Fi on the Wii! The point is, its money that we shouldn't have to pay to get a full game, and that is what really upsets us.

[parrotti 11]

listen i have a wife and three kids do you think im gonna spend so much money to a game, my wife will kill me thats for sure.

pay 40 euro to play a game ok for once but then you will not have the whole game.

i pass

[Eclipticalstorm 30]

I am up in arms over the whole debacle. I don't even think my computer is capable of running cities xl. If I read correctly it says you need 1.5GB of Ram, and I only have 512MB. Then I have to run the game and the internet at the same time! If cities xl is anything like simcity 4 that is going to be a slow mess! But hey I still like what I see with the game. I really want to get it, but financially it is just unattainable right now.

[JakeMD 107]

You only need 1.5GB RAM to run it on full quality with Vista.

512MB should be fine to run it on a lower setting with XP

[Chptrk 86]

Originally posted by: Feudal1

Are you guys actually serious? You're whining over paying $9 per month to access the online features? That's the equivalent of a couple of lunches at McDonalds. I just don't get this mentality that people want everything for free any more.quote>

First off, I don't eat McDonalds. I just don't like the food there, plus it gives us Americans a bad name!

No, I don't want everything free, I understand things need to be paid for. But I'm not going to spend my money paying for something when I already have something better and can get very high-quality free add-ons for it.

Some people live paycheck to paycheck? In fact, most do. A lot of people aren't even getting paychecks these days. And if your a teenager like me, you only have X amount of money and you can't be wasting 10% of your money on this stuff. Its ridiculous that Xbox Live is cheaper than a few extras for a computer game.

chptrk [cheap trick? ] Thats the good part! Hopefully, ST is in for another boost. Seems like every few years there is a rejuvenation and a new group of skilled CJers and BATters enters the community.quote>

Yep, it's short for Cheap Trick (somewhat long story.) As another teenager, I totally agree with that statement. I'm short for cash and I'm not gonna waste it on this.

I'm trying out Sim City 4 now and it seems great!  First time player and I only heard about it because of everyone comparing cities XL to it.  Only thing is I'm looking around now to try and get performance up.  The large city tutorial runs pretty crappy with or without software mode on my gforce280/4GB ram/Vista 64 pc...quote>

Welcome to Simtropolis Mctittles! Glad you like the game. I'm also glad that you helped prove my point! As the the performance issue, try posting something in the Bugs and Technical part of the forums.

yeah - i noticed many people are don't lke it - i can't understand why they against because price is good reallyquote>

Wow, lots of people talking about me comment!

Anyway, like I said before, the price isn't all that good considering that SimCity 4 is like $20 with an unlimited amount of free custom content and a proven high replay value, vs. Cities XL you have to pay I think $40 for and then have to pay a monthly fee for extra stuff.

Hope this Helps!

Chptrk

[geek12 0]

The biggest problem i see with this is not that you have to pay monthly, that's not a big deal (WOW, Aion, FF11, EVE Online, the list goes on and on). The problem is that those games are all or nothing. You either pay to play, or you don't play. It's brutal, but that's how it works. The real problem is that MC is trying to make us pay for things that we have had since 1989 (mass transit would be a good example). On top of that, MC is trying to take our Single player game, and turn it into a multiplayer cash cow (We'll see how that works for them...). Even worse is that we would want a working single player before even talking about multiplayer, and that hasn't happened now has it?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Think about what you would NOT play even if it were free as is, then add to it a monthly charge. And being paid to play it would be like having a job you hate. Money really isn't the issue here.

[panthersimcity4 162]

They might as well rename it "Societies XL"

[Mayor Abe 3]

A fair point to be made was that while your gripes about CXL's pricing scheme are valid, SC4 was $40 when it came out in 2003. Ironically, the lack of a large initial audience may lead CXL's community to be rather small (w/ little and low quality custom content and fan sites), thereby depressing sales form the "wait and see" category of buyers (like most who have posted on this thread)

[geek12 0]

Originally posted by: Mayor Abe

A fair point to be made was that while your gripes about CXL's pricing scheme are valid, SC4 was $40 when it came out in 2003. Ironically, the lack of a large initial audience may lead CXL's community to be rather small (w/ little and low quality custom content and fan sites), thereby depressing sales form the "wait and see" category of buyers (like most who have posted on this thread)quote>

I don't think paying the 40 is the problem, i mean i paied 40 for the game then 30 for Rush Hour. The problem is paying 40, + 5+5+5+5+5+5... for something that isn't exactly.... As fufilling or complete as Sc4 was.

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: Kryptowhite

How much did you guys pay for sim city and all your plugins?

I paid 20 dollars back in 2004 for sc4 deluxe. I haven't paid a penny more for the bat, plugin manager, lot editor, sc4tool, all my STEX downloads, LEX downloads, years of ST membership, etc.

It will cost 40 dollars alone to buy the basic game of CXL. Which is fine for a computer game nowadays, except for the fact that those 40 dollars don't really get you CXL, or a quality city builder. Instead you get a skeleton of a game. The good news? You can get a full gaming experience that will probably be a lot of fun by getting the planet offer. The bad news? Its about what, 70, 80 dollars a year?

quote>

I believe I paid $40 or $50 for the original game, plus $30 for Rush Hour. For a new game, their pricing is hardly outrageous (not counting the Play Online, which is comparable to other online games).

[Loney 22]

Why should I pay extra monthly until I quit playing the game so I can get all of the core features? Its like buying a crappy sandwich at an outrageous price, and then you have to pay extra cash to get the meat and other stuff because all you were given was two moldy slices of bread labeled as a "deluxe sandwich".

$50+$5.50 or something X amount of months you are going to play=total amount of cash you spent on CXL

If I plan on playing CXL on Planet Offer just to get the mass transit feature for three years, that means I have to shell out around $400 for the game.

Sorry, but its either you pay monthly after buying an incomplete game for $50 or buying a game for $12 that has all of the features and thousands of custom contents.

[simcity4fan12 13]

Originally posted by: Kryptowhite

Some people live paycheck to paycheck? In fact, most do. A lot of people aren't even getting paychecks these days. And if your a teenager like me, you only have X amount of money and you can't be wasting 10% of your money on this stuff. Its ridiculous that Xbox Live is cheaper than a few extras for a computer game.

chptrk [cheap trick? ] Thats the good part! Hopefully, ST is in for another boost. Seems like every few years there is a rejuvenation and a new group of skilled CJers and BATters enters the community.quote>

I'm a teenadger as well and completely argee with that. Honestly I don't think you should be even wasting lower than 5%...

I have never seen the pricing yet until now. It's completely 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000% rediculous!!! If I wasn't so lazy I would come up with a bigger percent I can't pronounce.(I can't pronounce that one I just did either...) lol

They won't make a cent off of that! I'll admit I liked how the game looks in the pics and thought it would be great to give a try, but now it's no where near worth it. I'm glad I'm still playing Simcity4. I hope everyone else won't waste their time and lose everything they did in Simcity for this...

[geek12 0]

I guess it could be compared to paying for a Patch. Why should we pay for a game Developers inability to release a complete and polished game on time? Now while i think releaes deadlines are a very bad idea, it's still not fair for the consumer.

[PTrues6331 0]

mmo games justify their prices usually by the online game experience, and i can't see cities xl's having an online experience worth paying $100 a year for, and continuing to be fun year after year. If simcity 4 would of had this online offer and i subscribed to i would have already paid over $600. Personally this reminds me a little about what the the sims online was.

[JakeMD 107]

Originally posted by: beebs

Originally posted by: Kryptowhite

How much did you guys pay for sim city and all your plugins?

I paid 20 dollars back in 2004 for sc4 deluxe. I haven't paid a penny more for the bat, plugin manager, lot editor, sc4tool, all my STEX downloads, LEX downloads, years of ST membership, etc.

It will cost 40 dollars alone to buy the basic game of CXL. Which is fine for a computer game nowadays, except for the fact that those 40 dollars don't really get you CXL, or a quality city builder. Instead you get a skeleton of a game. The good news? You can get a full gaming experience that will probably be a lot of fun by getting the planet offer. The bad news? Its about what, 70, 80 dollars a year?

quote>

I believe I paid $40 or $50 for the original game, plus $30 for Rush Hour. For a new game, their pricing is hardly outrageous (not counting the Play Online, which is comparable to other online games).

quote>

yeah it very fair compared to some of today's games.

[Kryptowhite 9]

Except most of todays games that cost the same amount of money offer the full game, not just a "skeleton", and have free online gameplay.

[yakaspat 0]

Originally posted by: Feudal1

Are you guys actually serious? You're whining over paying $9 per month to access the online features? That's the equivalent of a couple of lunches at McDonalds. I just don't get this mentality that people want everything for free any more.quote>

No, we are not "whining over paying $9 per month" for "online features".  We are reasonably stating that it is rediculous to pay, minimum, 115 dollars per year to play a city building game.  The slapped-on MMO features, such as community socialization, stat tracking, and competitive/comparitive gameplay, could reasonably justify a monthly charge.  I would grant that paying 4.99 per month would be appropriate for such a service.  But, expecting the gaming community to pay $9 per month for essential game content, such as buildings (face it, they limited the initial building set just to sell the rest of the game in increments...you're a sucker if you think otherwise), transportation options, and key gameplay mechanics.  What you are falling for is a classic marketing technique.  Instead of telling you that it will cost you 115 dollars to pay their game for one year, they've sold you the idea you'll "only" pay $9 per month!  If you can't see through that shameless profiteering then you deserve to lose your hard earned cash on what is essentially a dressed up single player game. 

I, for one, will certainly NOT be buying Cities XL. 

[PTrues6331 0]

i'l make my opinion about the single player after i read the reviews when it comes out.

[MTA3479 0]

Hope your not scared off by the reviews. BTW, if you guys don't wanna pay alot, wait til CXL hits the bargain bin after a couple months.

[kingdiz_55 12]

I seem to believe that MC is doing what EA is doing with is Sims and its Expansion Packs. To me, the only reason that MC is doing this is that they're not sure how many people are going to buy the game. With that said, they're charging the people that DID buy the game. It's always about the money...

[Mctittles 0]

Originally posted by: kingdiz_55

I seem to believe that MC is doing what EA is doing with is Sims and its Expansion Packs. To me, the only reason that MC is doing this is that they're not sure how many people are going to buy the game. With that said, they're charging the people that DID buy the game. It's always about the money...quote>

Another difference between what MC is doing and what EA does.  The Sims has been a top selling game for like...oh the last 10 years and Cities XL is just getting off the ground, in a niche market even.  Selling overpriced Sims expansions is like raising the price of cocaine.  People know they are getting screwed but cannot help but buy it.  Make a best selling game before you start screwing your customer MC!