Last week, Xbox Live started its third annual Summer of Arcade promotion with Limbo, which proved to be a stellar downloadable title. The puzzle-platformer has been a topic of discussion at Gamervision HQ since before it came out, and many of us were mesmerized by the deceptively dark title. The reaction from gamers seems to be similar, but I keep seeing one complaint spread around the internet: “Fifteen dollars is too much for a downloadable game.” My only response: "Why?"

Before 2008, the first year of the Summer of Arcade, very few Xbox Live Arcade games topped a $10 price point. It was sort of unofficially accepted that 800 Microsoft Points was the ceiling for downloadable games, which are typically shorter and offer less content than retail releases. There were exceptions, such as the first episode of the now-cancelled Penny Arcade Adventures, which many gamers felt was just too expensive at $20 (by comparison, you can now download an entire season of Sam & Max for that much). When Braid, the highest-rated XBLA and PSN game to date, launched at $15, gamers balked. Admittedly, it seemed a little high when we had all been used to that ten-dollar ceiling, but in retrospect, Braid was absolutely worth $15. More downloadable games continued to be released at the higher price that year, including memorable titles like Castle Crashers and World of Goo, and some of them garnered considerable acclaim. Two years later, it shouldn’t be out of the question to expect to pay $15 for one of the best downloadable games of the year, right? Apparently not.

What really puzzles me about hearing gamers complain about paying an extra five bucks for stellar titles like Braid and Limbo is what people are comparatively willing to spend the same amount of money on. How often do you go to the movies, paying about $10 for a ticket, plus more for snacks and a drink, to see a two-hour film one time? Is that really a better value than owning a game? Have you ever paid $60 for a retail title with a campaign shorter than ten hours and no multiplayer? I’m sure many of us have. Are we just spoiled by the early days of this generation, when downloadable titles rarely rose above ten dollars? Is it a sense of entitlement that gamers feel? Do we still think of downloadable games as inferior, incapable of being some of the best gaming experiences of the year?

It’s likely a combination of all of those things, as well as the gamer’s constant fear of getting ripped off. I get it, this is a very expensive hobby, and no one wants to overpay. There are definitely downloadable games on all platforms that could be considered overpriced, and with $15 or even $20 being more acceptable for non-retail titles, more publishers may try to grab a piece of the pie even if their games don’t warrant that price tag. However, it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on something truly unique over a $5 difference in what the price is and what you think it should be.