Peter Molyneux's Next Game Will Include a $78,500 DLC

[News Portal]

Peter Molyneux's new-found freedom at his own studio, 22 Cans, is resulting in him releasing a bunch of pre-game games, designed to help him and his studio shape the way the final game will look when they release it. One of those pre-games is Curiosity, which will put all of its players in the same room with a single black cube. Users tap away at the cube, chipping away slowly, and whoever breaks it open finally will be the only person who gets to see what is inside. The catch is that a limited selection of chisels will be made available to increase your chipping-away-power, including a diamond chisel that will cost the user £50,000 ($78,500). "This is not a money-making exercise," said Molyneux. "It is a test about the psychology of monetisation."

Source: New Scientist

Read full article by GON News

[Marius]

[spawneh]

So he is releasing a simple game with a massive cost DLC to see if anyone is stupid enough to buy it? Sounds like an attempt at easy money to me.

*edit.For science!

[chodeofwar]

^LOL

Hey Peter why dont you stop being such a pretentious jerk and just try to make a decent video game. LEIK ONE THAT IS GOOD, YOU KNOW?

[Napoletana]

The box. THE BOX!

haha there's an awesome simpsons scene for everything

[Mekon]

Players will then be able to purchase one of a limited number of chisels to amplify their tapping strength. These range from a iron chisel, costing 59 pence, that is 10 times more powerful than just tapping alone, to a diamond chisel that is 100,000 times as powerful. Again, there is a twist: Molyneux will only sell one diamond chisel - and it will cost £50,000.

(...)

the aim is to see whether pure curiosity will drive one player, or a syndicate of players assembled through social media, to buy the chisel.

Iron: 59p = x10 = 5.9p / userhit
Diamond: 5,000,000p = x100,000 = 50p / userhit

That's quite a markup. If you were a syndicate of players, you'd be better off buying 10,000 iron chisels at 59p a pop, which works out to 590,000p (£5,900). If you were organised enough to get 10k people to collaborate, that is.

edit: unless it was misreported and the diamond chisel is 100k times more powerful than the iron chisel, bringing it down to 5p / userhit.

[André Axe'm]

For that price, I'd expect to get a real diamond chisel as well.

[Sathias]

[vcatkiller]

It almost sounds like a gag Peter Molydeux idea. I'd like to see how many people would actually buy the diamond chisel.

[brimlad]

Iron: 59p = x10 = 5.9p / userhit
Diamond: 5,000,000p = x100,000 = 50p / userhit

That's quite a markup. If you were a syndicate of players, you'd be better off buying 10,000 iron chisels at 59p a pop, which works out to 590,000p (£5,900). If you were organised enough to get 10k people to collaborate, that is.

edit: unless it was misreported and the diamond chisel is 100k times more powerful than the iron chisel, bringing it down to 5p / userhit.

It's not just a cost equation but a probability of being the last hit; the diamond chisel has a much greater probability of scoring that last hit especially if there's only one in the game, if there are more then the benefit of the diamond chisel is greatly reduced.

cheers

[Sathias]

It almost sounds like a gag Peter Molydeux idea. I'd like to see how many people would actually buy the diamond chisel.

Put it on a Kickstarter page and then someone might.

[Mekon]

It's not just a cost equation but a probability of being the last hit; the diamond chisel has a much greater probability of scoring that last hit especially if there's only one in the game, if there are more then the benefit of the diamond chisel is greatly reduced.

Yeah, for sure. I was just riffing off Peter Molyneux's musings about whether one player or a syndicate might fork out for the diamond chisel:

"It's an insane amount of money," he admits, but the aim is to see whether pure curiosity will drive one player, or a syndicate of players assembled through social media, to buy the chisel. "This is not a money-making exercise; it is a test about the psychology of monetisation."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... nyone.html

It makes sense for one player (in as much as dropping that much money on a pointless exercise makes any sense whatsoever), less so for a syndicate if you do the sums.

[vcatkiller]

I'd be nearly willing to bet that the person who places the last blow isn't the one who bought the diamond chisel. If it gets sold that is...

[coatsy22]

lol. I'm more interested to see if the one person who gets to see whats in there then hocks the rights for profit

[Sathias]

What I'm trying to work out is why I'd give enough of a **** what is in the box to pay anything at all.