Super Meat Boy gets early price drop

By Fred Dutton Published 19 October, 2010

Grab choice XBLA cut for 800 Points.

Showing a total disregard for standard retailing convention, Xbox Live Arcade platformer Super Meat Boy will see a price cut from launch day.

Developer Team Meat announced that the game will be available for 800 Points (£6.80 / €9.60) for a limited time only before reverting to 1200 Points in November.

Its explanation for this outré sales strategy?

"We wanted to be able to do something special for Xmas," explained co-CEO Edmund McMillen, "but it felt like a sale only two months after launch would be a kinda sh*tty thing to do to the fans who just bought it.

"After much brainstorming Tommy and I pitched the idea of possibly launching with a sale, a way to reward the fans for buying the game at launch. Now this to my knowledge isn't something that MS has ever done, but much like 'teh Internets' we though we might as well approach the idea of a sale with the same innovative mind set."

That's a great deal, providing you're a masochist. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell awarded the platformer 9/10 earlier this week, noting, "This is a hard game. It should make you want to throw the pad across the room, get up to retrieve it but then change your mind and stamp on the cat."

Super Meat Boy launches on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, before terrorising Mac, PC and WiiWare users later this year.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • asphaltcowboy #1 2 years ago

    This just makes it even more awesome. Already desperately excited about playing this tomorrow!

    Let's all those people that were complaining about the price in the review come back to say how happy they are!

  • toythatkills #2 2 years ago

    Easily worth 1200, you're an idiot if you don't buy it for 800 :)

  • SteveHolt #3 2 years ago

    Another day, another instabuy!!! Thanx for the discount, though.

  • excelexcel #4 2 years ago

    Fantastic this is a guaranteed buy now! They should do this more

  • matrim83 #5 2 years ago

    Good for them. Hope it nets them a few more sales.

    Show us the same daring spirit by releasing the Steam version a month early? :p

  • Sharzam #6 2 years ago

    At 800 points it will be hard to resist for alot of gamers if for no other reason than the mind set recently, for some 1200 points to be the standard so this will seam really cheap. Despite 800 being the old normal price.

    Personally i am torn the game as it has been getting rave reviews and it is worth the money. But do i really want something that hard ? Playing comic jumper the moment and that's fun but at times i want to throw the controller and this is even harder. Not to mention i still have a virtual pile of arcade games to get thorough.

  • Malek86 #7 2 years ago

    Damn, I was thinking of waiting for the PC version, but this might make me change my mind. Unless they tell me there's going to be a similar deal on Steam...

  • Masaroth #8 2 years ago

    Know what im buying when i get home for work with the 800 points on my account. Result

  • Deckard1 #9 2 years ago

    They just made a sale. I wanted this, but the 1200 points as a standard thing is pissing me off so I was going to hold off.

  • asphaltcowboy #10 2 years ago

    I actually think this could/should be the pattern for all "big" XBLA titles... early adopters get it for 800 and then it goes up to 1200 after a week or two. I reckon MS'd get a whole load more early sales and people would have less to complain about price-wise!

  • reelbigkris #11 2 years ago

    Holding off buying this because I want the PC version. However, it is very tempting to pick this up for 360 instead. I hope they launch a similar offer :)

  • richarddavies #12 2 years ago

    It pisses me off when these gaming pr SPOONS talk bull. Why didn't they just say "look were reducing the price as the overwhelming response is that were takin the piss chargin 1200 points for a game that looks like a 12 year old made it on an amiga." Just tell the truth.

  • asphaltcowboy #13 2 years ago

    @richarddavies - Maybe you should read their blog post... then you wouldn't come across as such a dick :/

  • Tetsuo_Shima #14 2 years ago

    Although not quite as zealous about it as richarddavies, I can't help but agree with his point. It's not so much a sale as a temporary break from extortion; the only reason it seems cheap is because they've thrown the mention of 1200 in there for contrast. THAT BEING SAID, I really like the look of the game and it's going to take all my powers of resolve just to stop myself from ... ah, fuck it. Purchase!

  • Sonic_D #15 2 years ago

    So this now goes from a wait till later purchase to instabuy for me. Hopefully enough ppl will buy this to make MS realise that 800 really is the sweet spot to price games like this.

  • Monkey_Puncher #16 2 years ago

    Was buying it before the price drop, probably give it a miss now as I'm not really into buying cheap games....joke!

  • E_Goldstein #17 2 years ago

    These guys are now the worlds most sexual developers.

    Instabuy.

  • hugejeans #18 2 years ago

    When do the 800 points go back in to your account after spending 2400 like I have?

  • richarddavies #19 2 years ago

    @Asphaltcowboy Yeah I read it and they quoted the whole thing on the article. There talkin shit. There just reacting to the negative feedback on the price.

  • richarddavies #20 2 years ago

    @Asphaltcowboy Yeah I read it and they quoted the whole thing on the article. There talkin shit. There just reacting to the negative feedback on the price.

  • Whizzo #21 2 years ago

    Cheap meat is something usually best avoided but I think this is a welcome exception.

  • metalangel #22 2 years ago

    I will buy this to add my vote to the "prices are too high" thing.

  • neosalad #23 2 years ago

    this is a trend i would like to see more often (reminds me of when i used to buy 7" records and CD singles which were often cheaper or on promo the first week. and once they charted would go to full price.. but some releases were full price from day one!)
    i just dont like 1200 point XBLA price point. 800 is much nicer!

  • Incarta #24 2 years ago

    Crazy, but very welcome.

  • Quixz #25 2 years ago

    Got me 1210MSP just sitting there daring me to buy something!

  • NimbusTLD #26 2 years ago

    @hugejeans

    End of November if I remember correctly!

  • Acrid #27 2 years ago

    PSN Gief

  • muscleblade #28 2 years ago

    Getting it today for sure but dont have time for it at the moment so it will have to wait on my HDD.

  • lennon #29 2 years ago

    Nice innovation guys and one that will reward you with my 800 points later today.

  • JonFE #30 2 years ago

    Introductory sale prices are a lovely marketing "trick" (for lack of a better word) and I hope this will set a good record and other developers will follow suit.

  • king2001 #31 2 years ago

    That's a lean cut of meat.

  • Roland_D11 #32 2 years ago

    @richarddavies

    It's interesting that you talk about 'pr' people. The guy who is quoted in the article is one of the two (!) developers of the game. If you followed the development of SMB on their blog you would have seen that they are serious about their relationship with their fans.

  • 32768Colours #33 2 years ago

    I like these guys. They're bending the rules of XBLA to give gamers a good deal; free dlc and now this. As far as I was aware its MS that set the prices on Live, so for a developer to get round the rules this way is a really cool thing.

    To the naysayers, I'd agree that 1200 points is to much for some games, and there are plenty I've not bought for that reason. But if a developer is willing to challenge convention they should be commended not criticised. Honestly! Some people will find fault in anything!

  • richarddavies #34 2 years ago

    Im not naysaying the game at all. I think it's a good game. I just don't like the fact how it was priced at 1200 points. Everyone says it's well too dear and then before the games coming out they go and drop it to 800 points and act like it's got nothing to do with the negative feedback. Even if they just said "look, we know your not happy with the price so were going to lower it for awhile" i'd be well happy with em but it's the fact that there doing it and basically saying it's cos were awesome that pisses me off. Just be honest.

  • evild_edd #35 2 years ago

    Re SMB lower price at launch: great idea that's made this a day 1 download for me - one which otherwise would've waited for a deal of the week. I'm still playing a lot of Reach at the moment though, so this may have to patiently wait on the HDD for a while yet.

    In regards to general xbla pricing, I think it depends on the title. Some of my most played 360 games are arcade titles, and well worth a tenner IMHO. Having said that, I got secret of monkey island on iPhone for £1.89 which made the CMOS price seem a little steep....

    Ultimately, i'll pay full whack for the titles I really want, and wait for deals on this borderline releases