Braid price cut to 800 Microsoft Points

By Ellie Gibson Published 23 February, 2009

Save a third off the original cost.

Microsoft is slashing the price of platform-puzzler Braid to 800 Microsoft Points.

That's GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60 to you. Braid normally costs 1200 Points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 14.40), but the price has been cut as part of Microsoft's deal of the week promotion. So presumably it'll only be available at that price for a week.

As reported by Major Nelson, you must be an Xbox Live Gold member to take advantage of the deal. The new price will be in effect from 1pm GMT today.

Major Nelson promises that future deals of the week will include discounts on add-ons for Ninja Gaiden II and Project Gotham Racing 4, plus original Xbox title Fable.

Braid scored a tip-top 10/10 from our Dan last year - read his review to find out why it's so marvellous.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Murbal #1 3 years ago

    Buy it! Jigsaw puzzles have never been so addictive and cerebral :-)

  • ryohazuki1983 #2 3 years ago

    Liked the look of this, played the trial etc, however didn't buy as I read some reviews which said you had to collect all the puzzle pieces to unlock the last level....i'm not a fan of searching around for ages finding stuff due to the limited time I have to play games!

    Might get it, just to play through without collecting all the pieces but that seems a bit pointless really.

  • dazrichards #3 3 years ago

    Another cunning attempt to get people to sign-up to Live after the Hawk and Halo Wars demos. I wont, I tells yer!

  • charliemouse #4 3 years ago

    I thought I'd love Braid; the concept, art style, everything really appealed and I usually get over-excited by stuff like this, but ultimately I found it really, really dull and overpriced.

    Biggest disappointment of last year, to me at least.

  • CapnCloudchaser #5 3 years ago

    Awesome insta-buy! I have 1000 points sitting around.. Was gonna save them for Outrun, but I figured it would probably be a 1200 game anyway. So yay, I can finally buy Braid ^^

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 3 years ago

    I thought it was the best game of last year...

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #7 3 years ago

    This is finally a really good reason for the live subscription, as most games are peer to peer or hosted by EA servers ive always felt the gold subscription was a con, and if it wasnt for Gears 2 id still be on silver.

    Glad i caved now and i will be picking up discounted Braid.

  • Fodder #8 3 years ago

    @ryohazuki1983

    Collecting the puzzle pieces is the whole point of the game. If you don't do that, you've just got a fairly average platformer. Getting through the levels is trivial.

    You don't have to hunt for them, though. They're all obvious. The game is about working out how to collect them.

  • JonFE #9 3 years ago

    @Ryohazuki1983:

    You don't actually have to search for those puzzle pieces, as they are in plain view. Finding a way to collect them all, though, is the heart of this puzzling platform game and if you don't care for that there's little point in purchasing it.

    As someone who paid full price for this on release and loved it, let me say you'll be missing out, so try the demo to get a taste of its mechanics before splashing out your points.

    Edit for Fodder:
    Great minds think alike and all that buzz :)
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/09 @ 10:18

  • Kazzahdrane #10 3 years ago

    Nice of Nelson to let us know the future deals in advance, people generally get annoyed if they just paid full price for something that is suddenly discounted.

  • Eraysor #11 3 years ago

    Tempting, but I already know the storyline (found out by accident) and that would pay for at least 5 more Rock Band songs, which I would probably use more.

  • Toothball #12 3 years ago

    I've fallen victim to a few deals on Steam recently. I guess sales on Live too would be a good thing, just not for my bank account.

  • homerramone #13 3 years ago

    Save a third... Or to put it another way.

    Pay what you shouldve had to in the first place !

    Be nice if this becomes regular (and actually reduces the price of thats that didnt sell because it was overpriced rather than just cos it was crap !)

  • coolbritannia #14 3 years ago

    That my friends is a bargain....

  • speedjack #15 3 years ago

    Now I'm tempted.

    Having said that, the demo did nothing for me.

  • udat #16 3 years ago

    Best game of 2008. Seriously.

  • DrDamn #17 3 years ago

    @Eraysor
    Knowing the story line doesn't really matter. As the ZeroPunctuation review put it, the storyline and the game are effectively in two different rooms, you just peer in on it occasionally.

    I'd like to see more of these special offers for Gold Subs please.

  • metalangel #18 3 years ago

    Finally this is available at a reasonable price, given it will last you an afternoon! With this cut, can poor old Blow still support his Faberge Egg habit that MS drove him to by forcing him to make so much money? And be wary of Dan's "review" lest the sheer volume of pretentious new games journalism cause you to be sick all over your beret, black turtleneck and fashionable goatee.

  • TopKatt #19 3 years ago

    Can't decide whether to get this game as soon as it's released on PC or wait and see if it gets a PS3 release. I definitely want it, but I'd rather play in on a console if possible.

  • muscleblade #20 3 years ago

    "Having said that, the demo did nothing for me"

    I guess youre not clever enough to solve the first puzzle then.

  • HolyJebus #21 3 years ago

    If I used one of those free day Gold Live account things you get free with some games would I be able to buy the game then?

  • RobertFoster #22 3 years ago

    Cool. I was just messaging a friend over Live the other day asking for recommendations as I was 200 points short to get Braid.... zOMG MS ARE READING MY MESSAGES!¡!¡

  • ZuluHero #23 3 years ago

    @HolyJebus

    You don't need a gold account to buy Arcade Games.

  • mukki #24 3 years ago

    are price cuts normal on XBL?

    just wondering if I should wait 1/2 year to get GTA lost & damned

    if it gets cheaper... which I dont think will be the case...

    but I will prob not be able to restist buying for that long :)

  • rhubarbandcustard #25 3 years ago

    I would consider buying Braid for 100 points.

    Actually, scrap that, I don't think I would download and play Braid even if it were free.

    Cerebral puzzle gaming leaves me cold.

    I just want to be entertained.

  • moggsy #26 3 years ago

    Cerebral puzzle gaming leaves me cold.

    I just want to be entertained.

    Some people actually find that entertaining, myself included.

  • rhubarbandcustard #27 3 years ago

    MrEd: I just like to keep my public informed of my various musings!

  • miiiguel #28 3 years ago

    "@metalangel: MS forced the price up, he didn't want to charge that much"
    If that's true why the PC version is even more expensive ?

  • shotgun44 #29 3 years ago

    800 points is pretty good for this. Wonderful game but 1200 points was too much, I managed to get all the pieces without help in 2 days and I'm hardly a master at puzzle games! However, I think everyone should experience this game at 800 points, they might just be surprised at how good it is! Don't worry about the storyline though, it's pretentious bullshit!

  • evild_edd #30 3 years ago

    A-ha. This will be a purchase for me! :0)

    Played and enjoyed the demo, but resisted the full purchase as I had too many other games to play last year (still haven't played GTA4). However, psycologically, the sub 1,000mp price feels like an impulse purchase.

    Not sure whether this is just limited to those of us who've been purchasing titles on XBLA since the 360 launch - but I feel a pricing should be 400mp for remake/cheap-trhill title, 800mp for the better quality original IPs......

  • The_Inquisitor #31 3 years ago

    Thank goodness, now all those fools who kept whinging about it being to expensive can finally buy it and understand what all the fuss was about.

  • jim1975 #32 3 years ago

    just think, all you tight ass gamers can now save yourself's £3.

  • ronuds #33 3 years ago

    Do the same with Castle Crashers and I'm there!

  • HolyJebus #34 3 years ago

    @ZuluHero

    You might wanna try rereading the article again.

    Verrrrrrry slowly.

  • miiiguel #35 3 years ago

    @ MrEd:
    " A day after Stardock started accepting preorders for Jonathan Blow's Braid for the PC at $19.95, the independent developer has announced a five dollar price drop in the interest of reaching a wider audience.
    I don't care that much about the PC release price. The XBLA version was nicely profitable, and my goal with the PC release is mainly to get the game out to a wider audience."


    Wow..., nice link..., he now says he can lower the price because he already made his profit at XBLA? Not cool.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/09 @ 14:38

  • metalangel #36 3 years ago

    Wow, after all those whining soapbox moments (three or four a day at its peak, or so it seemed) where poor hard done by Blow moaned and complained about how EVIL MS had FORCED HIM to swindle helpless 360 owners for his vastly overrated Mario clone (which is downloading now at the 'doesn't have to be the best game ever' pricepoint of 800 points), his starving artist routine falls away with the 'nicely profitable' line.

    Oh noes, he's sold out! All those peacock tongue sandwiches (as someone here or possibly Joystiq said) have corrupted him!

    Ah, download is done. See you all in an hour then.

  • DFawkes #37 3 years ago

    I tried the demo of this rubbish platformer. Well, I thought it looked rubbish. I can't believe how good it is, must purchase! Nice of them to reduce the price the very week I bother to have a go.