Rusty's Real Deal Baseball

[Sounga]

So i checked my email today and found a newsletter from Nintendo with the usual game promotions. One of the games they were advertising caught my eye because it wasn't just another mario ect. So I went and gave it a look because why not here is the link.

Spoiler

http://rustysrealdealbaseball.nintendo.com/?om_rid=AAVpyG&om_mid=_BTV0R7B85jqHzC&EID=EM10377 [Rusty's Real Deal Baseball]

The basic gist is its a collection of minigames based around baseball that you have to buy for $4.00 a pop since there are 10 mini games it turns out to be 40$. Then they go ahead and admit that those prices are probably to high and you can lower them by playing mini games or "haggling" with the owner. I'm not sure but this seems to be a bit of a sketchy way to sell these mini games. I can't vouch for the quality of this game since all i did was read the email and then "play" about thirty seconds of the demo which gives you a minimal look at a mini game called "bat and switch" because puns why not. Was wondering what others thought.

 

[Olas]

The idea of lowering the real world price of in-game purchases through actions in the game is actually pretty interesting. It sounds a bit like the free to play model, except rather than giving you something for free but making you wait hours or days for it, instead they're lowering the price if you're willing to sit through the story. However, by the sound of it, the conversations needed to lower the prices are actually one of the game's highlights meaning you actually miss out if you pay full price anyway.

I'm honestly not sure what Nintendo's trying to do here, but it is nice to see a creative new IP from them.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I thought it was a very cool idea. I don't know if it's been done before, but it's probably the first most have heard of this model, I think I'll check out the demo.

 

[Sounga]

Thinking about it later the idea is kinda cool and could definitely go right. If like Olas said the conversations are a main part of the game it could be fun to play the game to make it cheaper. But some of Nintendo's other attempts at micro transactions,Fire emblem and Shin Megami Tensei IV, have left a bad taste in my mouth.I mean depending on the quality of each mini game and the story line in general this could be a game worth the full price that they are experimenting with a new way of monetizing. Which could be cool.
On the other hand the first mini game being called bat and switch still sounds alarms for me since it seems to be a play on Bait and switch,a kind of retail scam. Along with the fact that they blur out all of the price decreases in the trailer/screenshots on the site.Other than that I don't for some reason this feels to me more like something Zynga would do than Nintendo.