I mentioned Superstar, a Korean karaoke game for the Xbox 360 before, and like many other music games Studio9 is selling downloadable content. However, they aren’t selling three songs for 500 Microsoft Points ($6.25). Studio9’s downloadable content is way cheaper, dirt cheap.
Right now Superstar has two song packs on the Korean Xbox Live Marketplace. One contains ballads, the other has dance songs. Each one costs 100 points ($1.25) and for less than the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee you get 50 extra songs. That breaks down to two and a half pennies per track. Granted, licensing Korean music is significantly cheaper than dealing with record companies, but at less than a nickel per song you have to wonder if Studio 9 is making any money off microtransactions. In the future Studio 9 plans on releasing song packs with other genres like pop and rock.
While Korea is very familiar with microtranactions in MMOs, Superstar is the first instance of a natively developed Korean exclusive console game that supports the payment system. Studio 9 is opening the floodgates with a fire sale.
Images courtesy of Studio9.
