Virtual Goods News

This week veteran game publisher Capcom released a new version of its classic Ghosts n' Goblins property for the iPhone. The new game is called Ghosts n' Goblins: Golden Knights and introduces both virtual goods and microtransactions into a franchise that rose to prominence because of its quarter-munching difficulty in 80's arcades. 

In Golden Knights, a player struggling with the game's side-scrolling, enemy-stuffed levels can pay $.99 to acquire a super-item called the Golden Armor. This special armor gives the protagonists magical attacks that make the game much easier. Other power-ups a user can purchase include unlimited lives and other difficulty modifiers, also priced at $.99. 

Users can obtain Golden Armor without spending money by acquiring it in the game as a power-up, but taking too much damage will cause the Golden Armor to be lost. The microtransaction purchases causes the Golden Armor to become permanent.  

While purchasing the armor makes the game much easier, it also prevents a user who completes the game from uploading their score to leaderboards. The game itself costs $2.99 and features six levels. Players can go through the game as Arthur or his young protege Lancelot, who each have slightly different abilities. 

Capcom has had relatively little experience in the virtual goods field, though it has offered DLC for its various games for a few years now. Prior to Golden Knights, DLC usually took the form of extra difficulty levels, stages, or characters to use in a game. Capcom recently closed a licensing deal with Virtual Greats for its Street Fighter IV property, though, so clearly this publisher is warming to the revenue-generating possibilities of virtual goods. Capcom has also made virtual