lets say every game is 800 points (8$), you can buy 1000 (10$) point cards only, once u buy a game you have 200 left over and you can't do anything with it, so in reality, your paying 10$ for an 8$ game, but the way its done it tricks us into thinking we only paid 8 when we actually paid 10.

from what i know both sony and nintendo do this as well. i currently have 200 points on my wii console that im NEVER going to use, they managed to steal 2 bucks off me(more than that actually but i duno the exact number)

the itunes store how ever will charge exactly the price of what you buy. if its $1.70 you pay $1.70 not $2.00

one good thing about having points over real life money is no tax

My guess would be that since you have to purchase points to buy games, you always end up with some left over afterward. By doing this, it would compel us as the buyer to want to purchase more things from the marketplace. The catch is though, you end up buying more points to cover the next purchase and always find yourself left with currency you don't need.

Right now I have 700pts on my account that are just sitting there because I refuse to buy another 300 just to get an 800 point game.

Exactly. I know PSN does a similar thing too by making me top up at least £5, but at least I can keep track of my money and price varies and oh, god the ridiculous amount of DLC for stuff that should be included in XBLA games is terrible.

Just look at the cost for access to Worms landscapes and Bomberman packs in order to get the full game. Should of been included in the game in the first place.

You guys are both right. 400 ms points equals $5US in hopes of trying to confusing people and making them think its $4 instead of $5. Anyone that has seen a podcast has seen the point system confuse people talking about game prices on xbla. They also have preset funky amounts so people always have something left over and have to buy more then they need. Which will likely make them buy something in the future since they already have some points in their account. Its evil but that's MS for you.

droid.

Kinda like how the PStards get all of these free patches and lengthy installs for all of their games.

Why should consumers have to do math if they want to buy something? Simple or not its anti-consumer. BTW having a 80 to 1 conversion rate is not simple. Simple would be 100 to 1 or 1 to 1. If you can think of a logical reason not to use either of those instead please let me know.

Underrated comment. I used to hate that game so much that any time my siblings asked me to play it, I just picked Hom and shut myself down mid-match.