Thanks to Major Nelson for supplying the link to this article:
"There will be future content you can choose to buy.
Just like other games with downloadable content, you can choose what you might enjoy the most, or stick with the base game. FWIW, all the Achievements are available in the base version of the game, so you won't be missing out if you choose not to pay for additional content.
The Lumines Live base game comes with the following:
*Challenge Mode:
Unlimited gameplay, with 12 different skins (visualization and music)
*Puzzle Mode: Five different puzzles
*Mission Mode: Five different missions
*CPU Mode: Trial Tournament: battle one opponent through one stage
*Online Multiplayer over Xbox Live:
Unlimited gameplay battling friends head-to-head
*Xbox Live leaderboards
*Time Attack Mode gameplay recording, which can be viewed by other players
***************************
Premium content:
Advance Pack:
22 new skins for Challenge Mode
New leader boards for Advance Challenge mode
There will be several add-on packs for Lumines Live coming in early 2007:
*Artist Pack featuring music video skins like the Madonna "Sorry" music video you've seen in some of our materials. The Artist Packs can be used for play under the Challenge mode.
*Mission/Puzzle Pack featuring 50 new problems in Mission mode and 3 bonus skins, and 50 new problems in Puzzle mode with 3 bonus skins
*VS CPU Mode Pack featuring 11 new opponents/skins".
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2006/10/19/538076.aspx
What people don't seem to be understanding, is that Challenge mode is the main part of any Lumines game, that's the main game. And you can play it limitlessly with no restrictions.
At no point while playing the main game(base mode) are there any interruptions or prompting to buy additional packs. You can play it as long as you want. There's also the included multiplayer. Just those two modes alone could last months and months.
There is also an interview at IGN with Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, which further explains the structure of the game:
IGN: Were there any technical issues that hampered you in any way when creating Lumines Live?
Tetsuya Mizuguchi:"On the data side, we had to fit the game into 50 MB, so we have to include everything in that size. Yes, it's a real limit."
"...So first, we have the technical issue. We have to include everything into 50 MB. But we have another reason. We want people to customize Lumines. We want people to look at Lumines and, depending on the artist, or the season, or the music, we want to give them different reasons to consider buying the game. So, we have two reasons."
"...we actually came up with Skin Edit mode. This is basically, say you were playing the PSP Lumines, and you came to a certain skin, and you played hours and hours of it, well once you leave your PSP and come back to it, you feel like, shoot, if you really want to play that skin, you have to start from scratch. You can't just pick up where you left off. So, now you can customize your own skin edit mode. So, after you open up a bunch of skins, you can customize them, put them in order, or just use the one skin."
"... users that are optimistic, but it's really more about the business and the platform. The way we're providing content to users is changing. The easiest way to compare things is the way we buy music now. We went from cassettes and albums and CDs to downloading games on iPod. We're talking about games, but if you look at the last time you went to Amoeba or Tower Records and bought 10 CDs, versus when you're at the airport or at home or wherever you download music and downloaded songs, you're really only going to buy the songs you want. You're only going to purchase maybe two songs out of the whole album. So, it's really up to you, the user, the gamer, the listener, what you want to buy, play, or listen to. It's up to you as to what you're comfortable with spending."
"...So yes, Lumines has this image. It was a successful launch title on PSP and it came in a package, it came on a UMD. And now it's not. So now people are worried. And maybe even upset that they can't even get the full pack in one software product. But really, it's just changing the way we provide the content."
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/740/740214p1.html
Not like this will help, since every single time there is premium content made available for a game, there are people complaining that it should be free, for some reason or another. But hey, a few people might 'get it'. I personally love the game and will buy all of the premium content available.
