Dragon Age Comes With Free DLC, Armor

[Keane Ng]

Dragon Age Comes With Free DLC, Armor

In a move to combat piracy and used games sales, EA and BioWare will be packing in some bonus goodies into all new copies of Dragon Age: $15 worth of free DLC and some cool in-game items.

EA and BioWare are providing some incentive to purchase copies of Dragon Age: Origins legally and un-used by packaging in some additional content into all new copies of the game. This counts not just for the Collector's Edition, but the regular as well.

Priced at $15, the "Stone Prisoner" add-on for Dragon Age can be bought as separate DLC, but comes free if you buy the game the "legit" way. The add-on lets you add a golem named Shale to your party and supposedly adds a decent number of hours to the already extensive Dragon Age playtime.

The other bonus content is the Blood Dragon Armor, a special piece of equipment that you can use in Dragon Age as well as, somehow, Mass Effect 2. I'm guessing the gear will look different in either game. Both pieces of content - the add-on and the armor - will come in the form of redeemable codes.

Dragon Age is no stranger to bonus content already, what with its pre-order rewards being XP-boosting items for use in game. The purpose of this content, however, isn't so much to get people to pre-order the game but to combat piracy and lost revenue from used games sales by giving gamers a reason to buy their games new and legally. A free $15 DLC pack isn't a bad deal, but is it enough to overcome the allure of getting a game for cheap secondhand, or, if you're an evil pirate, for free altogether? I'm not entirely sure.

Our very own Susan Arendt is in Edmonton right now checking out Dragon Age, so look for more coverage on BioWare's sadly delayed RPG epic in the near future.

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[Booze Zombie]

It about time developers started giving us the whole bloody game in a box!

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Buy now and get the rest of the game free!

Hrm.

 

[Emphraim]

So they are giving you what deserves to be in the game in the first place for free? Amazing ethics. They do realize that since the DLC comes with the game pirates will just put that up along with the full game on torrents right?

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

I'm interested, the game looks good (the mute main character is kind of annoying though, especially after ME).

Does the free DLC offer also apply to the 360 version?

 

[Fat Hippo]

And it will take the pirates maybe 2 secondss to figure out how to distribute the DLC along with the game. I'm happy Bioware is trying to get a lot of content into its game, but it's all just so pointless.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Or, if you're a cynic like me, you can see it as Bioware withholding content already developed for the game from any gamers unwilling or incapable of jumping through whatever registration hoops they'll ask players to go through.

I'll be buying it anyway, but a sustained rate of in-game goodies appeals to me more than an initial gift after checkout. And I'm still waiting for some worthwhile Mass Effect DLC, so I'm not sure how it'll go with DA. Moving in the right direction at least.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Free DLC? Kickass. Consider me sold; I was already looking forward to playing Dragon Age (it is made by Bioware, after all), but now I know I'm going to try and buy it if at all possible.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

is it built in?because if so,It is not Downloadable content,is it?when you download the same item it is,but wouldn't the built in version technically be just extra content?

I am probably wrong,when you point it out,try not to be a troll about it,okay?

 

[Gaias]

It's funny how they said they cut Shale and the content associated with it last year, and now are offering it as a DLC for purchase.

 

[Pillypill]

It about time developers started giving us the whole bloody game in a box!

I Agree i don't want half a game and then be able to buy the rest I pay £50 or so for a game i want the whole game! Although on the complete oposite it's quite a good way of convincing people to get a legit game, actualy it's convinced me to get the game at all.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Free DLC? Free Mass Effect 2 armour? Sold!

 

[Buschmaki]

It's about time they started giving us the whole game? That's like saying not to make any sequels at all because it should have been in the game in the first place!

 

[shMerker]

Here's how it works Zero. When you buy the game, you have a voucher to get the DLC for free. I can't tell if the data actually comes on the disc or if you still have to download it. That's sort of immaterial to the transaction going on here. The upshot is that you can only sell the part that isn't DLC. Now if someone buys the game used they still have to pay BioWare for part of it if they want the same experience they would've got buying it new. That's what this is all about, by the way: taking a cut of used sales.

Hey BioWare: here's a pro tip, since you don't seem to understand customers: If people are waiting to buy your games used it's because they don't see your games as being worth the full retail price.

Taking a cut of the sale of used games is going to lower it's trade in value, which effectively raises the cost for any of the customers who feel they didn't get their money's worth from you. Congratulations on losing them permanently. Meanwhile, sure people are going to be less inclined to buy the game used, but that basically means they'll be less inclined to buy the game at all. Furthermore, the customers who buy used are going to feel ripped off when they realize that people who bought new got more content than them. Good luck getting any of their goodwill for your next game.

 

[Slycne]

This strikes me as having far less to do with pirates and more to try and keep second hand sales down. Despite Bioware having a long and great history, the majority of gamers won't know of or have forgotten the Baldur's Gate series - so this is in essence a new IP to market. This could also be why they are trying to tie Dragon Age in with the established Mass Effect IP. EA is attempting to take what would have been a semi-popular niche title and market it to the masses. Which is not bad per say, but I bet they expect a lot of returns and second hand sales when a good number of gamers find it's not for them. So they are working to capture subsequent sales as boxed copies rather than the used games that they no longer make a cut of.

Regardless more free stuff for me.

 

[hansari]

And it will take the pirates maybe 2 secondss to figure out how to distribute the DLC along with the game. I'm happy Bioware is trying to get a lot of content into its game, but it's all just so pointless.

Yeah...until they can really put the heat on pirates, its all just of no use...

 

[Susurrus]

Hang on what? What are the objections to this. Perhaps I'm being thick, but they are including the whole game at release, aren't they? It's only if you want to re-sell the game that it's a problem, or if you pirate the game?

Unless I'm reading it wrong, all content comes packaged FOR FREE if you buy the game. You can buy the DLC stuff for $15 if you buy a re-sale, but if you're buying re-sale it's unlikely to make a difference to you, because its unlikely you're that into the game.

So effectively, it's only a problem if you're trying to get it on the cheap, either illegally, or by buying it off someone else. I don't know what copy-protection there is packaged with the game, so maybe I'm wrong, but this also seems to imply you CAN resell it. Compare this to a game requiring Steam Activation that has already been activated.

This seems like the best method of piracy protection I've seen. It rewards legitimate customers, who are given content, and so, apart from an activation thingy, notice no difference, causing problems only for pirates. I can't see what the problem is. It's a step towards stopping treating all customers like pirates, and that can't be anything BUT a good thing.

 

[odisious15]

So basically the collectors edition gets nothing extra as far as in game content is concerned now that the standard editions get the exact same content included with the CE version.

I don't mind though since that means more people get what will hopefully great content; But it still seems silly that they somehow now put it at a value of 15$ as the CE extras are worth that much easily but DLC which is intangible is somehow worth the cost they've given it. If the DLC costs that much for the majority of the content put out then I think that's an absurd way to milk customers. I honestly hope the game doesn't become a single player MMO were you have content you can choose to buy each month if you want continue the story or add some flair to your characters.

 

[lawdjayee]

Interesting how, several weeks ago, Shale and the Blood Dragon Armor were bonus content for the Collector's Edition...