BioWare Defends DLC Business Strategy
- Thread starter Marshall Honorof
- Start date
The problem with that argument is that, as of late, it is becoming much more difficult for average fans to tell the difference between content developed after release, and content developed alongside the main game, chopped out piecemeal and sold to you as an unlock key.erttheking said:
Here's an aside: did you buy Halo ODST? That was a planned add-on campaign chopped from 3 and sold full-price, with the "extra value" coming in the form of a new multiplayer mode and a few new maps.
Make no mistake, I love DLC. I love jumping back into the world of a game and getting new loot, characters and missions. That said, I will not support day-one DLC, especially when part of it is on the disc I own and bought as a consumer. It skirts some serious consumer rights issues, and companies like Capcom and EA who justify it with "well, it's good for the consumer" are moronic.
Even with Bioware themselves, they went from ME2 (which had one free squadmate if you bought the game new, and 1 other squadmate for $5) to a day-one DLC that has, at most, an hour-and-a-half of content. It's half the size of the Kasumi DLC, for twice the price.
DLC like this sells because foolish consumers lap it up, never realizing that they're getting comparatively less content (versus a few years ago) for more money. I don't even mind if they use transaction packs in multiplayer components, but the minute they start trying to nickel-and-dime for content I already bought is where I draw the line.
Sigh, I shouldn't do this but I will.
To those of you upset about DLC, especially for ME3, why does the existence of extra content available for an additional fee bother you? From what I've read, a lot of ire stems from the From Ashes day one DLC. Now, I do not dispute that the DLC made the game a richer experience with more interesting arcs and some additional context, but I did not find it NECESSARY to the overall plot. I did not purchase from ashes at first, and my first playthrough was still by and large a similar experience. I still enjoyed it. But I wanted that extra content and context, so I paid for it.
Certainly, I would have preferred to get it for free, but I would prefer not to pay for cable too. I have no issue with BioWare or anyone charging extra for extra content, whether it's already on the disc or not. The idea that BioWare is "stealing" content that you already paid for is ludicrous. An appropriate example of that would be if the game cut off after the Rannoch mission and you had to pony up another 10 bucks to finish the game. That would be an example of cutting content and making you pay for it.
From Ashes was ALWAYS going to be a DLC, just like the Fallout:NV DLC was ALWAYS going to be DLC.
People, games like ME are entertainment products. You purchase them for the purpose of experiencing a story and being entertained by it. If the developers feels that the most economical model for them is to sell extra bits of that experience, that is their prerogative. It is not a "ripoff." If the extra content isn't worth the money to you, don't buy it. Your experience of the game shouldn't be impacted simply because you are given the option of purchasing additional content. Let's face it, if people weren't willing to buy this content, developers wouldn't be able to care for it. Clearly, people will pay for it, so developers will continue to produce it.
My intention is not to offend, but I've been lurking through so many of these thread over the past few years and felt that I should express my opinion on the matter. I don't expect many to agree with me but I just can't help feeling that too many people who decry DLC just feel entitled to entertainment.
To those of you upset about DLC, especially for ME3, why does the existence of extra content available for an additional fee bother you? From what I've read, a lot of ire stems from the From Ashes day one DLC. Now, I do not dispute that the DLC made the game a richer experience with more interesting arcs and some additional context, but I did not find it NECESSARY to the overall plot. I did not purchase from ashes at first, and my first playthrough was still by and large a similar experience. I still enjoyed it. But I wanted that extra content and context, so I paid for it.
Certainly, I would have preferred to get it for free, but I would prefer not to pay for cable too. I have no issue with BioWare or anyone charging extra for extra content, whether it's already on the disc or not. The idea that BioWare is "stealing" content that you already paid for is ludicrous. An appropriate example of that would be if the game cut off after the Rannoch mission and you had to pony up another 10 bucks to finish the game. That would be an example of cutting content and making you pay for it.
From Ashes was ALWAYS going to be a DLC, just like the Fallout:NV DLC was ALWAYS going to be DLC.
People, games like ME are entertainment products. You purchase them for the purpose of experiencing a story and being entertained by it. If the developers feels that the most economical model for them is to sell extra bits of that experience, that is their prerogative. It is not a "ripoff." If the extra content isn't worth the money to you, don't buy it. Your experience of the game shouldn't be impacted simply because you are given the option of purchasing additional content. Let's face it, if people weren't willing to buy this content, developers wouldn't be able to care for it. Clearly, people will pay for it, so developers will continue to produce it.
My intention is not to offend, but I've been lurking through so many of these thread over the past few years and felt that I should express my opinion on the matter. I don't expect many to agree with me but I just can't help feeling that too many people who decry DLC just feel entitled to entertainment.
"Gamers are happy to pay for DLC, online passes, and microtransactions, says BioWare."
I may only be able to speak for myself, but in lieu of downloading the "Extended Cut" of ME3, I uninstalled Origin and threw out all my Bioware disks.
So really Bioware...
I may only be able to speak for myself, but in lieu of downloading the "Extended Cut" of ME3, I uninstalled Origin and threw out all my Bioware disks.
So really Bioware...
But, but, it's $10 I don't have to spend! How dare they charge that much money to use a new party member, with extra dialogue, extra scenes, and new powers! They should just suck up the cost and release it for free, just like they did with Kasumi!darth gditch said:
Wait...
Actually, it wasn't. The character was at one point intended to be the Catalyst, who played a large part of the main storyline. Numerous articles have mentioned that Bioware changed this to a DLC midway through creating the content for it because EA wanted to bump up the release schedule.darth gditch said:
Again, it's completed character model and skill tree are both on the disc and were completed prior to the game's certification, and can be accessed by changing a single line of game code. We know some of his lines were recorded before the game was certified (via the demo leak back in November 2011).
You paid more money for content that was already partially on the disc you bought. God help you if you bought the Collector's Edition - most of the content in that pack is also on the regular game disc behind an unlock key.
As far as Javik goes, if anything, he's the only evidence of the developers trying to push that whole "synthetics vs. organics" issue that comes into play in the ending. Without the DLC, that whole theme comes completely out of left field.
I'm convinced; EA is either killing or brainwashing every single studios of theirs. That's the only explanation.
..So that now we have a super-villain on our hands, who are we going to pick for the team? Obviously we need Chuck Norris and Mr. T, but I'm drawing blanks as for other members. Anyone got any good ideas?
..So that now we have a super-villain on our hands, who are we going to pick for the team? Obviously we need Chuck Norris and Mr. T, but I'm drawing blanks as for other members. Anyone got any good ideas?
If no one ever stood up to try and change people, the civil right movement would have never started and women would be second class citizens. Speaking your mind isn't necessarily a fool's errand or something to avoid.CardinalPiggles said:
DA2 was not a flop. It sold less than DA:O, true. But it still sold, across the three platforms, almost 2 million copies in 1 year and 5 months. That's not great, by any means. But considering that DA:O has sold 4.3 million copies on the same systems in 2 years and 9 months, let's see how it works out to for sales per month.Agente L said:
DA:O: 0.13 million copies per month
DA2: 0.117 million copies per month
It has done worse on average than the original, but not so much worse that one can be called a success, and the other a flop. As for SWTOR, it wasn't a flop, either. It bled off customers too fast, true, which is why it is going free-to-play. But it got 1 million subscribers in 3 days, faster than any MMO has ever done. It's a flop in the sense it couldn't maintain those numbers, true. But calling it a flop in general is a bit shortsighted.
TL;DR, DA2 and SWTOR were not as successful as the original and anticipated, respectively. But calling them "flops" is implying much worse than that.
DA2...I guess you could say it wasn't a flop, but it also destroyed Dragon Age series image. And you are comparing both datas when one of them has 16 more months than the other. If you compare both in equivalent months (either 17 or 33 months), you would see DA2 average would be much lower compared to DA:Othebobmaster said:
SWTOR is DEFINATELY a flop. It went freemium in less than one year. And before the f2p part gone online, all servers up were "light", with a few servers having 1 to 5 people online in the central hub. Austin was hit by lay off after lay offs.
It was one of the most ambicious games ever made, with what might be the biggest budget for a video game ever, and it went freemiun faster than LOTRO or even WHO went f2p. EA stocks dropped almost 50% since it's release. It's not only a flop. It's one of the biggest flops in the gaming industries. I'm not saying the game sucks. I'm just saying it failed at being lucrative.
A MMO success isn't based on how many copies it sells, but on how many subscribers he garned and how long he managed to hold them in it's life.
Hmm, well I guess I can see where you're coming from, but telling people not to whine about prices is a hell of a lot different from telling people not to treat you worse than someone else because of your sex.Twilight_guy said:
Seeing as we're way off topic, I think it's best to agree to disagree.
Phlakes said:
That will add one hour of extra gameplay as well as a little bit to the story.Is that worth 15-20$? I think not.
Phlakes said:
The point was that paid DLC singleplayer that your talking about will not be worth it.Nor will any other single player DLC because it will have little to no effect on the ending.That is if Boiware can pull another Lair of the Shadow Broker out of their ass but I don't think so.
Sure there will always be people who buy the stuff but honestly who needs another gun or suit of armor.
You're not alone, there's plenty of people like you and me VERY pissed off about these business practices. I remember the days when games were routinely released and it had 50, or 60, or 70 hours of content or more, with effective, vibrant worlds, gripping storylines, and excellent gameplay (for the time). This was because back then there were no such thing as DLC, there was a significant amount of time between new releases and that meant they had to make each game something worthwhile to hold people over.Hides His Eyes said:
Now? Now they can just make a full game, cut out and lock out content from said game, release said cut up game at full price and then sell the cut and locked content as DLC which should already be in the game to begin with for 10 times what it's actually worth. Worse, plenty of developers will now make a 10 hour game that way back a similar game would be 3 times as long at least and then just sell the other 20 hours in 2-4 hour parts as DLC for, again, far more than it should be.
Not true. How long an MMO stays subcription based and how many subcribers it gets and holds onto is no indicator of it's success. MMOs that are profitable under the subscription model are rare and far between, history has shown that when an MMO goes F2P it becomes much more profitable than it ever was under the subscription model by leaps and bounds.Agente L said: