EA Considering Paid DLC Before Game Release

[Wandrecanada]

If they took that chunk out of the full-retail price, this strategy could be great.

If you could get 10 to 15 off of the actual release, then that would be pretty reasonable.

Yessir.

That's what of a lot of you naysayers need recognize, actually, assuming this is used to give people a taste of the game.

You pay $15, you get, say, 1/4 to 1/6 of the game content. You enjoy it? Bring $45 into a store or type in your credit card info and buy the rest.

See how easy that was? And if you didn't like it, you only spent $15.

Alternative: rent things before buying them. That's about $7 a week where I live (California) and surely it's comparable elsewhere.

I think a lot of the knee-jerk reaction here is because of the term Pre-DLC. That stirs up bad memories of DLC and how shitty some companies are being with their DLC policies.

IF that is how it indeed works, then they should elaborate on that when they get interviewed. As it sounds right now, it's bonus cash for EA for content already available on the disk.

EA did not say paid demo they said paid DLC. Just like BF 1943 as was the cited example. Everyone is barking mad about something that EA has never said they would do.

If you think that 1943 for 10$ was a "demo" for BFBC2 (which it was nothing of the sort) then you need to rethink what you deserve for free. I can see things like pre release PDLC as a good thing. You could get an extra level or two of the game before it comes out to get you motivated to buy the full game. Or you could even not like the way the game plays and avoid buying the full version.

This has actually already been done with Fable 2 by Lionhead although it was not exclusive content. Imagine if you could have played a small campaign of Fable 2 before you made your purchase. If you didn't enjoy it you'd not buy the full game and save some bucks. If you did like it you'd still have a full unplayed game to look forward to even after the PDLC "demo".

It's more content for the games we love instead of paying 70 bucks for a shorter more rushed Activision excrement.

 

[Gaias]

How would this work for games that are in themselves only 6 or 8 hours long? This kind of PDLC is going to be judge by length as the determining quality factor and genres like shooters are going to come up short in that aspect.

 

[Katana314]

I actually see this as a great idea. Let's say a new extremely innovative game, call it Pfortal, is in someone's head. He takes it to a publisher.
"Well, that sounds okay in theory, but we have no idea if people would like it so we can't risk millions on the project."

With this idea, he can come up to them and say just to make it a short game, a demo like has been mentioned above. Then, if it fails, no huge loss. If people like it, it's worth developing into a full title.

I will also mention it's worth reading the article's source, because The Escapist has once again done a horrible job of paraphrasing.

 

[Yokai]

Call me old-fashioned, but I can't help but prefer the days when you could walk into a store, come out with the game you wanted, go home, play it, and that was it. These various digital distribution and DLC schemes are just getting more and more devious and complicated. I kind of feel like video games are becoming something different from normal entertainment media. They can no longer be grouped with books and movies as a straightforward method of entertaining or telling a story. With ideas like this one, those disintegrating demos, day one DLC, and all that other crap, gaming is now something wholly different.

And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

EDIT: More on-topic: Everything EA, Activision, and Ubisoft do these days makes me more pissed off. One notices they don't really have a lot of press releases about revolutionary AI or intuitive storylines, but about new DRM schemes and bizarre ways to make customers pay as much as possible for their games. It's all marketing, no development. I just want to congratulate companies like Valve, Stardock, and Bethesda who care more for making games than making money. More developers should self-publish, I think. It would lead to less of this greedy, nefarious stupidity (OXYMORON) from the publishing giants.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

It's not a cash cow because it's not very big, so I think the best term for this stuff would be cash calves.

 

[SimuLord]

You know what? I don't even want to fault EA for this one. Every time Michael Pachter's name shows up in one of these stories, it's usually in the context of his damn fool firm encouraging game companies to screw consumers so their share price will go up another nickel.

Ten bucks says there's not a hardcore gamer on the payroll at Wedbush Morgan. This is what gaming has become. If anyone needs me I'll be over here in Indie Niche Market Land. The marketing assholes haven't figured out how to ruin this place yet.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

i dont like this idea. i download so many demos because they are free. I would never ever be willing to pay for one.

now if there was a free demo that i enjoyed and they offered up a 5 hour experience for 10 dollars i would be all over it.

 

[Zedzero]

Ah trying to take back the Douche King crown I see, back from the clutches of Activision. This will be hard to top.

 

[Antari]

Considering the can't even get most of the full version games to function properly within 6 months of release. My answer is no way in hell. If they want to pay ME to test for them fine, but I'm not going to give them even MORE money for an even more unfinished product.

 

[CheckD3]

EA just took back it's title of company that hates it's fans the most away from both Activision and Square Enix

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe Kotick cloned himself, underwent facial reconstruction and infiltrated EA.

 

[lenneth]

Or, here's an idea, you do that...but you take the price of the expanded demo off the main product if they purchase it.

Of theyre going to charge for demos then this is something that they really should do

 

[Jandau]

Sooo, they expect people to pay money for the honor of beta testing their games? Right...

And these won't be "prequels" as some people here put it. It will either be content cut from the full game or content found in the original game. Basically, this idea is great for everyone but the consumer, in the same way that passing a law that requires every person on the planet to mail me $10 is really great for me, but not so much for the rest of the world...

 

[Eleima]

EA's business model in a nutshell.

Yeah, that sounds about right... The older I get, the more I think that games are being parceled out in little tidbits, one after the other. When I was a kid, games were sold complete, end of story, not with a multitude of expansions and the like... I'm not sure I like where this is going... *sigh*

 

[The Rockerfly]

Seriously, what is it with game developers lately? They act like we are scum of the earth

Ubisoft DRM
EA on the day dlc, this bullshit
Activison

I would like to remind you gaming companies, we made you and if you keep fucking with us we can break you just as easily

EA just took back it's title of company that hates it's fans the most away from both Activision and Square Enix

How does Square Enix hate their fans?

 

[Bat Vader]

The words demo and cost and the price $10.00-$15.00 really do not sound good when used in the same sentence.

A demo even if it is extended is not a full game and should not be priced. \

Why would I pay $15.00 for an extended demo of the game when I could base my opinion on the free demo of the game?

The only way I could see paying for this is if it included some DLC for the main game when it comes out. Otherwise, this is just a bad business maneuver.

 

[bismarck55]

Pfeh... Paying to beta test a game for EA is retarded. So it will probably be a roaring success. After all gamers bought into Bioware's bullshit DLC blitzkrieg, paid five fucking dollars for Bethesda's horse armour, bought assassin's creed 2 on PC with ubisoft's bullshit DRM and made Modern warfare 2 (don't even get me started on this one) one of the most successful entertainment products ever. Yeah... this will probably be a success.

You know, I actually want publishers and developers abandon any pretense of customer satisfaction and just go nuts, see just how far gamers are willing bend over (and if you ask me we've already got a nice view of the floor) before actually getting a clue and exercising some of the power that they/we hold over these corporations.

 

[Funkysandwich]

It might be good if they give a discount on the full game if you buy the demo/prequel.

Otherwise, it sucks bad.

 

[manaman]

Either we're stupid, stubborn, or unlucky, but we've been wrong. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, each time hoping for a different result.

I don't know what people say that when it is quite obviously not the definition of insanity, or even a definition of insanity.

EA yet again releases plans that are anti consumer. Now they even have a plan to charge gamers for the demo, and if the dude is right to keep charging for the demo after the game is released.

DLC should be a bane to gamers. Sure sometimes nice new stuff can be released, but what in the world happened to releasing that as expansions onto popular games, rather now you have games that feel functional but bare (yes I am looking at you Mass Effect 2) being released with a massive DLC campaign for it. You shouldn't have to fix your game over time by charging customers more. I have pretty much been paying the same price for PC games my whole life, and I actually saw console game prices drop before the current generation where they charge roughly what you would have expected to pay for good game on an SNES cart in the early 90's. Nobody could really fault them for just tagging an extra $10 onto the games as long as they actually developed them, before they released them. As it stands now I don't even want to get a game at launch because by the time I finish playing it the game might have a different flavor with all the DLC.

They don't want to do that because then EA they couldn't selectively remove not include add portions of the game back into onto the game later, for rip off exorbitant prices that only seem small because they are doled out piece by tiny little costume piece.