Evolve Dev: "I Don't Like People Thinking We're Doing Dirty, Underhanded S***"

Silvanus

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I can sympathise with Robb, and I'm convinced he's saying everything he is in good faith. I don't think it's "underhanded" at all. I also, however, think it's not really understanding or connecting with why precisely DLC practices have attracted the reputation they have.

Evolve looks like a cool game to me, and if I bought it, it would be down to the work of the concept artists and artistic developers, and it would be despite the PR people/ business decision-makers.
 

Jburton9

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DLC Mona Lisa says it pretty clearly. Someone modified the original and it seems pretty fitting right now : )

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75512737@N08/7059370281/

So what was the goal? Was it to make software that it's core design is to monetize or was it to make a Game first that is fun, enjoyable and make a nice profit for your efforts?


The game Evolve has morphed alright, it has morphed into a big lumbering cash register.
 

OldNewNewOld

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Maybe if he talked about the thing... what was its name again... ah yeah, expansion packs!!! people would be more accepting to it?
When you announce that you have plans for tons of DLC, of coarse people will be pessimistic. Did he just crawl from under a rock? The current DLC practices are atrocious . Aside from most Nintendo DLC (and only reason for this is that they are the closest we have gotten to expansion packs in the recent history with Luigi U being as big as the original game and costs 1/3 of the price) and some other, most of them are pure money grabbing shit.
And there is a difference between DLC and expansion packs. Expansion packs are usually 1/2 of the original game or more with a 1/2 price.
DLC are almost always tiny bits at a 1/12 or 1/6 of the game's price.
DLC offer far less for a far higher price. Most of the times if you want to get the full experience, you will pay over 3 times the price of the game.

So yeah, it's most likely a anti-consumer practice. A game built from the ground up around DLC will be a shitty mobile tier game.
 

Zulnam

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Well, this just feels unfair for the developers and- *published by 2K*. Nevermind.

Maybe you should convince your colleagues/overlords to NOT talk about DLC until the game is actually out, Phil mate. Hope you fixed the PC crashes from the beta.
 

weirdee

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The sad thing is that I see apologists hanging around Youtube that are still attempting to defend the game because they already invested time or money into it, which makes them feel the need to justify sunk costs by attempting to hide how ridiculous this all is behind the alleged quality of the game, which will somehow redeem it from the massive money snorting it expects to succeed. Maybe they should have put their money down on Star Citizen.
 

Buckets

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Look at the mess that destiny became, a semi finished story with no real closure and DLC that added very little to the mix. Hopefully Evolve won't just do the same as that with this DLC policy.
Be like buying a book with the last 4 chapters sold seperately, wouldn't happen in that industry so why do game devs do it.
 

Otaku World Order

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When pre-order and DLC announcements are coming out before the damn game is even announced, no one knows what it is and there are no trailers or even screenshots of the thing, that's a lot more then one executive just saying something that gets misread.

As gamers we keep getting told to buy shit because "don't worry, you can trust us!" and then we end up with some broken, buggy mess like Assassin's Creed Unity or Aliens: Colonial Marines.

If you're wondering why we have knee-jerk reactions to this kind of thing, it's because you keep stabbing us in the back.
 

SecondPrize

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It sometimes feels like I'm a dinosaur in the gaming world when business practices have moved so far beyond what they were when I was growing up that I just want to throw cats at young people and complain about how I don't understand what's going on around me. I game Evolve a pass when they announced their preorder options. It's the same reason I haven't bought any shooters in years, despite being a fan. I'm not going to buy your fucking game twice. Take your season passes and your dlcs with one character for 15 bucks and low content out of the gate and sell them to some other sucker. I don't think it's underhanded or shitty, I'm not confused or misinformed about what you're doing. I just see it for what it is and don't think that it's for me.
 

sageoftruth

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I think Jim said it pretty well. They put the cart before the horse, the cart being DLC and the horse being the actual game.
Offer a complete game now, offer the DLC later. Don't offer the DLC before the first screenshot of the game is even available, and DON'T offer day-one DLC. Pre-orders are the enemy of consumers. If they truly intended to be consumer-friendly, they made really a lousy first impression. Still, to be fair, the rottenness of pre-orders is lessened a bit by the fact that the beta is available for play, meaning it's not a completely blind purchase.

Lots of people were really impressed with the beta of the game, which had none of this DLC. Presenting the DLC right now makes it look like that stuff COULD be in the game, but won't be because it could be bought as DLC instead. Presenting it later at least suggests that it was an idea conceived after the game was released.
 
Apr 24, 2008
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SecondPrize said:
It sometimes feels like I'm a dinosaur in the gaming world when business practices have moved so far beyond what they were when I was growing up that I just want to throw cats at young people and complain about how I don't understand what's going on around me. I game Evolve a pass when they announced their preorder options. It's the same reason I haven't bought any shooters in years, despite being a fan. I'm not going to buy your fucking game twice. Take your season passes and your dlcs with one character for 15 bucks and low content out of the gate and sell them to some other sucker. I don't think it's underhanded or shitty, I'm not confused or misinformed about what you're doing. I just see it for what it is and don't think that it's for me.
I too remember those glorious days where you bought a game for good money, and got a good amount of content.

I was kinda interested in Evolve before. I liked L4D a lot, and really appreciate teamwork orientated games. I'm not paying £35 for a base of a game that seems pretty bare bones, and that will inevitably make me feel left out and annoyed when I see others using content I don't have. It's like Payday 2 all over again. No I don't want to keep giving you money for content I strongly feel should have been in the game to start with.

To me, it feels like the majority of the planned dlc would already be in the game at launch if they were serious about the game. It doesn't make me feel like I'd be buying a passion project, it makes it feel cynical and cheap.
 

cr0mag

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Sep 6, 2014
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$137US for the pc monster race bundle on steam here in Australia. Lol tell em they're dreaming
 

cr0mag

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$137US for the pc monster race bundle on steam here in Australia. Lol tell em they're dreaming
 

Bigggg BRIM77

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Pro Tip: If you have to explain to people how you're NOT doing dirty, underhanded shit, you ARE doing dirty, underhanded shit.
 

TheRightToArmBears

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Honestly, this just sounds like a PR fuck up rather than moneygrabbing although we won't know for sure until the game is released. If the core game feels incomplete then yeah, I can understand why people are pissed. It's not like DLC or expansion packs are only ever thought about after a game's release though, so I'm wary of casting too much judgement until we've actually gotten any evidence to back up accusations. I understand why gamers have reacted so badly to an extent, given how some developers/publishers have abused them, but jumping to conclusions any time DLC gets mentioned before a game's release seems slightly ridiculous to me.