Jimquisition: Reasons To Pass On Season Passes

Hellfireboy

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Mar 11, 2013
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I have actually only preordered two games and done one season pass. The first preorder was for Arkham City, which I still play and love, but the last preorder and season pass was for Assassin's Creed 3 and totally soured me on the whole thing. I actually regretted buying the season pass the moment I left the store when it occurred to me that I might not even want the DLC that they were going to put out. As of now I have downloaded but never played any of it.

AC3 is a good example of the trap that is so easy to fall into. A game that gets a lot of good press, look great and everyone is chomping at the bit to get. When it comes out it is a glitchy mess but you don't know that because you already have it before any of the reviews have come out and before the developer has even had a chance to address the issue. You then get the season pass where you pay up front for something that doesn't exist and that you may not want when it does.

This really comes down to caveat emptor. You have to take the time to carefully consider what you are buying and whether or not you are getting the best value for your money. To do that you need to know what the product actually is and that isn't possible with a season pass since the product is unseen. The industry will always try to get the money out of you as fast as possible since, to them, it represents a guaranteed income and reduces their uncertainty. We as consumers though need to realize that we don't work for them and their bottom line is none of our concern but whether the product meets our wants or needs.

Of all of the traps that marketing has created for the modern consumer this is really one of the simplest to avoid. When the cashier at your local game store asks you if you want a season pass you say, 'no.' Don't feel bad, they don't work for the game companies either. And if you see on the list of downloads on PSN or XBL just pass it by.
 

MPZero

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Sep 8, 2010
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i dont buy season passes becouse i see them as money grabs and relly nothing i want in them... hell i dont normly even buy DLC unless it's on steam sale (or in some rare cases for games i truly love and want the extra stuff... i miss the old PC game days when addon and extra maps were free... and given with love...not this milk it till its dead and no one will touch it... quick hit it with a bat and make it twitch we can get some more out of it...

ah well... have to see where this all pans out to..
 

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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Bleh, I hate Season Passes. They and Online Passes need to just go away.
 

Pat Hulse

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Thanatos2k said:
Pat Hulse said:
Thanatos2k said:
Pat Hulse said:
I can't argue that Season Passes are generally-speaking a bad deal and consumers ought to be wary of them, but I don't think that publishers should stop offering them. Pre-selling DLC ensures that the publishers don't get on the developers asses about releasing the DLC sooner since statistically, DLC sells best right after release (source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/16/eedar-consumers-have-greater-interest-in-dlc-a-month-after-game/ ). This is why on-disc DLC was such a common practice. With Season Passes, the publishers get to maximize DLC sales and the publishers get to take their time and do their DLC right.
You know, it is possible to release a game and not release any DLC. Imagine that, selling the complete game the first time and not having to worry about consumer interest waning in your game a month later - because they were completely satisfied the first time!
Obviously that's possible, but I'd prefer having DLC as a viable business model for a number of reasons:

1) Development time is hell and it's difficult for producers to find the right balance between focusing on fine-tuning the game engine and the mechanics and producing the actual content for the game. All too often a game will ship before it's ready because the developers were focused more on cranking out a large amount of content rather than perfecting the core gameplay. A DLC model makes it more economical to focus on quality over quantity.
I disagree. It's done the opposite - devs now are being split off from the main teams and shunted onto DLC development INSTEAD of perfecting the main game. Worse, console games are starting to acquire one of the few downsides to PC game development - the "we'll fix it in a patch" syndrome where the initial product is flawed and they'll fix it later (perhaps in a DLC!). Despicable companies like Capcom even have the nerve to include bug fixes and balance changes IN THE DLC, essentially charging you for patches.

2) Too many developers reinvent the wheel even though it's often unnecessary to do so. How many full-priced sequels end up just being recreated copies of the previous game with new assets and content? How many sequels could just as easily be produced as DLC for a fraction of the cost? Imagine instead of rushing out sequels every 2 or 3 years, developers just made one really solid franchise entry per generation and produced seasons of episodic content like "The Walking Dead" does?
Episodic content is episodic content - that's not exactly DLC - that's you buying the actual game in sequential pieces as it gets made, not buying the whole game and then getting extra crap shoved onto it (or pulled from it to sell back to you).

3) It theoretically allows developers to take more risks since DLC tends to be lower-investment. They can try out unusual ideas or test out different mechanics or give younger, less experienced (but often more ambitious) developers a chance to cut their teeth on something smaller-scale in the AAA industry, perhaps leading to more innovation in a perpetually stagnating high-budget industry.
DLC's been around a while now - when has this EVER happened? The closest I can see would be something like Far Cry Blood Dragon which is more of an expansion or mod than DLC. DLC never produces anything that is more innovative than the original game. Modders do - and that's free for everyone.
My point isn't that DLC does all of these things but that, done properly, DLC can do all of these things. I'm not trying to defend the current practice of DLC but rather to suggest that abolishing it entirely isn't the right solution partially because of things like "Blood Dragon" and the concept of episodic content in the first place (which wouldn't be possible without a pre-existing DLC infrastructure) and also that favoring the "Season Pass" gimmick over the "Day One DLC" gimmick is a step in the right direction. It's still not an ideal system and definitely puts the lion's share of the risk on the consumer as Jim points out, but it also potentially alleviates a lot of the problems you cite. The reason producers shove developers onto the DLC rather than onto perfecting the core gameplay is because until the "Season Pass" gimmick, producers were trying to get DLC ready for launch. With the "Season Pass" method, however, they can take their sweet time without sacrificing potential sales.

Yes, DLC has problems and companies use it as a crutch, but those that do are rarely rewarded for it. It's why they're experimenting with the Season Pass thing in the first place. They know that leaning too heavily on Day One DLC is hurting their product and so they're looking for a way to take advantage of the launch DLC sales window without sacrificing the quality of the core product.

And DLC can and has worked. You mentioned "Blood Dragon" already. My personal favorite example is the "Rock Band" series, which released new DLC every week for over 5 years. I wish more games would just be good games and rather than waste time and money on a sequel just build new stories off of the game that people already bought. The games industry has been trying way too hard for far too long to be the movie industry... maybe it should try to be more like HBO.
 

DeadlyYellow

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One could supposedly wait until a collection pack is released, but that makes you some kind of horrible person.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Dec 25, 2010
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Strazdas said:
These people can buy digital and get it delivered the second it launches.
Map packs are the worst, especially since by the time they are out modders have usually created better maps for free already.
Some (like me) want a physical copy.

A map editor in every game sounds great on paper but in terms of development and space on the disc, it's rather difficult and costly to implement a fully featured map editor a la the Unreal Editor or the Far Cry 3 Editor. One solution to this is to implement an editor that's not as large and extensive but then, if you do that, we're back to the map packs again because modders won't be able to create the same quality maps since they don't have all the tools.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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DVS BSTrD said:
The best additional content is never included in the season pass anyway, much better to wait and DLsee what turns up after launch.
Normally I get a chuckle out of your over-the-top puns...but this one hurt my brain...my very THOUGHTS are in pain...

Oh, and Jim, I'm sure that out of a hundred and 140 some-odd posts someone has already pointed this out but just in case they haven't: epic mic drops tend to work better sans the podium. :p

OT: I only pre-order games that I know I'll like...and I can happily say that more times than not I have come away satisfied. Arkham Origins, for instance, I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy seeing as how much I enjoyed the first two games and the fact that, despite being made by a new studio, it looks like they haven't fudged up the most important/fun parts of those games: the combat. As long as they've added to and built off of the original combat scheme made by Rocksteady, I know I'll be happy. Assassin's Creed III, on the other hand, turned out to be a massive disappointment and I felt like a giant boob for pre-ordering that piece of crap. To be fair, I could be wrong about Arkham Origins and turn out dissatisfied with it as well, but everything I've seen from the game says "This is gonna be frickin' sweet", so I'm trusting that my instincts are correct.

DLC, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. The only reason I have a Bioshock Infinite Season Pass is because my friend works at GameStop and he actually hooked me up with a Season Pass code for free. Beyond that, however, you never know when the DLC is going to come out, let alone if it'll be good or not. I don't even know if I'll still be bothered to play the game (or if I'll even still own it) by the time the DLC comes out so why bother? Truth be told, the only reason I still have BS: Infinite is because I got the free Season Pass...but beyond that, I've just been sitting around waiting for the DLC story to come out, having only played the main game through 1.5 playthroughs.
 

Griffolion

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Aug 18, 2009
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I learnt my season pass lesson the hard way with BF3. They call it "premium", it's the same thing. 1/4 of the DLC packs was actually decent (Aftermath). The rest was unimaginative shite. I won't be premiuming again.
 

Kittyhawk

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Aug 2, 2012
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Totally agree. Season passes and pre-orders have become the new shady pay wall to content we should get anyway.

I love Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2 but all the DLC fragmentation just plain screws gamers. Many will just end up waiting for the GotY edition with all the DLC included. From a publisher stand point, this probably looks like a win win. Sure, we get that they are a business etc, but don't bite or shit on the hand that feeds you. A bit of goodwill goes a long way.

I'm glad I don't pre-order games anymore, because seeing this and that piece of content farmed out to odd retailers is just annoying and disrespecting gamers intelligence.
 

wulfy42

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Jan 29, 2009
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Borederlands 2 is an excellent example of why to never purchase season passes.

I got the game originally on my Ps3...along with the season pass. Figured it would be a good deal over all.


Thing is...eventually I missed playing it on my PC...but....by that time there were tons of Sales. I was able to get the original Borderlands 2 and ALL the DLC...including the extra characters, upgrades etc...for $21 total on my pc.

PS3 + Season pass was around $100 (and I bought both Krang and Mechromancer as well for another $20 on my Ps3). Total spent on Ps3 version with season pass ....about $120.

Total spent on PC version with everything except the latest level expansion part (Which I don't need)...$21.

What is wrong with this equation?

Now it's true....I would not have been able to play the game for a long time if I waited to only play it for $21....but the newest expansion had just been released.....and the other expansions where not exactly something I would have lost alot waiting for. The special they had was 75% off the cost of all the DLC with 20% off your total after that. Point being the $40 base DLC you got with the season pass for $30....only ended up costing about $8 (for some reason I think it was actually only $7 but not sure why it got down to that).

That is what is wrong with season passes. They don't take sales into account, or price drops over time etc.

Also they don't take into account bad DLC...or DLC you don't really want/need. Honestly the only DLC I really liked was the last one (Tiny Tina's). The rest was missable to be honest. Yes, when I could get them for almost nothing I picked them up for my PC as well...but I wouldn't have missed having them.

When projecting future content on season passes, you really should take into account price drops and sales as well, and lower the over all price a bit more. 25% off for buying a season pass (compared to the long term price) is honestly what should be given for buying all the content together once it's released. It doesn't include any incentive to actually buy the content in ADVANCE as well.

Season passes should basically start at 50% of the total eventual price of all the content. Anything less is an insult.
 

UnnDunn

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Aug 15, 2006
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Jim Sterling is a self-righteous blowhard. I work for my money, and I'll spend it however I damn well please.
 

timboo_drow

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Jul 21, 2009
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UnnDunn said:
Jim Sterling is a self-righteous blowhard. I work for my money, and I'll spend it however I damn well please.
I don't think Sterling would begrudge you that, just don't expect him to respect your choice.

My belief is that I will buy a product if and when it is available and worth my money and not a second sooner. If companies are taking money and not providing the product then they get the extra benefit of having your cash on hand without having delivered anything for it; that's called a LOAN.

Where is our interest, games industry, on all of the millions of dollars of loans you have taken from your consumers.

I also view Kickstarter in the same light; asking for loans with no mention of paying any interest for those loans.
 

WeepingAngels

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May 18, 2013
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Of course pre-ordering DLC is silly as shit so I won't say anything more about it. Let's look instead at game and console pre-orders. It has gotten to the point where people feel they MUST pre-order if they want a game or console on launch day. In other words, the pre-order mentality feeds itself.

Gamers need to do themselves a favor and just stop pre-ordering. Just stop and if enough people do, then it will no longer feel necessary to pre-order.
 

Roboterik

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Jun 15, 2011
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Pre ordering a season pass seems ridiculous for a game that you don't know if you actually like yet...But what can you say to an industry that successfully replaced playable demos with teaser trailers and worthless pre order bonuses? If publishers can workout beforehand that the games going to flop then they can cut the funding out of the DLC to make it as cheap to produce as possible. Selling vague promises is a great way to fill in poor sales but also gives the appearance of confidence where there isn't a whole lot.
 

putowtin

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Jul 7, 2010
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I don't mind pre-ordering a game I know I want, I'll find the best price/deal however Season Passes can go get stuffed!
I foolishly bought the Saints Row 4 season pass, it doesn't include the GAT V pack... I wanted a gun that fired knives:( Well no more, I've learnt my lesson!
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Arnoxthe1 said:
Strazdas said:
These people can buy digital and get it delivered the second it launches.
Map packs are the worst, especially since by the time they are out modders have usually created better maps for free already.
Some (like me) want a physical copy.

A map editor in every game sounds great on paper but in terms of development and space on the disc, it's rather difficult and costly to implement a fully featured map editor a la the Unreal Editor or the Far Cry 3 Editor. One solution to this is to implement an editor that's not as large and extensive but then, if you do that, we're back to the map packs again because modders won't be able to create the same quality maps since they don't have all the tools.
Sure, some want to, but then they should accept that with physical copies you got certain problems, such as having to wait in line for example.

I didnt said we need map editors in games. what we need is a comprehensible way of file storage and coding. you know, sort of like how Relic did it back when it was alive. they didnt provide any user tools. the modders themselves created tools. because files were stored in .big packages, scripts were written in LUA that modders decrypted themselves, and allowed to make a lot of mods, even by people like me who usually arent knowledgable enough, that made the game last much longer. And before you ask im talking about homeworld series. you know the thing people are ready to give money for a HD remake now. its 13 years old, and people still play it, and still create mods for it. thats a good life if anything.
modders are more resourceful than you think, there are programmers who play with game code for fun too you know.
 

TelHybrid

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May 16, 2009
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The thing I hate most about season passes is that it doesn't get you every single DLC release for the game, only selected releases. What's the point of it?!