Marvel Heroes Executive Defends $129 DLC

[RJ 17]

You see, the pack itself isn't the problem, it's the fact the game has 425$ worth of dlc in the first place.

I mean Jesus, I get it's free-to-play but seriously this is really milking the cash cow dry here.

"Milking" you say? Good lord, they've done gone and ripped the udders clean off the cash cow!

Seriously, when I saw this headline my immediate reaction was simply "WHAT?!" I thought F2P games were all about micro-transactions..."FUCK THAT!" says Gazillion.

 

[Pebkio]

I don't see a problem here. It looks like they've just taken their peacemeal stuff and bundled it for a large discount. It's a bigger bundle than we've ever seen before but really no different than selling it peacemeal. I think they've made a terrible, terrible, mistake though. "OMG! THEY JUST SHOWED US HOW MUCH THE CONTENT IN THIS GAME COSTS! Holy hell! It's way more than a regular game!"

$425, really? It makes me think about other F2P games and just how much money people have sunk into them. They should've just stuck to our current system of hiding those costs through small, managable, purchases.

 

[SecondPrize]

I miss when you could buy a game once and new stuff was just patched in. I don't want to flog a competitor's product in their thread but with that IP if they'd gone down a different PATH and taken the approach OF making a good game rather than a wallet trap they wouldn't be off in EXILE in the irrelevant corner of the gaming space.

 

[mattaui]

I think these companies have finally realized that there's no real downside to offering huge package deals like this, or otherwise expensive exclusives that might be outside of the price range of a lot of their customers. Whether it's $120 DLC bundles or $500 gold BattleMech packages like MWO just offered, not to mention plenty of other early access or preorder options at $100 and up across many games, this is just the way these games get monetized.

The old way of box copy ($50) plus yearly subscription ($180-200) plus occasional expansion pack ($40) puts things in a little more perspective.

 

[shintakie10]

I can't get really too angry about pricing. I'm used to buying full games for $5 - $15, so stuff like this just doesn't exist to me.

At least they are being up-front about some of what you are getting (even if it is in the future). How does this compare to the gambling style stuff in TF2? I really love Valve, but that system guarentees that a certain group of people will spend well over $125 just gambling with keys to open crates. It looks like this system might have similar stuff though too, with those cards.

On average, you will get one unusual hat per $249 spent.

..yeah. And that's still the best F2P model there is

STO has the best F2P model there is, not TF2.

i see your sto and ill raise you world of tanks. no lock boxes in that

Isn't there stuff you can't get in WoT with in game money though? I thought there were those fancy premium tanks and whatnot.

 

[erbkaiser]

This is really no different than the Season Passes for DLC that most games come with these days. There too you usually have no idea what will be included or when it will be released, and can only hope you get your money's worth out of it.

Sure the price point is high, but they're probably right that there will be some people buying it anyway.

 

[Callate]

Oh, yes. Please. Show me where it's common practice to try to squirrel a hundred bucks or more out of people for a "free to play" game in a single pop. I mean, everything I've heard suggests the game becomes downright tedious a few hours in, but I'm sure the legendary Marvel IP and the prestige that comes of wearing a sign around your neck that announces to your fellow players that you have more money than sense is thoroughly worth it.

Hey, Gazillion. You know what makes free-to-play games successful? It tends to be a combination of awesome gameplay and goodwill. People get so invested in your game and how good it is that they feel bad not shelling out a few dollars to support it. They feel like they're part of a community.

...Does any part of that sound like it lines up with this over-valued cash grab of yours?

 

[VoidWanderer]

...

Why is everyone copying EA's marketing plan?

 

[Stevepinto3]

If it costs as much as a new console to buy all the content in your game you're seriously overvaluing your content.

But hell, does anyone know if there's going to be a community for this game by early 2015? Sure it's Marvel but free to play games are wholly dependent on their community. Look at poor Super Monday Night Combat. Why should people put down money, much less over $100, for a game that might be effectively dead by the time they release that content?

It's one thing to pre-order a game, one that has a specified release date. But pre-ordering content for an MMO? That far in advance!? I'd say there should be a law, but I'm shocked that anyone would even try something this low-down and despicable.

 

[Something Amyss]

Note: It's a shame because I really would like to play a Marvel MMO game like this... just not for anywhere near that price.

Likewise. And it sort of makes me wonder how much money they're making off it. I'm sure there are some takers if they feel they can charge this much, but I looked at their prices, and did a 180. Sure, there's free content, but mostly not the stuff I care about.

 

[Something Amyss]

Look at poor Super Monday Night Combat.

What happened?

Not that I'm complaining if they failed. they were terrible to their consumers in the days of MNC.

 

[Amir Kondori]

If they are up front about it all and people want to pay that money more power to them.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well, in context of the story, it's just fine.

The only issue I have is:

The content in the deluxe pack would normally go for $425, while the standard edition is worth $215 if sold separately.

What.

The.

Hell.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Look at poor Super Monday Night Combat.

What happened?

Not that I'm complaining if they failed. they were terrible to their consumers in the days of MNC.

The game is effectively dead. Last time I was on there were about 50 active users in North America. If you were in Australia good luck finding a single other player on. Oh yeah, and that was back in January, god knows how it is now.

It was a pretty fun game overall I think, but pretty difficult to get into. Little to no influx of new players killed it.

Not sure what Uber Entertainment did to earn your ire.

 

[Karadalis]

Well would you look at that.. its seems that these Devs went to the same school of economics as the guys over at PGI (mechwarrior online)

Try to sell hot air with a vague promise.

Still... not a 500 dollar golden timberwolf.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

Some people had a problem with the Ultimate Founder Pack being $200. I picked it up because it had very good bonuses for a game I had already played many hours of during the beta and since then I've played it accumulating up to over 320 hours. As much as I would like to get the pack, it doesn't have any characters in it that are really motivating me to get it and I currently have in game currency left over for when the new characters get added so I can create storage for them until I possibly get them.

 

[Something Amyss]

Not sure what Uber Entertainment did to earn your ire.

Not only did they ban a significant number of their community, but they did so after essentially trolling them. I get that they stood behind the changes they made to their game, but they handled it by taking reasonable people making reasonable criticisms ("this is why it's unbalanced" as opposed to the death threats CoD designers got or "fuck you faggots" like virtually everyone gets on the internet) and responded by flamebaiting? Yeah, I sort of wonder if something similar happened to SMNC to impact the base.

I won't ever support them again, something I wouldn't even say of EA, Activision, or THQ.

 

[Something Amyss]

The content in the deluxe pack would normally go for $425, while the standard edition is worth $215 if sold separately

For some reason for me this doesn't prove his point and only serves to show how idiotic the pricing is.

\
Yeah, "just look at how much MORE we could be charging you" doesn't seem like the right approach.

 

[Hyperstorm]

I wouldn't pay that for a full AAA game so I sure as hell wouldn't pay that for DLC.