will "Extended Cut" games catch on?

[idarkphoenixi]

With the upcoming release of Mass Effect 3's "ending clarification", also known as "The extended edition", a lot of people seem to be waiting for it with one thing in mind: Will it be good?

The thought occurs, however...What if there are rival developers lying in wait and wondering if this actually becomes a big hit? Now I know that this particular extended version will be free to those who bought the game but you just know that someone out there will try to turn it into a marketing tool.

DLC has been generally accepted as a normal thing to do these days and virtually every company with even a semi-popular game will be more than eager to shell something out for an additional cost. Some people take it too far of course (e.g. Fable 3 selling the colour black) and charge for something that should by all rights be on the disk. As a whole however, it's just the normal thing to do. No doubt developers are wondering where they can go from here, and this new 'directors cut' of sorts may just be the ticket they were looking for.

It seems unlikely that they would sell it for a bloated price weeks/months after the original sale without facing harsh critisism for it
(although some would probably still try). I think the most probable way to do it would be as a bonus on those "special editions" that companies are always so eager to sell alongside the regular copy. So now you would get an art booklet, cheap tin casing and extra scenes/dialogue within the game.

Hopefully this has some discussion value.

 

[subtlefuge]

Adding on to something rarely ever fixes it. ME3's ending wasn't incomplete or bad, it was just broken.

Extended cuts probably won't catch on because people will be massively disappointed with Mass Effect 3's version. Not to say that the idea of adding DLC epilogues to tie story elements up is a bad idea, it's just not going to happen that often.

Personally, I'd like to see designer's cuts where game designers go back and do things that they wanted to do, but weren't able to because of hardware/software limitations, design constraints, or financial practicality.

 

[DoPo]

"Extended cut"? Don't we have these already? Only under a different name. The GOTY/Gold/Silver/Platinum/whatever-fancy-name-you-want-to-call-them editions. I have Assassin's Creed?: Director's Cut Edition. Fuck if I know what the difference between this and the normal one is. Or even if there is a difference.

If you ask me, "extended cut" is just another name for that fancy release where you get the same game but just a bit polished and maybe with some stuff added. In this case, it would be mainly focused on the ending, otherwise it could be pretty much the same game shipped with the latest (current) patch and an artwork book or something.

 

[krazykidd]

Nope . Well at least not for free . And i'll be damned if i pay to get an ending to the game . * stares at FFXIII-2.

I like games as much as the next guy , but if they are going to cut out the ending ( or epilogue) and sell it to me , to hell with the game .

 

[Kahunaburger]

Isn't that kind of what Witcher 2 is doing with more Act 3/epilogue content? Although I guess we're comparing apples to moldy oranges, since Witcher 2 had an ending that made sense and fit with the rest of the game.

EDIT: hopefully, other people who want to add content like this will follow their lead and not charge for it haha.

 

[DoPo]

"Extended cut"? Don't we have these already? Only under a different name. The GOTY/Gold/Silver/Platinum/whatever-fancy-name-you-want-to-call-them editions. I have Assassin's Creed?: Director's Cut Edition. Fuck if I know what the difference between this and the normal one is. Or even if there is a difference.

If you ask me, "extended cut" is just another name for that fancy release where you get the same game but just a bit polished and maybe with some stuff added. In this case, it would be mainly focused on the ending, otherwise it could be pretty much the same game shipped with the latest (current) patch and an artwork book or something.

...you completely missed the point. He isn't talking about editions that have all the DLC added, he's talking about developers adding extra shit to the ending of a game post-release.

And you completely missed the point where I have not even mentioned "all DLCs included". Again, you mean "fancy editions". Some of the, say, Gold editions are for games which don't have any extra content packs of any description. They just polish the game and may add/change minor things, others merely repackage the same game. Adding extra shit to the end can still be called Gold edition, if BioWare so wished. They could have called it "Mass Effect 3 Mass Edition" and it would still have been the same thing.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

It depends really.

If we are talking strictly story, I think it catching on wouldnt be a bad thing. Provided of course charging for a real ending doesnt become standard practice. But maybe going back, fixing up a few plotholes and the likes? As long as it doesnt happen to often, why not? (As you can probably tell, im not to concerned about this imaginary artistic integrity developers have.)

If we are talking the technical side of things, no fucking thanks. I really dont want to see shoddy ports, bad voice acting/bad translation and what not being fixed half a year later. Imagine it, publishers would release broken games more often than they do now because hey, they might go back and fix it at some point, everyone else does that!

This, pretty much. If they want to tie up loose ends in the plot, or add little bits of dialogue to explain part of the plot, there's nothing wrong with that. But if they want to patch the game and call it an "extended cut", rather than releasing patches for free and fixing the discs being printed, they are invited to place it where the sun don't shine. That said, I see no problem with people giving the story a bit of a polish if they discover something wrong with it after release.

 

[xshadowscreamx]

heavy rain directors cut
witcher 2 extended edition

who can name more

 

[Aerosteam]

Possibly. As long as they don't purposely include a bad ending to the game and release a good ending later to make them look better, I'm fine. There's bound to be one developer that will sell it with a price. But which one?

heavy rain directors cut
witcher 2 extended edition

who can name more

Fallout 3: Broken Steel.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

God I hope not. If anything is taken away from this, it should be that Developers need to spend more time making sure their ending actually works. Releasing shit and then fixing it up later with an extended cut seems like a terrible practice.

 

[The Madman]

Back in my day we called em expansion packs, some of em were really damned good too. That's what we're talking about right? Something that improves the overall experience by adding new content and responding to fan criticisms in order to create a better overall experience, perhaps even expanding the story and adding new chapters and a new ending?

Yeah, expansions. Been around for a while now, though with all the DLC stuff it's sorta fallen out of practice. Why take the time and effort to create a quality expansion pack when you can cut content from the initial release and sell it for around the same price anyway?

But maybe I'm just being cynical. Bioware were good at expansions once, Throne of Bhall was fantastic... mind you now that I think about it that was also their last expansion. Huh.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Oh, I hope not. I'm all for expansion packs (See Diablo II for how to do it amazingly well), but not tacking on extra stuff at the end. No, if you're going to do that, you need to plan to do that from the beginning. Which brings in the argument of "Why didn't you have it in the game to begin with?", which in turn is countered by "That's why it's called an expansion pack" and blah blah blah. It's a very dangerous road to take, because I'm afraid developers will start forgetting the idea behind an expansion pack: to expand on the story. I don't want to see games ending and not wrapping up the story because you need to get the Extended Cut for the complete thing. A game needs to wrap up its main story nice and neat. An expansion pack can then build on something that was in the game, but wasn't part of the main story.
Ugh. This makes so much more sense in my head, but here it just sounds like I'm rambling.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

"Extended cut"? Don't we have these already? Only under a different name. The GOTY/Gold/Silver/Platinum/whatever-fancy-name-you-want-to-call-them editions. I have Assassin's Creed?: Director's Cut Edition. Fuck if I know what the difference between this and the normal one is. Or even if there is a difference.

If you ask me, "extended cut" is just another name for that fancy release where you get the same game but just a bit polished and maybe with some stuff added. In this case, it would be mainly focused on the ending, otherwise it could be pretty much the same game shipped with the latest (current) patch and an artwork book or something.

This. The Game of the Year Edition has always been the equivalent of the special edition DVD, and while I think charging for the "real" ending in the sense of a short DLC that includes the very end which was specifically cut may become more common in the future, it's not like it's a completely new practice. More like the next logical step in the old one of cutting sections out of the middle and selling them as DLC, like with Arkham City and Assassin's Creed II.

P.S.: I also have that version of Ass Creed. It's just what they called the PC version, which was held back for a few months to add a bit more polish and a few extra sub missions to make the free roam sections less monotonous.

 

[DoPo]

P.S.: I also have that version of Ass Creed. It's just what they called the PC version, which was held back for a few months to add a bit more polish and a few extra sub missions to make the free roam sections less monotonous.

Ah, yes, I remember now. It's pretty much "PC Edition" with only a few minor missions tacked on (something I think the archer and one more type or something) to make the game a bit less boring and repetitive. Of course the new missions were only minor variations of the existing ones, so meh.

CAPTCHA: time lord
Oh no, am I getting pre-emptively warned for moderation?

 

[karcentric]

Hope not, we shouldn't have to pay for our endings (looking at you FFXIII-2) We don't want half-assed endings.

I agree they should finish the damn game and release it. Damn the release date! Give us proper content, it's like loading the disc with dlc content and than releasing it later to make more money.

 

[MercurySteam]

CAPTCHA: time lord
Oh no, am I getting pre-emptively warned for moderation?

No. Fucking. Way.

On topic, I'm hoping that what happened with ME3 was a one-off. I don't like the idea of waiting three months for a game's 'proper' ending.

 

[Thoric485]

CD Projekt have had great post-release support for both Witcher games, taking customer feedback for things like the UI and combat, adding extra content and whole new gameplay features and packaging it all as a free "Enhanced Edition".

It's worked nice, but I don't see EA/Activision/Ubisoft stockholders jumping at the thought of giving away stuff many people would be willing to pay for, or lingering for months or one title, instead of getting right up on the cash-in sequel.

 

[Rawne1980]

If it becomes common practice to sell the ending of a game as DLC then i'll be finished with gaming as a hobby and taking up fething knitting.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Jim Sterling has an episode about DLC in general. He nailed the point there, publishers/developers shouldn`t cry about used sales, when they try to milk their customers with game of the year editions ( or whatever they call it). There are to many games out there and i can wait for a cheap game of the year. If i have the urge to play something new i can rent it anyway.

As much as i like an expanded game, there are to few developers who nailed their content right and i don`t feel ripped of. The only example i can think of now is Rockstars GTA4 content and undead nightmare for RDR.
I have my doubts about Bioware, we`ll see.

Not many devs give stuff away for free so BIG greets to monolith for their GCIstuff.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Somebody will probably try it, but considering most companies couldn't manage a fuck up as bad as ME3's ending even if they were actively trying, they won't 'catch on' to any greater extent than they already exist as DLC or special editions or whatever.