[[{{Pokemon}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon-red-and-blue.jpg]]
[[caption-width:502:Gotta catch 'em all! = Gotta get 'em both!]]
So you GottaCatchThemAll, eh? Well, the Marketing department has come up with a wonderful way to encourage social participation! They'll split up one game, and put various characters, {{mons}}, plots, and other content into two (or more) different cartridges! Thus, the only way to get everything out of the game is to find other people who have purchased the other version and trade stuff with them electronically (or just buy it yourself). This version is common with [[{{Mons}} mon]] games.

Of course, this now means that those various characters, plots, and {{mons}} are now interchangeable in the overall plot, thus making characterization inconvenient, and that anyone who doesn't have access to large gatherings of people with the game are likely screwed.

Sometimes it's the same game for everybody, but you still need to "connect" with someone else to unlock something. This also applies to situations where you need to interact with a separate game, generally of the same company, to unlock certain content. Such scenarios usually require the presence of a certain save file on your memory card or hard drive, or even console-handheld interaction. This version isn't as annoying to most players, since the content involved is less central to gameplay; on the other hand, it can be much more annoying to actually ''get'', and God help you if you're going for HundredPercentCompletion...

A variation of this involves ending a game's story on a {{Cliffhanger}} and having the sequel pick up where the first game left off, giving the player the feeling that the entire series was literally one game split into multiple parts. For some reason, it feels much more offensive when a video game can't stand alone than when a novel or movie is serialized; individual volumes of a series of novels, films, or television shows frequently are not expected to be anything but a continuation of a work in progress, while video games are generally expected to be complete works in and of themselves.

Novels, films, and television shows also do not cost $60 an installment, though novels are borderline if you get the hardback version.

Compare the arguably more benign cousins, the ExpansionPack and the OldSaveBonus.
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!!Examples

* ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' is the TropeMaker. The Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald versions mix it up a bit by having different antagonists with different goals in each game. Other versions just have different Pokémon with varying rarities. Diamond and Pearl also include the ability to trade over Wi-Fi, theoretically allowing a player to collect all the Pokémon without knowing someone with the other version personally or buying it yourself. (Though they came out with Platinum anyway.) The "GTS" system in the game lets you do this, but only with Pokémon you've actually seen in the game.
** Pokémon also brought this to an extreme in its third generation. Ruby and Sapphire together had only about half of the Pokémon. [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=], having come out later, had most of the other half, leaving only a few. Colosseum and Gale of Darkness had one of these each (Ho-Oh, Lugia). Another one was available from a connection bonus from Pokemon Channel in Europe only, or a preorder only version of Colosseum in America only (Jirachi), and yet another was available through the latter method in Japan only (Celebi). That makes six games, one of them having to be preordered and bought twice in different languages (or once plus buying another game in Europe), on two consoles, to catch 'em all. Except there were still pokémon you could only get through Nintendo arranged events...
** Pokémon Mystery Dungeon pushes this further to the extreme. The first set of games were at least released on different systems but the second set give absolutely no reason for the double release. Trading is not an option here so all but one of the few differences in Pokémon listings are solved by entering passwords which are far easier to find online than in the opposite version. It basically boils down to, after you complete the storyline, would you like to catch a Mewtwo or Celebi? Thankfully, the other spin-off games avoid this tactic.
*** The more recent Explorers of sky also subverts this by having every pokemon except Arceus available without any interaction at all, partially because the game uses a completely new password system that does not work with the previous games.
*** And then there is the Pokemon Stadium games. Some do give you certian pokemon that you can't get more than one of, but it requires [[NintendoHard completeing several absurd challenges]], so it may not even be worth plunking money down for the stadium games. On top of that, all the rental pokemon the games provide generally have bad stats and mediocre move sets, neither which will help in the harder battles. In other words, in order to even win battles in the stadium games, you needed a copy of your own handheld pokemon game and import your own team over in order to even stand a chance at winning.
* The ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' games started doing this with the 3rd installment. At first, it just affected side bosses and cards. Later, what version you got affected what storyline bosses you faced and abilities you acquired. This means that, for some reason, in one version of ''Mega Man Battle Network 5'', the Navi in charge of a water world is ''Napalm''[=Man=].
* ''MegaManStarForce'' is One Game For The Price Of ''Three.'' However, through Wi-fi, you could get the benefits of all three games, making the differences effectively the high-end cards and one boss. ''Star Force 2'' is One Game For The Price Of Three For The Price Of Two, with three versions consolidated into two distinct cartridges (Zerker x Ninja and Zerker x Saurian; at the beginning, you choose whether you play Zerker or your cartridge version). ''Star Force 3'' is back to just two versions.
* ''{{Demikids}}'', aka ''Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children''. This game is as if some Japanese executive heard the MoralGuardians ranting about ''{{Pokemon}}'' being about children summoning demons and went "...that would be an ''awesome'' game!" To be fair, though, the story is different depending on what version you play.
** The ''Megami Tensei'' series had been doing the monster-capturing gameplay gimmick [[OlderThanTheyThink for nine years before]] ''Pokemon'' arrived.
*** Demons are not monsters.
*** also Pokemon is more like enslavement, SMT games(save the latest two Personas...) though to be fare for the meager amount of junk they ask for in return you the Player doing anything with them(suicide missions, forcibly fusing, even giving them away in the Raidou vs Abaddon game.) its more like you got the contract over their soul... so this troper here cannot tell which is more family inappropriate.
* For a while, the ''{{Bomberman}}'' games tried to add Mons called Charabombs to the series and started splitting up the portable games into two versions.
* A handful of the ''{{Digimon}}'' portable games do this. Notably, ''Cathode'' and ''Anode Tamer'', and ''Digimon World Dusk'' and ''Dawn''.
** ''Digimon Story'' (''Dusk'' and ''Dawn'''s precursor) did something similar, although there was only one version of the game, several of the 'elite' Digimon required multiplayer features to access. Fortunately, most didn't and the ones that did were only necessary for multiplayer battles and a few side-quests.
* ''Metabots'', a [[{{Mons}} Mon]] series featuring children playing with alien robots rebuilt into toys (no, really) did this.
* ''Robopon'' and ''Telefang'', both shamelessly trying to ape ''Pokemon'', pulled this.
* The portable ''ShamanKing'' games do this, turning the ghosts of the series into collectible mons.
* While you can go through the single-player campaign of the ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: DawnOfWar'' ExpansionPack ''Dark Crusade'' with all seven races by itself, in order to play any races other than the Tau or Necrons in multiplayer, you have to have the original game(for the first four races) ''and'' the first expansion, ''Winter Assault'' (for the Imperial Guard).
** Given that it was a stand-alone, expansion-pack priced game, this was more like 2 games for the price of one. Dark Crusade got a lot of accolades for its format, even if you do need the other games to fully access the features.
* The ''Transfer Pak'' for the {{Nintendo 64}} allowed a handful of games to interact with their Game Boy versions, unlocking extra content in either or both of the connected games.
*The PSP remake of {{Final Fantasy Tactics}} requires you to link up with another player to do the multiplayer battles that give out some of the uber equipment that could only be gotten via theft in the original.
**Ironically, they could only be stolen in the US version of the original due to it being made easier. In the original Japanese the Gengi equips cannot be obtained at all due to the boss having concentrate like in the PSP version (though his katana can be caught at high levels).
* The upcoming TalesSeries game TalesOfHearts will have a twist. One version will have prerendered FMVs for its cutscenes while another version has hand drawn anime for its cutscenes.
** And as largely suspected by any fan of the series, the sales of the former so far were barely over 1/10th of the latter.
** Probably as much because the CG version, while having gorgeous effects, left all the characters sitting in the UncannyValley.
* ''DJMAX Portable 2'' has six unlockables that must be obtained by winning multiplayer matches. Barring that, you can play lots of songs (360 at the least for one of these six, and 2,284 at the most for another). Yet more unlockables can be obtained either in Link Disc mode (which requires you to have a copy of the original ''DJMAX Portable''); many of which ''can't be unlocked in any other ways!''
* Transformers for the DS is basically the same game split between 'Autobot' and 'Decepticon' versions. Naturally, some vehicles are only available on one or the other...
**This is lampshaded in an early mission, on either game; whichever version you are playing, you get a short piece of dialogue with what's implied to be the protagonist of the other version, in which the Decepticon tells the Autobot that 'we may be on different sides, but we're both still playing the same game.'
*The now-defunct company Smilesoft is probably the KING of this trope: All of their monster-collection RPGs had two versions. The ''Telefang'' series came in Speed and Power versions, each focusing on {{Mons}} with that attribute (which is slightly better executed than Pokemon - at least ou have an idea of what's exclusive to a particular version), ''Bugsite'' had Alpha and Beta versions ([[IncrediblyLamePun Though they're equally buggy hahaha]]) and the ''Dino Device'' games came in Dragon and Phoenix versions.
* Capcom released a very incomplete port of ''{{Final Fight}}'' for the {{Super Nintendo Entertainment System}} which was missing, among other things, one of the main characters, the modern day Ninjutsu master Guy. A second version was released which added other minor refinements, but basically traded Cody for Guy and not much else.
* ''Vampire Savior 2'' and ''Vampire Hunter 2''. Both are {{updated rerelease}}s of ''[[{{Darkstalkers}} Vampire Savior]]'' that came out during the same month in Japan only. The only real difference between the two games are the character roster: ''Savior 2'' replaces Jon Talbain, Rikuo, and Sasquatch with the ''Vampire Hunter''/''Night Warriors'' characters who were missing in the original ''Vampire Savior'' (Donovan, Huitzil, and Pyron). ''Vampire Hunter 2'' keeps them and brings back the whole ''Vampire Hunter'' by ditching the new characters from ''Vampire Savior'' (Jedah, Lilith, B.B. Hood, and Q-Bee). Thankfully the console versions of ''Vampire Savior'' averted this by including everyone.
*''ShiningForce III'' followed one overarching story from the viewpoints of three different main characters, and each protagonist had his own game. You had to play all three to see the beginning, middle and end of the plot.

!!Examples of games that get bonuses from other games

* A good number of Nintendo DS games have extras that can be gained if you have the right Game Boy Advance game in the DS's GBA slot.
** Of course, Pokemon does this, and some Pokemon are only obtainable through transfer from a GBA game, making Diamond and Pearl One Game For The Price Of ''Eight'', since you need Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and [=FireRed=] or [=LeafGreen=] at least for the legendary Pokemon (and you'll need to add in Colosseum or Channel if you want every single Pokemon).
** In ''{{Castlevania}}: Dawn of Sorrow'', you start a new game with a Rare Ring if its predecessor ''Aria of Sorrow'' is in the DS's GBA slot. There's also a cute Mina doll in the background of Yoko's shop that's only there if the game is in the GBA slot.
*** Rather annoyingly, this only works with the original ''Aria of Sorrow'' cart, not with the Two Games For The Price Of One ''Castlevania Double Pack'' which contains both ''Aria'' and its predecessory ''Harmony of Dissonance.''
** Having ''YggdraUnion'' in the GBA slot while playing ''KnightsInTheNightmare'' gives you the opportunity to recruit Pamela at a random point later in the game, and the tutorial will have Yggdra as its guide instead of Maria, with arranged music from Yggdra Union in the background.
** All of these of course, are now impossible if you got a DSi which doesn't have a GBA slot, meaning no, you can't [[GottaCatchEmAll catch them all]]. Which is why they're making Heart Gold and Soul Silver!
* In the first ''{{Boktai}}'' game, in order to get the most out of the BonusDungeon, one needs to trade "emblems" with other players. Later ones let you hook up and interact with ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' games.
* In the Nintendo [=DS=] remake of ''FinalFantasyIII'', sending and receiving a certain number of e-mails via the DS e-mailer unlocks special events and equipment.
* Unlocking the hidden character Jake "The Snake" Roberts in ''{{WWE}} Smackdown vs. Raw 2006'' requires connecting with the PSP version of the same game. Yes, that's right, you need to own the exact same game on two different platforms for this one.
** Same goes for the Gamecube version of ''PrinceOfPersia: The Sands of Time'', where you can unlock the original ''Prince of Persia'' game by linking the GCN and GBA versions -- but at least this isn't the only way to do it.
** Ditto with ''[[CrashBandicoot Crash Tag Team Racing]]''.
* Unlocking the Captain Olimar trophy (required for HundredPercentCompletion) in ''SuperSmashBros. Melee'' requires having a ''{{Pikmin}}'' save file on your memory card.
* Unlocking some extras in various EA Sports games requires you to have save files of previous games in the series.
* Both ''{{Metroid}} Prime'' and ''{{Metroid}} Fusion'' contain bonus content available only by interacting with one another.
** Also, you can connect Fusion to Zero Mission (via link cable) for some bonus pics, including all the ending images from Fusion as well the Japanese exclusive ending pictures.
* Completing both ''MetalGearAcid'' and ''MetalGearSolid 3'' allowed you to hook your PSP up to the PS2 via a USB cable and automatically unlock three bonus items which could only be obtained otherwise by [[PacifistRun long]], [[NoDamageRun difficult]] and [[StealthRun arduous]] means.
* American gamers were disappointed when ''MegaMan Battle Network 5'' lacked a way to obtain Bass Cross [=MegaMan=], an e-Reader bonus available to Japanese players. Then the enhanced DS version of [=BN5=] did make it available. The catch? You have to plug in a copy of the GBA game. And not just any copy -- one where you've defeated the final boss and ''all'' the post-game bosses.
* The ''{{Suikoden}}'' series for [=PS=] and [=PS2=] has used this several times. In ''Suikoden II'', you could recruit the Hero from the original ''Suikoden'', providing that you had a completed ''Suikoden'' save on your memory card. Since both of those games are well worth the price independently, that may be more of an OldSaveBonus... however, in ''[[SuikodenTacticsRhapsodia Suikoden Tactics]]'', you can use a [[HundredPercentCompletion "Perfect"]] savegame from ''Suikoden IV'' to unlock two secret characters, including ''IV'''s extremely powerful hero. And that just may be the only good reason to buy ''Suikoden IV''...
* ''{{Metroid}} Prime 3: Corruption'' includes a feature wherein you can use "credit" icons obtained in the game to buy extra stuff. The green credits, however, can't be obtained on your own... [[SocializationBonus you have to have someone on your Wii's friend list send you "Friend Vouchers"]] that ''they'' got on ''their'' game (the vouchers are totally useless on your own game.)
** Players also have to make sure their friend has the same version of the game, otherwise the feature won't work.
** One of the unlockables are ''bumper stickers'' for Samus's ship if you have the appropriate game saves on your Wii.
*** Meaning that, in order to get all bumper stickers, you have to buy ten games. ''Ten''.
* The DS game ''Monster Farm DS'' has a variant on this trope, in which one method of unlocking monsters is by inserting a game - any GBA game - into the GBA slot, and some formula works out what monster to make, but is still played straight as there are two special monsters that can only be unlocked with this feature, with the required games being the two GBA games of the Monster Farm franchise. (That is, the Japanese versions of those games. "Monster Rancher" is the English name of the franchise, and the English versions of the game do NOT give the special monsters.)
* The game ''Legend of Mana'' for the Playstation, there are several instances of this. One is the first pet: normally it is a Rabite, but if you have a ''FinalFantasyVIII'' save on your memory card, you will receive a Chocobo instead. The second is a secret weapon obtained by defeating a secret boss which can only be fought if you have a ''{{SaGa}} Frontier 2'' save on your memory card. The third is a ring obtained from an NPC if you have a ''Chocobo Racing'' save on your memory card.
** Actually, you can fight the boss without the SaGa Frontier save file; you just don't get the sword if you don't have it, nor do you get a cool pre-boss cutscene.
* There is a system in ''GeometryWars Galaxies'' for both the Wii and DS which is unlocked by linking them via wireless connection. As these are among the highest-scoring levels in the game, it is nearly impossible to ascend the scoreboard without linking.
* In ''{{Mega Man X}}8'', having a ''Mega Man X: Command Mission'' save on your memory card will let you fight Cut Man from the original ''MegaMan'' as a bonus boss in Optic Sunflower's stage, right before the boss proper.
** However, the PC port scratches that (mainly because ''Command Mission'' never had a PC release), instead having you complete every area of the stage at the highest level to be allowed to meet Cut Man.
* In ''Gran Turismo 4'', having a ''Gran Turismo 3'' save on your memory card gave you option of transferring 100,000CR and your B and A Licenses from your GT3 save.
* In ''HarvestMoon: Friends Of Mineral Town'' (GBA) connecting to a Gamecube with HM: A Wonderful Life unlocked Van and Ruby, from whom you could buy certain bonus items. On the flip side: playing AWL with [=FoMT=] connnected would unlock the hot springs (Where your character could recover lost health and stamina without the use of foodstuffs).
* In ''HarvestMoon DS'', playing with ''Friends of Mineral Town'' in the GBA slot resulted in unlocking the five brides from [=FoMT=] within HM DS. Although if you chose to marry any of them, the game ended the moment you did.
** Luckily, in [[DistaffCounterpart Cute]] you can marry one of the five Mineral Town bachelors,''with'' the game continuing after marriage.
* When playing ''AdvanceWars: Dual Strike'' on the DS with one of the two GBA games inserted into the GBA slot, you can unlock some additional maps.
* Marvelous has done this with almost every one, maybe everyone, of their ''HarvestMoon'' games. The latest being "Sugartown" for the PSP which is more of an enhanced remake of an almost ten year old game.
* ''{{F-Zero}} GX'' (the Gamecube version) got bonuses when you took its memory card to a ''F-Zero AX'' (arcade version) machine -- bonuses that were [[NintendoHard insanely difficult]] to get otherwise.
** And insanely difficult to get from ''AX'' cabinets too, since at the height of their popularity there were a grand total of 20 of them available to the English-speaking world. ([[http://www.smashboards.com/fzero/locations.php There's a database.]]) If you wanted those bonus tracks and cars, a GameShark was always your best bet.
* The infamous "Stop 'N' Swop" from ''{{Banjo-Kazooie}}'' and its sequel, whereby you could swap the two games over during play, taking items from one game to another to unlock secret bonuses, would have been an example of this had it not been cut because changes to the N64 prevented them from implementing the idea.
** But ten years, a buyout, and two complete system generations later, the Xbox Live Arcade ports of ''Banjo-Kazooie'' and ''Banjo-Tooie'' properly implement Stop 'N' Swop, also working with ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts 'n Bolts''.
* In ''MarioKart Wii'', having a ''Super Mario Galaxy'' save makes unlocking Rosaline much easier.
* If, for some strange reason, you still have a ''Madden NFL 06'' save game on your memory card, a special Madden van will be unlocked when you start up ''{{Burnout}} Revenge'' on PS2
* Having ''{{Resistance}} 2'' for the PS3 linked up with ''Resistance: Retribution'' for the PSP will allow for PSP Plus, giving the player an almost entirely different storyline and locations to access within the PSP game.
* Having certain ''GearsOfWar'' achievements on your gamertag unlocks some ''Gears 1'' character skins for ''Gears 2'' multiplayer.
* ''ProfessorLayton and the Curious Village'' has a "Secret Door", which can apparently be opened using a password from the sequel, ''Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box''.
** ''Diabolical Box'' itself has two "Secret Doors", one using a password from the ''Curious Village'' and the other using a password from the currently unreleased-outside-Japan third game. Wanna bet that one will have "Secret Doors" as well?
* In the 2005 ''GanbareGoemon'' DS game, popping in the GBA port of the SNES Goemon 1+2 games into the DS's GBA slot will unlock character cameos from the two SNES games into the DS adventure.
* The trading card-based ''PhantasyStar Online Episode 3'' featured several cards that could only be unlocked by having saved games from other Sega titles on your memory card.
** The [=GameCube=] version of PSO had a secret within a sidequest that will reward you, assuming you have a GBA and a GC-GBA link cable, with an unique Tails Chao for ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] Adventure 2 Battle'' or ''Sonic Adventure DX''.
* ''JohnMaddenFootball'': Gamers who own both NCAA Football and Madden in the same year can download the NCAA draft classes into Madden so that you can follow the same players through their career. If you also owned ''NFL Head Coach 09'', you could use its advanced play editor to import custom plays into ''Madden 09.''

!!Examples of single games released in multiple parts

* Sega originally planned to release ''SonicTheHedgehog 3'' and ''Sonic and Knuckles'' as a single, mammoth game. However, time constraints and the manufacturing costs made that impossible, so Sega dropped the ability to play as Knuckles and released the levels they had (Angel Island through Launch Base Zones) as ''SonicTheHedgehog 3''. Later, the remaining levels (Mushroom Hill through Death Egg) were released as a second game, ''Sonic and Knuckles''. The latter game featured unique "Lock-On Technology", which allowed the games to be combined and played as they were originally intended. To be fair, ''Sonic and Knuckles'' also allowed the player to use Knuckles in ''SonicTheHedgehog 2'', something that would not have been possible had the game been released as a single cart, so it wasn't a total loss. It also contained about a zillion Special Stage levels that could be played independent of the main game by attaching something other than Sonic 2 or 3, although that *was* possible to include without lock-on.
** You could even write down the password given out after the special stage and use it when you locked-on ''Sonic The Hedgehog'', making the game just packed with special stages (this feature was called Blue Sphere when ''Sonic Mega Collection'' came out, where the game was an actual unlockable.)
* The ''[[DotHack .hack]]'' games are the most guilty of this. They are ''literally'' one game split across three or four parts, each full-priced, and with an incomplete story unless one buys the whole series. If you bought them at retail price in the US, it took 200 bucks to finish the first group and 120 to finish the second.
* ''Shin Megami Tensei: {{Digital Devil Saga}}'' exists as a two-part game, with the second game continuing the story directly from the ending of the first.
* The GBA game ''Golden Sun'' ends on a {{Cliffhanger}}, and its story continues in the sequel, ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age''.
** In what is very unusual for a game on a console without memory cards, the series also provides a form of OldSaveBonus. At the end of ''Golden Sun'', the player is given a series of passwords that can be entered into ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age'' either manually or electronically (via a link cable). If the player successfully enters the passwords, when the new characters in ''Golden Sun: The Lost Age'' eventually encounter the characters from the original game, the original characters will be as the player left them. This is required for HundredPercentCompletion, as many things in the first game are [[LostForever otherwise unaccessible]] in the second, and you need everything from both games in order to access the second game's BonusDungeon and its BonusBoss.
*** The passwords in question also deserve mention as being easily the most difficult part of the game. The gold password, which transfers everything, is ''two-hundred and sixty'' characters long, with ''fifty'' characters for input, many of which are distressingly similar. There is little more agonising than buggering it up (and you will, repeatedly) and having to check each and every character for the single mistake you made.
**** If you have access to two GBA systems and a link cable, you can transfer the password that way, conveniently averting transcription errors.
* The ''{{Boktai}}'' series was also going to do the whole intergame Password deal but just changed it to mere stat boosts, depending on what you did in the previous game (which was not included in Lunar Knights, being that ''Boktai 3'' never made it here). Odd considering the fact that the password contains a whole lot of information about your game, from your name to how many enemies you felled, even to which weapon you liked to use the most.
*''{{Syberia}}'' was originally to be one standard adventure game. Due to a rushed timetable, it was released as two separate games that had identical gameplay and graphics, AND were half the length of an ordinary point-and-click adventure.
*''Persona 2'' was released as two games, each of which told a relatively self-contained story that also paralleled and linked to the other. There was also an Old Save Bonus in the second that let you keep the money you'd deposited into the lucky cat in the Kuzunoha Detective Agency (Important for an unlockable), and what you'd selected for Tatsuya's name and in-battle nickname. ... Unfortunately, the first game never came to the US due to concerns about its use of guns and largely high-school-age mains in a time shortly after the Columbine shootings and the Old Save Bonus was similarly removed from the one that did come to the US.
* Variation in ''TheLegendOfZelda: Oracle of Ages'' and ''Oracle of Seasons'', which are two totally different games that connect together to merge the two plots into one and provide an extra final boss and a "[[MultipleEndings true ending]]".
** Originally, a third ''Oracle'' game was planned to complete a Triforce analogy, but connecting the games together proved too difficult and they scaled the number back to two.
*** Didn't stop them from giving out a code at the end of the "true ending" that could be used on the other game again giving you nothing but a few more items and another go for the same ending.
* ''Shenmue'' was originally going to be many chapters long, but the games that were released, ''Shenmue'' 1 and 2, gave you chapters 1 and 3, 4 and 5 (chapter 2 was supposed to chronicle's Ryu's adventures on the boat ride between games, but was scrapped due to time constraints and the fact that it sounded incredibly boring). ''Shenmue 2'' allowed you an OldSaveBonus if you transferred a ''Shenmue 1'' save, but unless you were prepared, all of your ready money from Shenmue 1 would be irrevocably stripped from you unless you swapped it all for capsule toys very, very quickly. GuideDangIt.
* The ''{{Xenosaga}}'' series' first two games were supposed to be the same installment. It just got worse when it was noted that it would only be a trilogy instead of six installments.
* To some controversy, BlizzardEntertainment announced that ''[[{{Starcraft}} Starcraft II]]'' will be one game for, some cynics say, the price of ''three''. More accurately, the initial release will contain the Terran single-player campaign, supposedly long enough to surpass the original ''[=StarCraft=]''. This release will also include full multiplayer capability for all three factions. The first ExpansionPack will be the Zerg single-player campaign (again, intended to be about as long as the original ''StarCraft'' by itself,) supposedly including new units for all factions and "RPGElements." The second expansion pack will be the Protoss single-player campaign, also including new units for all factions and "diplomatic elements." Technically, this is intended to make it three games for the price of three; however, a single main story will run through all three installments, requiring players to buy the other packs if they want to finish the story or play their favorite race outside of multiplayer. Blizzard have claimed they are doing this to get the initial release out quicker, as well as to tell the story properly; others… find this difficult to believe.
** Considering the insane amounts of time they spent perfecting ''[=StarCraft=]'' and the time it took for the sequel to materialize at all, it's not impossible that it wasn't done for revenue reasons only. The sales department may happen to profit handsomely from this move, but on the other hand, it may be the only way they can actually bring themselves to ''ship the damn game already'' (it even leaves some room to "perfect it some more"). And, of course, at this point they could literally ship bent nails in a box labeled "[=StarCraft=] II: Part 0" and the fans would ''still'' lap it up -- there's great leeway for RevenueEnhancingDevices.
** The people complaining about this have obviously never played a computer game with {{Expansion Pack}}s before. The expansion will ALWAYS continue the main storyline. The only difference to before is that players are getting three huge campaigns instead of nine smaller ones.
*** Of course, the trick here is that you are getting only ''one'' race per game. If you want to play all three races, you need all three games. Whether fans will prefer a very long and detailed storyline for each race over the ability to play something else besides SCV-barracks-marines-factory-tanks for 30 straight missions remains to be seen.
** Most of the controversy is actually a large case of [[DidNotDoTheResearch Did Not Do The Research]], as many assume that the three campaigns will be standalone games that are $50-60 each and that Battle.Net will have a $15 monthly fee. Both are false assumptions as the pricing on the expansions hasn't even been announced yet, and Battle.Net was actually confirmed NOT to have a monthly fee.
*** Battle.Net has never had a monthly fee and no matter how much Blizzard might be able to get away with, they'd never get away with instating one.
*** No, but that didn't stop them from ditching LAN support, thus forcing you to have an internet connection ''and'' use Battle.net if you ever want to play with someone else.
*** What do you mean, they'd never get away with instating a monthly fee? World of Warcraft has one, why not Battlenet? Face it, Blizzard fans will whine and moan and scream on the forums, and then fork over the money.
****And that is exactly why they can't charge for Battle.net. WoW accounts can be merged to the Battle.net accounts and starting November 12th O9 players are going to be required to have merged the the two. The only way they could get away with charging for Battle.net at that point would be to eliminate WoW's costs.
* If you read Bungie's development notes, it's pretty clear they had too much to do in time to complete ''{{Halo}} 2'' 's single player campaign. So they ended it on a cliffhanger and relied on the improved multiplayer aspects to save the day. It did. Now go buy ''Halo 3'' to finish the [[strike:story]] fight already.
* There's an interesting subversion in ''TheWorldEndsWithYou.'' The Gatito pins mostly require that they're in sets in order to either function or work at full power. You can buy precisely one pin out of any given set, and which one is random and is specific to the DS you're playing with. You can Mingle with other players, which allows you to purchase from a special shop any pin they have equipped-thus, you can get these pin sets by "trading" with other players. Of course, the subversion comes from the fact that this isn't mandatory-all of the pins in question are available as extremely rare drops from various bosses. Of course, to collect the insanely powerful Darklit Planets set, unless you're lucky, you'll have to tackle the BonusBoss on the highest difficulty... have fun!
* ''[[FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' deserves special mention, being ''thirteen'' chapters that have to all be purchased separately.
** Unless you downloaded them en masse.
** And anyway, the chapters only cost a total of 3700 Wii Points for the entire game, which comes out to $37.00. So it's more like "One Game For The Price Of Almost One But Seperated Into A Bunch Of Cliffhangers".
* Not a game example, but similar to the ''StarCraft II'' situation: the final book of the ''WheelOfTime'' series has been announced to actually be ''three'' books. To be fair, fans of the series, who are aware of just ''how'' many KudzuPlot threads were left dangling by Book 11 (namely, umm, all of them), aren't surprised by the idea that they can't all be wrapped up in only 1,000 pages.
*''AnimalCrossing'' starts each town with only one out of five kinds of fruit on the trees; the easiest way to get other kinds of fruit is to visit another player's town. In fact, the first two ''AC'' games required someone from another town to buy or sell something in your town's Nookway store in order to get Nookington's. Thankfully, ''AC'' 3 did away with this, probably because of the game-imposed limitation of one town per console (unlike the first ''AC'') and the practical limitation of one console per family.
* The ''GranTurismo'' Prologue games (4 and 5) were essentially extended demos of the perpetually delayed full games. Mercifully, they were priced accordingly and also featured additional bonus content.
* Inherent in the release of the episodic expansions to ''HalfLife 2''. Valve was originally going to work on HalfLife 3 next, but decided to release lots of small episodes in sequence instead of waiting several years for another game, keeping up the momentum of consumer interest.
** However, this led to Valve suffering from HypeBacklash due to the [[VaporWare release schedules getting more and more drawn out]].
* ''TombRaider Legend'' and ''Underworld''. Both are rather short, with a {{Cliffhanger}} between.
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