Preorder DLC: Good or Bad?

To lower prices, you have to lower the budget too. As it is, the developer gets an average of $12 for a $60 game.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

Lower prices? The video game industry has this to say.

@Thorn: One, inflation. Two, production costs. Three, that just lowers the standards back to "$50 is too much for a game, I'm going to buy used", or whatever. The smart consumer will ALWAYS buy for the lower price, unless there is some incentive to buy at a higher one.

edited 26th Sep '11 3:35:59 PM by Neo_Crimson

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

Sounds good to me. Lower budget also means lower risk, so they can appeal to niches instead of the lowest common denominator. Start by greatly reducing the graphics/technology budget and voice acting budget.

Edit: And I'm mostly talking about big budget companies here, obviously. Bio Ware, for example, used to appeal the CRPG niche, but has shifted to the shooter/action RPG crowd.

edited 26th Sep '11 3:46:24 PM by Talby

Keep in mind, lower budgets can mean lower content. Then people start complaining about getting a shoddy product.

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

And without money, your weapons will rust, and you can't fight without your weapons! D:

Wait a minute, that's not right...

While I don't object to this if a company can pull it off, the end result will often be people buying the competitor's products instead.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

Uh oh, this argument again.

Sorry, I can't hear you from my FLYING METAL BOX!

Eh, some DLC includes exclusive stuff that needs to be unlocked through normal play instead of being given to you off the bat (the Steam-exclusive Pagani Zonda Tricolore in Test Drive Unlimited 2, which requires the late-game A1 license to drive and plenty of in-game cash to buy) or stuff that can be gotten at a slightly lower quality (the Geniune-Quality Promo weapons (gotten by pre-purchasing certain games on Steam) in Team Fortress 2, most, if not all of which can be found through item drops or can be crafted at the regular Unique quality).

Mind you, I think a game should earn its pre-orders by getting people anticipated for it, and that means letting them know what they're getting into beforehand. Or by allowing pre-purchasers to play semi-open Betas, like with Monday Night Combat (which also gave special clothes to those who pre-purchased it on Steam).

^^, ^: What about Indie developers? They typically don't have to worry about budgets.

edited 26th Sep '11 3:55:41 PM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

I'm getting pretty sick of preorder DLC. I specifically didn't buy Deus Ex Human Revolution at all because apparently the goddamn grenade launcher is preorder DLC. Grenade launchers aren't some goofy gimmick or reskin. They're a staple of many arsenals. I got a special skin to pimp out my Space Marine in the recently released Space Marine (SPESS MAHREEN!) but I felt sorta empty that I'll never achieve 100% Completion because people that preordered at different places got Space Wolves or Blood Ravens or some other skin i can't get. And people that preordered Dead Space basically got a cheat code.

On the other hand, without preorder DLC we wouldn't have this commercial...

edited 26th Sep '11 4:32:19 PM by ShirowShirow

They also don't have to fire 90% of their staff to make the transition to that kind of budget.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

^^Why would you want a Grenade Launcher in the game where you can go the Pacifist route, though?

Maybe it's because I got it through Steam, but I actually like my pre-purchase bonus (Manno-Technology Bundle for Team Fortress 2).

edited 26th Sep '11 4:41:23 PM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Yeah, having played Human Revolution, I can say that the Grenade Launcher would be more bad than good, given how much space it must take.

Especially since you can turn your revolver into one with the right upgrade anyway.

edited 26th Sep '11 4:51:17 PM by INUH

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

But that's not the point.

Weapons/Items/Characters should be available in the long run. Or anything that isn't a skin/trophy.

If it affects gameplay in some way, you should still be able to download it later at the very least. Not getting it early shouldn't screw you out of the content completely.

Mind you, the only problem I have with pre-order dlc is if the content is on all the other disks, but you need to pay money to unlock it. It shouldn't be on the disc if you didn't pay for it in general. Or, in other words, any content you pay for should already be on the disc. If I pay 20 dollars less, the content should only be online, so I can pay that same 20 dollars for the same content. Basically, it should be the same for everyone. If you can't get your console online, it does honestly suck, I admit, though.

Quest 64 thread

Even if it's available for DLC elsewhere, if the content is ready by release it's still essentially taking stuff out of a complete game.

^^Yeah, I'm not arguing that that particular one is not bad, just that it shouldn't be a dealbreaker.

edited 26th Sep '11 6:42:09 PM by INUH

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

Better then DRM, but otherwise, bad. Even if it's just skins and crap, five years ago those skins would have been part of the game, not $5 extra. And I don't want to encourage them so that five years from now, 2/3rds of the game is "DLC". Defended by "But it's only multiplayer, that doesn't prevent you from enjoying single player" or such nonsense.

Games are expensive enough already. I don't mind legitimate DLC that the developers make after the game is launched. I don't want them to hack the game into smaller, more profitable pieces to fleece me.

edited 26th Sep '11 6:39:55 PM by Rotpar

Ah, fair enough.

That's what worries me too. To be honest, it feels like they're being lazy now. If you can't finish the game on time, I understand. But there's no reason to not include it all. Or atleast make sure I pay the final total no matter what for everything as everybody else.

Also, my only other annoyance is when the DLC isn't equal per system. Mortal Kombat 9 is the biggest offender on that.(online pictures for the 360 over a full character is equal?!) But I digress.

Quest 64 thread

If gamers would stop demanding top of the line technical graphics, then maaaaybe budgets wouldn't be so bloated?

I'd be willing to let go of the graphics, it's usually the voice acting that I've grown accustomed to.

Support Gravitaz on Kickstarter!

Totally agreed. I hate the whole "love graphics" thing. But I digress.

I personally prefer the gameplay overall. But that's not for this topic.

I don't mind it, as long as we don't have long-ass cutscenes.

Ah, off-topic stuff.

edited 26th Sep '11 11:49:46 PM by Hydronix

Quest 64 thread

Tempted to make a graphics thread...but I fear I would be destroyed by the "no complaining" gestapo

Not gonna happen. Too many people actually like the current state of gaming, myself included.

And besides, since when has DLC, especially of the console variants, ever directly impeded or lessened your ability to enjoy a game? The only games that seriously suffer from this are the Free-to-Play game models, but that's because they're built to run on DLC and purchased unlockables.

EDIT: Woah, just got Ninja'd here! Actually meant to address my post to Thorn, FYI.

edited 26th Sep '11 11:50:06 PM by SgtRicko

Losing 3 characters in Blazblue, 2 in Mv C 3, losing out on a bunch of awesome items in campaign mode for Dawn of War 2 Retribution, an LA Noire case.

But a big one? Losing out all these awesome characters for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and then Activision went "lol nope" and made them Lost Forever

And who knows how many games lost their modding capabilities so they can instead have DLC?

And I'll miss all these awesome skins for Arkham City and Space Marine.

And personally I think the current state of gaming is becoming dangerous. Great video games are still being made, sure, but its the politics and such behind them that are making me nervous. We could get to a point where video gaming becomes SO expensive, that ONLY safe games are made. Lets not forget time exclusive DLC which punishes a user for having the wrong console.

edited 26th Sep '11 11:58:00 PM by Thorn14

I actually wrote an article about this type of thing.

/shamefulselfpromotion (yes, I'm aware it's supposed to be shameless.)

To boil it down, I agree with Thorn, that DLC needs to at the very least be always available to everyone, regardless of where the purchase takes place. Retailer exclusive content that forces a player to choose one or the other isn't winning any fans over, and probably actually hurts sales a little because people decide to wait for a collectors edition or something they hope will be all encompassing.

edited 27th Sep '11 12:11:48 AM by Grahf