Heart of the Swarm will launch at LEAST $39.99. I can’t conceive of a world where Activision lets that thing out for even a penny less.
I generally do not buy DLC unless it comes packed with the game, such as launch DLC and GOTY DLC.
The reason is this:
I play a game and I finish it. I do not really have a desire to replay the game again. So if a DLC comes out and adds a new adventuring area, quests, etc… I am not going to replay a game just to get to some new DLC.
I would much rather have expansions that extend the game-play opposed add new things to the old game-play.
Depends on the game and my perceived value of the DLC.
Gamers like to whine. Game prices have been pretty stable in the 20 or so years they’ve been mass-produced.
DLC varies for me depending on the game/genre, I will usually only do it if it’s for an RPG I really like (like Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3) or songs for Rock Band. I’ll take it in a GotY bundle too, of course. I don’t take DLC as a sleazy way to eke more cash out of gamers by withholding stuff that could have easily been in the original released game (not that that doesn’t or hasn’t happened).
Another “it depends.” If a game is likely to come out in a gold edition with everything bundled, I’ll just wait for that, since I’m rarely in a hurry. Or if the DLC goes on a big sale, and it sounds interesting and is for a game that I want to play more of, then I’ll get it. For the most part, though, I tend to wait until games are under $10 before I buy them to begin with, so spending $5+ on an addon that’s a tiny fraction of the value of the original purchase just doesn’t add up.
No, usually they come out long after I’ve finished and uninstalled the game. I do expansions, but not DLC.
Also I don’t pay for day1 DLC as a matter of principle.
Every WoW expansion has been $40. I think that’s a fair indicator. I fully expect Heart of the Swarm to be a $60 title, though, with $100 CE, as it supposedly will be pretty much as much game as Wings of Liberty was. I’ll be pleased if I’m wrong.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Heart of the Swarm launched at $60, but I also expect there to be much gnashing of teeth if it does.
I fully expect Heart of the Swarm to launch at $40, maybe $50. I think $60 is out of the question based on how Blizzard seems to be treating it as an expansion and not a fully new base game.
I almost always wait for the GOTY edition of a game if there is likely to be one (Fallout series for example). I would rather spend time with other games and buy the GOTY for $50/$60, than buy it in pieces for much much more.
The real frustration comes when there is a piece of DLC I would gladly throw money at, but being a dirty PC gamer, companies never send it over. My friend and I had a great deal of fun with RE5, but the extra missions/content were never ported over.
I very rarely get DLCs. I can count on one hand the number I’ve downloaded, and they’ve mostly been for ME2 on the Xbox.
Price - almost always too expensive for the content.
Timing - DLC usually releases long after I’ve shelved a game and moved on. Even if it was a good game, I’m usually interested in the sequel, the next “big thing,” not a morsel. With a full game I don’t have to pick up where I was, what I was doing, my emotional investment to the game. What was my DA2 character doing at the end, how did I feel about certain companions? I don’t fully remember, and I’m reluctant to overcome that hurdle and get back into the game. DA3? Sure. A side quest? Meh.
Ethics - how much of this DLC was done before the full game even shipped? Did the company purposely without content to fatten their bottom line? These questions cloud my motivation.
Installation / Timeline - For PC, questions about how the DLC is going to work my mods worries me in, say, Fallout: New Vegas. And timeline in the game… the final save of NV is right before the final battle. How does the DLC continue from that? I’m not sure. I feel much better about DLC when the game ends with me looking at the sunset and I’m invited to continue playing and exploring the world. Then I can easily rationalize going to some new corner of the world that the DLC added. ME1 was horrible for this, if I recall. You had to go back to previous save or some clusterfuck. Fuck that. And in DA1, my character died at the end. No, no DA1 DLC for me.
Not a fan.
Wait, this isn’t a necro thread? It reads like every other DLC thread from three or four years ago, or whenever the practice started cropping up.
I buy DLC for games I’m actively playing if it’s excellent or on sale.
I like DLC as a concept when it’s good and bemoan it when it’s bad. Just like games.
In theory I like the concept of individual DLC components, and the idea that you only buy the ones you want. In practice, I tend to simply buy the GOTY edition or whatever bundle is later available; usually it’s more cost-effective.
Depends entirely on the game, really. For example, I bought all the Fallout 3 DLCs as they were released, and have done the same with the New Vegas ones as well. However, those were all story/quest DLCs, and I don’t plan to get the upcoming pre-order loot and new weapons DLCs for New Vegas. I also bought several of the DLCs for Dragon Age, but skipped the ones that looked stupid or uninteresting. I haven’t had any interest in the DLCs for Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 2.
So I’d say that if its a game that I really like (i.e. a “game of the year” for me title), then I will buy them as they come out to support the game. On lesser titles I might pick them up later in a “complete package” Steam sale or something like that (I did the eventually for Oblivion).
I have the horrible habit of buying DLCs that I never play , to just know I own the “complete” game.
I find that withholding content to be sold later in DLC is distasteful. They should just come out and simply say their game costs more instead of massaging people with marketing speak.
And all the while I see more and more people begin to pirate games and I don’t blame them; I pay $60 for a game, my friend pays $0 yet he gets more content than I do. Great!
Rarely, and only if it’s something that enhances the game considerably for me, costs very little, and/or isn’t obviously missing on purpose in an attempt soak the consumer.
Looking back over my purchase history, it would appear that the only DLC I’ve bought for the 360 were the Delorean for Burnout Paradise and a couple of songs for Rock Band 2.
Once I’m done with a game, I usually never play it again. I’d rather buy a sequel than return to something I’ve already spent 40 hours on.
ETA: Might be amusing to see people’s incredibly long lists of purchased DLC, or things they regret buying.
I can assure you that this would be more sad than anything else.
I can imagine there are people here with massive backlogs of complete games they have not played yet…
This argument has never made any sense to me. The company’s goal is to to make as much money off of their labor as possible; the consumer’s is to get the best entertainment value for their money as possible. Wherever those goals intersect is where a sale (either of a game or of DLC) should take place – the specifics of the development process should be largely irrelevant from the gamer’s side.
The quality and amount of content of the game in the box is one value proposition, either worth your money or not. Any DLC is a separate value proposition that should be decided along the same lines. The idea of being automatically entitled to everything created during the development process is ridiculous.