That is exactly the thinking required for a customer to purchase. The price point is low enough the expectation of value is so low that even if you are burned it won’t damage the branding or product and they still get your money.
This is a viable sales technique and has been for hundreds of years.
I was on the fence deciding to get this game or not. Now it is clear.
Usually the on disk unlocks are always 101k or something like that.
Put me in the camp of those that don’t care how game developers run their business. If the game isnt worth the price (however it is broken up) Im going elsewhere. If it is then Im buying.
BtW, if the process does anger you, you need to support and buy Burnout Paradise. That game has had the best free DLC support that I have ever seen.
Or if they like the game, consider the retail version a bargain relative to other new games, and the DLC fee a nominal one for the variation it adds to the existing game.
I find it mind boggling that people are judging the value of this DLC by its presence on the disk, size, or some abstract pretense about what “ethical” marketing consists of (which is, in the end, whether people who actually play the damned game feel they are getting value for their money). Me, I think it’s a great value, much more than new map packs or whatever else other multiplayer games offer. Not because those are bad, but because they don’t align to my tastes.
Moreover, one big advantage of staggering its release via DLC is that it means that it rekindles enthusiasm for that mode of gameplay now that the target audience has more or less sated their desire for the coop/singleplayer aspect that is the core of the game. I know for the next few days there will be a lot of normal, non catassers playing the game and helping me to get my five bucks out of it, and that’s a pretty valuable thing for a game that isn’t on the scale of higher profile multiplayer games. Could it have been free DLC? Sure. But it’s hardly theft or dishonesty to charge for more game.
What is clear? That people can get hysterical about anything?
If not purchasing a game is hysterical then yes, I am hysterical, extremely.
Seriously? Does anyone believe that RE5 versus mode will be anything other than a 30 minute time waster? It’s people literally standing still and shooting at each other.
I don’t have strong feelings about whether DLC is already on the disk, but I do think the perception that folks are being nickled and dimed is a real danger. The effect of the Horse Armor release on me was to make me realize that DLC wasn’t an auto-purchase even for titles that I liked. Indeed, I didn’t purchase any of the Oblivion DLC modules until they were released on disc. The long-term effect of what was probably a trial balloon, was to convert me from a presumeably-will-buy to a maybe-will-buy-if-it-appeals-to-me mindset. I no longer assume that naturally I want even a favorite title to be complete. All in all, if I’m in any way typical I’d say that Bethesda made an expensive marketing decision, expensive both for them and for others wanting to sell DLC.
Where were you… when they released the Horse Armor mod?!
Where?!
Perhaps it’s a genre thing, but I’m pretty sure the only (non-MMO) for-pay content I’d encountered previously were Bioware’s Premium Modules for NWN–and I didn’t perceive those as integral to the game, so Horse Armor was my first opportunity to pay extra to “complete” a single-player game. Expansions are a different kettle of fish, of course–and I’ve always bought those on disc. Perhaps my game-buying habits are even further from the mainstream than I realized. :D
I actually did purchase/download the fighter’s stronghold module for Oblivion, which wasn’t included on the disc I bought, but never got to play it because I used up my activation allowance on attempts to activate it. Horse Armor + poor management software (and no response to my email sent to the support address given on the purchase site) = no thanks as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t get it.
RE5 is a great game. Especially in co-op. I have absolutely no idea why them offering optional DLC would have any effect on your value assessment of the core game, other than to possibly increase it if the DLC seemed like a good value to you.
The core game is a great value – better than any previous RE game.
Hey man, of course you’re going to laugh about Horse Armour. Why do they need armour when they’re perfectly delighted to crash into the spiky front of a formation of angry pikemen anyway?
I tend to judge DLC on the perceived value to me, just like everything else I buy. The choice is there. The only type I have any real objection to is the sort that gives players an advantage in multiplayer. The rest of it I can take or leave, and am happy to judge on a per-case basis.
I won’t ever buy DLC. I don’t want to support the model.
Luckily Valve releases all its DLC for FREE. The only way it used to be.
I don’t have to believe, seeing as I actually have played it. If you don’t like the game, that’s one thing. But it’s no more an additional 30 minute time waster than most other DLC. I frequently get “nickel and dimed” by Harmonix for DLC music, most of which I’ll play (total) for much less than a half hour, and it’s not a problem because I like the game and I value what the DLC adds.
You’re clearly not interested or don’t really understand much about RE5, and that is the biggest obstacle between you and a perception of value in the DLC they offer. Take roguefrog for instance: I understand that viewpoint, even though I don’t agree with it. But he’s not (from what I can tell) presuming to tell others what they should or shouldn’t enjoy, just making that decision for himself.
Excellent. I love how the mere potential of DLC is enough to ward you off.
I think that’s a good summary.
I’m certain it’s a great game, but there’s something ugly about all this. A lot like when a star athlete is sandbagging and not giving 100%. Sure him playing at 80% is still better than many other players, yet fans and management will not stand for it. And if a developer is withholding content, especially like this, it’s very similar. What other things are they witholding? What improvements/elements/goodies are they even witholding for RE6? When I buy a game, I’d like to know they gave it their all when making the game. I don’t have that belief here.
When I buy a game, I’d like to know that there’s $60 worth of game there. If there is, then I buy it.
I prefer to reflect on the potential the game had and judge whether it is everything that it could have been. Such judgments can best be made before my pure vision is interfered with by any actual, hands-on impressions of the game in question. You just don’t get the depth of the ethical code that guides me as a consumer. You have to draw a line in the sand, and across that line you won’t get fooled again.
You also have no idea how games are made, apparently. Your analogy is in no way correct.
Good for you that you enjoy the game. I don’t think I made any kind of value pronouncement on the game itself, nor did I say this DLC is an example of being “nickel and dimed.”
You’re correct in your assumption that I didn’t enjoy the game. (You’re wrong in that I did indeed play it to completion and believe I have a pretty good understanding about it.)
I don’t think you understand how business works.
When you buy something, you don’t buy everything that Everything That Ever Was Or Should Have Been. You buy what they could afford to produce in the allotted budget.