Next Xbox Rumors

[Dangelus]

It's necessary to claw some revenue away from the used disc market though. It's a HUGE market that most retailers don't disclose accurate figures for.

If I'm understanding correctly, this is not "gateway" content available for new game purchasers.  It's exclusive content for people who buy the collectors edition.  This has nothing to do with used sales.  In my opinion Bioware are perfectly within their rights to offer additional gameplay to people who want to pay more.  It's annoying but I'll reserve judgement until I play the game and decide for myself if it's worth $60.

I don't know the details of this specific DLC but all add on purchases like this do have relevance to combatting profits lost in used sales. If somebody buys a game used the publisher makes squat. If they can offer the used customer some DLC they are making revenue from a used sale indirectly.

If its to combat the used market, Mass Effect 2 had the Cerberus network which was a code that gave you a bunch of DLC, including a character funnily enough, for free as a thank you for buying the game new. I can get behind that a lot easier than this heavily encouraged premium DLC that is possibly overpriced for the content it provides. 

It came with all versions of the game, not just the collectors edition.  And that to me works.  This arm bending for a character with a probably cool story just doesn't sit with me well.

King

Yep, that's the other method. ONLY include a free code with new purchases which leaves used purchasers out in the cold. If its a popular franchise with a huge following the customer will be more likely to purchase new to get the code.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Well, and even then the DLC was unimportant if you bought it used, you didn't miss out on too much really.  It was a minor perk.

King

[ChrisMC]

Some DLC is really great, like some of the add ons for Dragon Age, like the Stone Prisoner which I couldn't get becuase my wife used it on her playthrough. I think if exclusive DLC content was really good, it could entice folks to buy new.

[X]

My only question is how is a side character and side quest a major part of the story? It's not. It's a perk and reason for buying the collector's edition. The fact that they're including some in game stuff for the collector's edition makes 100% sense. This isn't new. It's a reason to buy the game beyond the standard edition. Buying a better edition implies getting something the lesser editions won't be getting.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

My only question is how is a side character and side quest a major part of the story? It's not. It's a perk and reason for buying the collector's edition. The fact that they're including some in game stuff for the collector's edition makes 100% sense. This isn't new. It's a reason to buy the game beyond the standard edition. Buying a better edition implies getting something the lesser editions won't be getting.

Since Joby already spoiled it, the Prothean playable character is part of a mysterious race in the game that gets its named dropped a lot because they were all wiped out.  Supposedly.  10s of thousands of years ago.  So now everyone is wondering where this playable character is suddenly coming from and how is it that he/she/it survived. 

Yeah, Collector's editions should have perks, but I've always held that they should not contain in-game content that is important to the story and/or balance of the gameplay and IF this character is not important to the story, then the DLC is overpriced and worthless. 

Think of the outrage over Catwoman and her content being a pre-order bonus only for the Batman Arkham City game.  That is incredibly unfair to people who don't pre-order the game.  And no, I don't pre-order games.  There is no reason to it because games never run out of stock and I would much rather not deal with the hassle of pre-ordering.  So those who didn't pre-order don't get the Catwoman content and thus get a lesser game for it.  Even if they bought it new a month after release.

King

[X]

Since Joby already spoiled it, the Prothean playable character is part of a mysterious race in the game that gets its named dropped a lot because they were all wiped out.  Supposedly.  10s of thousands of years ago.  So now everyone is wondering where this playable character is suddenly coming from and how is it that he/she/it survived. 

Yeah, Collector's editions should have perks, but I've always held that they should not contain in-game content that is important to the story and/or balance of the gameplay and IF this character is not important to the story, then the DLC is overpriced and worthless. 

Think of the outrage over Catwoman and her content being a pre-order bonus only for the Batman Arkham City game.  That is incredibly unfair to people who don't pre-order the game.  And no, I don't pre-order games.  There is no reason to it because games never run out of stock and I would much rather not deal with the hassle of pre-ordering.  So those who didn't pre-order don't get the Catwoman content and thus get a lesser game for it.  Even if they bought it new a month after release.

King

My only question is how is a side character and side quest a major part of the story? It's not. It's a perk and reason for buying the collector's edition. The fact that they're including some in game stuff for the collector's edition makes 100% sense. This isn't new. It's a reason to buy the game beyond the standard edition. Buying a better edition implies getting something the lesser editions won't be getting.

What you are saying doesn't make sense. first off, the plot isn't a major plot point, it merely provides some back story to the universe. Secondly, you have every option to pre-order. There is nothing stopping you from doing it and what's wrong with giving people the incentive to buy it? How is that not fair? People that decide to make the extra effort are being rewarded for doing so. By deciding that you don't want the hassle, you decide that you don't want the extra content.

Your argument pretty much consists of "I want to be lazy and get the same perks as the people that decide to invest up front in something that they want."

You have a very odd and narrow line. You want collectors items to have stuff to make it desired, you don't want it to break the game, and when it achieves this but gives you some optional background, it's worthless.... Huh??

For people that want to see that part of the story, it's more than worth it. If you don't want to see that part of the story, you don't have to pay for it, but don't get mad at the creators for making enticements to the buyers.

Catwoman was pre-order and that was more than fair. If you decided that you wanted it later, you could pay for it. Companies and studios need those pre-orders to see how the game is doing, how many to press, and if they need to strengthen their ads. It's also money in stores with more known to be on the way. This is still a business after all and if Gamestop can get pre-order perks to get people into the stores, that's a good thing. Jobs can't pay their employees on "I might get that later when the price drops".

[Jobydrone]

Catwoman was not pre order, it was a free one time use code to download the content available in all new copies of the game.  It was part of the developers strategy to encourage people to buy new rather than wait and buy used, by making the content unavailable to used purchasers unless they pay ten dollars to download it.  Interestingly, there was so much outrage over this by customers that GameStop made a deal with the publisher of the game to purchase thousands of the codes and packed them in to their used copies to include them for sale.

Edit to add:  the pre order "bonus" for Arkham City was a skin to change the look of Batman (the gamestop exclusive is the Animated Series Batman) which you couldn't use in the main story until you beat the game once.  I actually got one even though I didn't pre order because I got the game the night it launched at a midnight sales event.  Funny I can't even use it now since I lost all my saves and my Xbox doesn't know I already beat the game.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Catwoman was not pre order, it was a free one time use code to download the content available in all new copies of the game.  It was part of the developers strategy to encourage people to buy new rather than wait and buy used, by making the content unavailable to used purchasers unless they pay ten dollars to download it.  Interestingly, there was so much outrage over this by customers that GameStop made a deal with the publisher of the game to purchase thousands of the codes and packed them in to their used copies to include them for sale.

Huh, then that must have changed because I heard it was a pre-order only bonus.  Oh well.

Ok Ok, let's simplify this argument, we're getting out of hand and its crossing wires on arguments. 

And I will not touch Pre-orders because I have gotten burned on pre-orders more often than rewarded.  Whether it was Gamestop that screwed me over, the game was broken and unplayable or just the fact that I could go to the store and get it on the same day rather than wait up to two weeks, Pre-orders do not entice me.  It is not an issue of me being lazy, it is me protecting myself from bad investments.  Even "trusted" companies have done this to me.  So no.  Pre-ordering is out of the question.  But I was using that as an example, that is an entirely different subject for another day.

Second Off:  I do not find this cutting up the story into sell-able pieces acceptable and then selling them on Day 1 as DLC-packs for a $60 game.  If Bioware/EA wants to sell their game for $80, then do it already. 

Coming in after the game has launched and then launching addition pieces to the story that are not important to the main storyline is borderline reasonable for me, though tbh, out of all the DLC-packs that ME2 sold, only one was really worth the price. 

The reason that I'm making such a stink about "From Ashes" is because the game has yet to launch yet clearly this DLC seems to have been intended for the original game and was then cut from the original game to sell as a DLC-pack.  My worry is then, developers will make a "complete" game, cut up sections and set them as day-one DLC packs for $10+ and then basically requiring us to pay even more for the game if we want the full experience of the game when it easily could have been in the original game. 

I hope I made that clear. 

King

[X]

Catwoman was not pre order, it was a free one time use code to download the content available in all new copies of the game.  It was part of the developers strategy to encourage people to buy new rather than wait and buy used, by making the content unavailable to used purchasers unless they pay ten dollars to download it.  Interestingly, there was so much outrage over this by customers that GameStop made a deal with the publisher of the game to purchase thousands of the codes and packed them in to their used copies to include them for sale.

Huh, then that must have changed because I heard it was a pre-order only bonus.  Oh well.

Ok Ok, let's simplify this argument, we're getting out of hand and its crossing wires on arguments. 

And I will not touch Pre-orders because I have gotten burned on pre-orders more often than rewarded.  Whether it was Gamestop that screwed me over, the game was broken and unplayable or just the fact that I could go to the store and get it on the same day rather than wait up to two weeks, Pre-orders do not entice me.  It is not an issue of me being lazy, it is me protecting myself from bad investments.  Even "trusted" companies have done this to me.  So no.  Pre-ordering is out of the question.  But I was using that as an example, that is an entirely different subject for another day.

Second Off:  I do not find this cutting up the story into sell-able pieces acceptable and then selling them on Day 1 as DLC-packs for a $60 game.  If Bioware/EA wants to sell their game for $80, then do it already. 

Coming in after the game has launched and then launching addition pieces to the story that are not important to the main storyline is borderline reasonable for me, though tbh, out of all the DLC-packs that ME2 sold, only one was really worth the price. 

The reason that I'm making such a stink about "From Ashes" is because the game has yet to launch yet clearly this DLC seems to have been intended for the original game and was then cut from the original game to sell as a DLC-pack.  My worry is then, developers will make a "complete" game, cut up sections and set them as day-one DLC packs for $10+ and then basically requiring us to pay even more for the game if we want the full experience of the game when it easily could have been in the original game. 

I hope I made that clear. 

King

I get what you're trying to say, but it doesn't match the history of Bioware. Additional characters have always been there for exclusive DLC or other rewards. While they have some cool things, you can tell from how the characters are setup on the ship that they were added later even if you could get them the day of launch. They didn't have the interactivity of the other characters. So, no they weren't cutting anything to charge you more. The were making more content as the game finished and charging you for that additional content, but only if you bought the game later and a used copy of it.

There are games that lock on disc content behind DLC codes, but I can't really blame them. If the DLC was beyond the scope of the initial project, then people have to get paid for the extra work. RE5 had a bunch of code locked. If something is outside of the scope of the project, then they should find a way to benefit, even if it's code locked on the disc.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I guess at this point we're just going to have to wait and see how it all plays out.  That will tell us how integral this character was to the game.  (And yeah, the disc content locked behind DLC codes has also raised a lot of annoyance.)

Even if I do, one day, forgive the day-one-DLC thing, I'm still not going to deal with Origin so until EA backs down...well...I'll be waiting a while.  Probably forever.  Oh well. 

King