BioWare Defends Mass Effect 3 Launch-Day DLC

[dystopiaINC]

What grinds my gears is probably what is getting everyone else riled up too...

It's already in the game. It should be on the disc, and even if they didn't have time to put it on the disk, they should have put it as a free optional service like what Batman: Arkham City did.

With Collectors Editions, when you buy they game, you should never get anything that doesn't come with the original (Gameplay wise). Real life items (Artbooks, CD's, Figures etc), Alternate colours/costumes, Different weapons (If they're available for a cheap price/not far later down the line) are fine. Things that give you an advantage or more than the other person gave up money wise are wrong.

I can't remember, has this DLC always been advertised to come with the CE? If not, that's a dick move. I'll be buying Mass Effect 3 because I like the series, but after THIS and all the issues with SW:TOR, I probably won't be buying from them again.

no it was not on the disk, it is something that was made after the full game was sent off for all the other things like burning to disc and packaging, so basically several months ago when the Developers are just sitting around with the game finished, they went about making EXTRA content.

 

[bLAZay00]

All that's left to do is either buy it or not. I am free to spend my hard earned money on anything I deem worthy of it. You haven't the slightest right to tell anyone what to do with theirs.

This is the penultimate point. Vote with your dollars. I dig getting a bonus character for having preordered premium content as a kind of bonus. Although 10$ seems reasonable to me for the extra stuff, I do understand some of the ire.

Frankly speaking there isn't a reasonable business model in place for devs to pull in extra cash after selling a game new. The season pass thing is B.S. DLC packs vis-a-vis MW3 are overpriced until the game of the year editions come out. Releasing free content is a mug's game as you can generate buzz for other properties you're releasing, but aren't necessarily bringing in monies on your old game.

I think most of this stuff would disappear if there had been an announcement about a bonus piece of content for early adopters. Frankly, it is a bit out of line to expect something other than the base product for base price, but good will is generally worth a few weeks of extra work.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Every comment in this thread:

"WE SHOULD GET THIS EXTRA, COMPLETELY OPTIONAL CONTENT FOR FREE BECAUSE OF REASONS."

The character is in the game. Without having to purchase DLC. You get all his dialogue, interactions with others etc. The only thing the DLC gives you is the option to have him as a squad member.

So they removed the whole point of having him in the game at all just to make a few extra bucks on opening day? This revelation WAs supposed to dampen my outrage HOW?

Even worse. They removed him as essential and then went out of their way to develop it as a DLC. It's like going "neyneyneerr look at what the game could've been!"


God EA games are a bunch of schmucks.

You keep throwing out the word ESSENTIAL like it means something. No Squadmate is Essential. NONE OF THEM. You can chose to kill Ash or Kaiden and Wrex in 1 You can kill them all in the second. NO ONE besides Shepard and Joker are essentials to this series. Sure the Protheon adds some sort of lore to the game. But does that take away your enjoyment when you can't see him die and then bring him back to life again over and over? I really don't see how having him as a squad mate is essential at all.

 

[Zen Toombs]

"WHY DOES HIS HAMBURGER HAVE BACON? MINE DOESN'T HAVE BACON. I DON'T CARE THAT HE PAID MORE FOR HIS BURGER - YOU KNEW ALL ALONG YOU COULD PUT BACON ON THE HAMBURGER - WHY ARE YOU LYING TO US"

So what the whargarblers are saying, essentially, is that a hamburger is incomplete unless it has bacon on it?

Well done sir. I found this amusing.

I havn't finished a single Mass Effect game yet, so I am enjoying this rage with a bowl of popcorns

Ooh, sounds yummy. Can I have some?

OT: as I've said on the fifteen versions of this thread, I don't have a problem with this since the DLC apparently only activates the Prothean as a squadmate, and the plot-relevance remains intact regardless of DLC-purchase.

 

[Savber]

Wait exactly what evidence do we have that Prothean will be essential... ?

Sure it's nice to have an ancient race make an appearance but why does this mean it's "essential for ME3"

It's fanservice pure and simple aimed for fans that invest into the Collector's Edition. A non-fan of ME3 won't give a damn about it.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Interesting that the first time this happens with Bioware is on the first release after EA bought them...

This is their first game since 2007? Wow Bioware really doesn't make games that often do they.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/11/ea-to-acquire-bioware-corp-and-pandemic-studios/

 

[Sean Deli]

"Full game for full price!" crowd is funny. "Full game", "essential to story" and other words like that are meaningless.

Current games have hardly 8-10 hours of content in them (unless you count the time sinks like scanning for Iridium and unskippable cutscenes) - compared to 30-40 hours of the games of yore (and Skyrim - <3 Bethesda)

So if anything I would take offense in the fact that 1 hour of gameplay with most likely 0 replay value (DLC) is being sold to me at 10 bucks, when 8 hours of content with some decent replay value (Mass Effect 3 sans DLC) is sold at 60 bucks.

But we all know we'll buy it, or at least sufficient amount of people will buy the DLC to cover production costs and than some, justifying Bioware's business model once again. Maybe Mass Effect 4 will cost 100 bucks in the future because of that, who knows?

 

[tendaji]

Wait exactly what evidence do we have that Prothean will be essential... ?

Sure it's nice to have an ancient race make an appearance but why does this mean it's "essential for ME3"

It's fanservice pure and simple aimed for fans that invest into the Collector's Edition. A non-fan of ME3 won't give a damn about it.

These people read the "leaked script" from back in November and now saying that they are removing the ending from the game by making this guy a squadmate. Personally I haven't read the leaked script because I actually like experiencing a story instead of spoiling the ending for myself.

 

[dedem1315]

Wait exactly what evidence do we have that Prothean will be essential... ?

Sure it's nice to have an ancient race make an appearance but why does this mean it's "essential for ME3"

It's fanservice pure and simple aimed for fans that invest into the Collector's Edition. A non-fan of ME3 won't give a damn about it.

These people read the "leaked script" from back in November and now saying that they are removing the ending from the game by making this guy a squadmate. Personally I haven't read the leaked script because I actually like experiencing a story instead of spoiling the ending for myself.

The thing is that the Prothean is still in the base game, the dlc adds an extra sidequest to make him a companion. Not really that big of a deal.

 

[RoBi3.0]

"Full game for full price!" crowd is funny. "Full game", "essential to story" and other words like that are meaningless.

Current games have hardly 8-10 hours of content in them (unless you count the time sinks like scanning for Iridium and unskippable cutscenes) - compared to 30-40 hours of the games of yore (and Skyrim - <3 Bethesda)

So if anything I would take offense in the fact that 1 hour of gameplay with most likely 0 replay value (DLC) is being sold to me at 10 bucks, when 8 hours of content with some decent replay value (Mass Effect 3 sans DLC) is sold at 60 bucks.

But we all know we'll buy it, or at least sufficient amount of people will buy the DLC to cover production costs and than some, justifying Bioware's business model once again. Maybe Mass Effect 4 will cost 100 bucks in the future because of that, who knows?

10 dollars is the cost of a cup of fancy coffee and and a muffin. I can finish both those in less then ten minutes. I am less concerned with the cost verse play time and more concerned with the quality of my experience. If I can get at least as much enjoyment from 10 dollars worth of DLC as I can a cup of coffee and a muffin then I count it as a win.

But that is just me.

 

[RoBi3.0]

Every comment in this thread:

"WE SHOULD GET THIS EXTRA, COMPLETELY OPTIONAL CONTENT FOR FREE BECAUSE OF REASONS."

The character is in the game. Without having to purchase DLC. You get all his dialogue, interactions with others etc. The only thing the DLC gives you is the option to have him as a squad member.

So they removed the whole point of having him in the game at all just to make a few extra bucks on opening day? This revelation WAs supposed to dampen my outrage HOW?

Even worse. They removed him as essential and then went out of their way to develop it as a DLC. It's like going "neyneyneerr look at what the game could've been!"


God EA games are a bunch of schmucks.

You keep throwing out the word ESSENTIAL like it means something. No Squadmate is Essential. NONE OF THEM. You can chose to kill Ash or Kaiden and Wrex in 1 You can kill them all in the second. NO ONE besides Shepard and Joker are essentials to this series. Sure the Protheon adds some sort of lore to the game. But does that take away your enjoyment when you can't see him die and then bring him back to life again over and over? I really don't see how having him as a squad mate is essential at all.

This is true.

I killed everyone that could be killed in ME1 and almost everyone in ME2. I am the worst Shepard in the History of Mass Effect. I can't even get laid.

 

[Something Amyss]

Sounds reasonable to me. Personally, I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about, especially considering we just got confirmation that the Prothean isn't directly relevant to the story (well, it is to the lore, but not the storyline).

The fuss appears to be outrage that people who buy the special edition get special content.

I hate to seem like I'm putting words in peoples' mouths, but this is kind of covered in the original article:

Why, they demanded, was this bit of content, which was obviously ready in time for the game's release, not included with the game - particularly since Collector's Edition buyers will get it free, but those who opt for the standard release will have to pony up 800 Microsoft points, or about ten bucks, for the privilege.

Why will people who pay extra get extra content while the people who don't have to pay money instead of getting it free?

The other portion of this is that people assume that any content that is available day one was available when the game was set to be published. Now, I'm sure that some devs do this, especially since we have on-disc DLC that demonstrates it clearly was available, but we can't really prove either way on a lot of this content. Unless you're inside the company and stuff, and I doubt you'd last long if you did disclose that your team was purposely withholding content.

In the end, you can choose to believe Bioware or not, but there's nothing concrete and never will be. A lot of people are just going to assume that Day 1=ready to be put on disc and purposely excluded. And a lot more seem to have this weird problem that people who pay more get more content.

 

[gphjr14]

Meh I'll just watch the extra content on YouTube if it turns out to be interesting. I hardly ever buy dlc after a game is released. RDR being the exception.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

It's coming out the same day as the game, it does affect the story.
It should have been part of the game. No one can tell me that this wasn't cut out of the original game. Having a fucking Prothean as a squad member will affect your experience greatly, not matter how you look at it. It's a fucking race that was extincted over 50.000 years ago, and he somehow survived and now takes revenge on the reapers? That's the same as him being just a character somewhere and doing nothing?

So yeah, EA sucks... nothing new, and I lost any hope for Bioware a long time ago. As soon as EA started opening other Bioware studios for every game they want to have a strong name behind it.

 

[Edgeless]

no it was not on the disk, it is something that was made after the full game was sent off for all the other things like burning to disc and packaging, so basically several months ago when the Developers are just sitting around with the game finished, they went about making EXTRA content.

But if it's all ready to go and is shipping with the game anyway, why not include it as a free piece of content?

It's ready when the game comes out, if they have the power to ship it with the CE's, they should be able to include it with the normals.

 

[Oro44]

Mentioned this in another thread, but I do find it amusing that the Escapist forums are becoming devoted to discussions on Bioware / EA screwing people over.

 

[Sewer Rat]

I can understand that, and it probably would not have really drawn so much ire if it hadn't been leaked early, but at this point I think BioWare should just do what it did with Shale and Zaeed and make it "free with new purchase" content. Honestly, at this point they are probably better off losing the $10 people would pay for the DLC then having many people not buy the game at all because of it. It's a pandora's box situation, the information got out and now marketing hell has broken loose, it is up to Bioware to either make the most of it or lose out on customers.

Frankly, I have been very skeptical of BW ever since EA bought them out, but if they include this DLC free as an act of good faith, they will definitely have won back some of my respect at least.