Poll: Console Downloadable Content - spanking or whack?

[MonkeyM666]

Hey there guys, I haven't posted in here before so apologies if this is a topic that has come up before. I'm reposting it from aintitcool.com's The Zone [http://zone.aintitcool.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72104] as those movie nerds aren't quite into games as ya'll are here.....

Well I've been noticing that with most games I own now on the 360 have been enjoying a new fad called DLC or Downloadable content. The basic idea for the offline is this: You buy a game, you play the game, you finish the game and the manufacture releases a new Map pack, or levels, or Fancy Dress package that you can download for a nominal fee (usually $10 - $20 AUD). Project Anchorage for Fallout 3 is as well as Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned are examples of this DLC that haven't really impress the masses and I for one am wondering what the future of gaming will be. There are also rumours that some of these 'expansions' are already found on your game disc and the 'download' is merely unlocking it has caused an outrage in some circles who cry out for 'the game they originally paid for'.

Personally, I really like the idea that I get more life out of my game for a couple of bucks more but it seems to me that the DLC isn't meaty enough to warrant all the hype. New Multiplayer levels/guns for GOW2 or COD4/5 are going in the right direction, but games like Fable 2 and Fallout seem to have missed the mark. Fallout 3 is in the middle of releasing expansion packs called "Project Anchorage", "The Pitt""and "Broken Steel" and they do look pretty sweet but fall down on the actual 'content' side of things. What I wonder is why didn't they just make one big expansion pack, charge me $50, call it the "Fat Man Pack" and be done with it? What's with the dribble of extra content?

On the flip side one of my favourite games for design, marketing and DLC is Burnout Paradise. I have download multiple free updates that have given me more missions, added a day/night cycle, added motorbikes, placing virtual billboards for Obama during the later stages of his campaign and more. Now this is an excellent use of DLC that improves the rep of a games producer as well as breathing more life and sales into a brand.

So what do you guys think? Are most of the big companies missing the mark with this promising idea or was this always the way it was going to go knowing the players in today's gaming market?

 

[[Gavo]]

Welcome to the Escapist!

Anyways, I think that some companies *cough* Bethesda *cough* are missing the point by charging too much for too little. I mean, Operation: Anchorage is 10 bucks for a small mission and some new weapons. Woo hoo.

And anyone remember the Horse Armor? Dear God.

Now, Valve, not the other hand, is doing a good job (with L4D soon and TF2) where they periodically release large updates which you can think of as DLC.

 

[UltimatheChosen]

]Welcome to the Escapist!

Anyways, I think that some companies *cough* Bethesda *cough* are missing the point by charging too much for too little. I mean, Operation: Anchorage is 10 bucks for a small mission and some new weapons. Woo hoo.

And anyone remember the Horse Armor? Dear God.

While I agree that those two DLCs are pretty pathetic, they did release Shivering Isles for Oblivion... a DLC that rivaled the original game in size and content. However you feel about Oblivion, you have to admit that it would awesome if more DLC was like that.

 

[MooseRyder]

I have to agree that Valve does a good job with DLC.
Bethesda should probably release some content for free first and then make some big updates worth money. Also, why no PS3 DLC?
I mean come on.

EDIT: Noo! Not the horse armor. Don't mention its name.

 

[[Gavo]]

]Welcome to the Escapist!

Anyways, I think that some companies *cough* Bethesda *cough* are missing the point by charging too much for too little. I mean, Operation: Anchorage is 10 bucks for a small mission and some new weapons. Woo hoo.

And anyone remember the Horse Armor? Dear God.

While I agree that those two DLCs are pretty pathetic, they did release Shivering Isles for Oblivion... a DLC that rivaled the original game in size and content. However you feel about Oblivion, you have to admit that it would awesome if more DLC was like that.

No, no no, don't get me wrong, I loved Oblivion, but when they released the Horse Armor alone, it was some ungodly amount of money...but I got it with The Knights of the Nine, good deal. And Shivering Isles was awesome.

 

[phar]

I like it but I dont. They should really spend their time doing a sequel or new game, GTA L&D for example. But on the otherhand, they have put so much into the game be a shame just to shelve it and start again. Maybe we will see companys only making one engine per generation and just keep adding bits to it.

What is annoying is that the DLC isnt being spread around evenly or being charged evenly. PS3 needs some love, there are enough people with one to count in the market. Also theres always the people paying for maps and stuff on which PC gets for free.

 

[MonkeyM666]

Here's another one I just found. The MAW. An XLA game that was released a month or two ago. I'm being offered more levels with 100points addon, they're called deleted scenes. Now that's just balls. Why make me pay more for a game that I've already bought. It's just maddness, and greedy. I didn't mind the game but I felt that it was too short. Now I know why! Such a silly thing to do.

 

[CyberAkuma]

They missing the mark in serveral aspects.
Believe it or not, Mission Packs/Expansion Packs in the old PC games used to cost just as much as the DLC today and they used to give you a significant expansion to the old game. I recall buying serveral Expansion Packs for Quake, Alien vs Predator 2 and other FPS's back in the day and they cost me around $10-$15 USD. Now why the hell is the DLC we download today just as expensive when there is no cardboard box, no media disc, no manual, no print, NOTHING but media transferred digitally to your harddrive? That makes absolutely no sense. If nothing, it should be cheaper for the companies to digitally distribute the Expansion Packs rather than going through distribution costs of releasing the game physically and making sure it's out in the game stores.

While DLC that is already on the game disc is kind of bad already, it's even worse when DLC is just blatantly in-game content that has been ripped out of the main game and sold as a DLC instead. That is the worst kind of video game marketing we gamers have to put up with and this was obvious with the case with the DLC for Tomb Raider: Underworld.

In my humble opinion, the days of decent Expansion Packs is over and gaming companies will continue to rip us off in teh worst kind of ways with the fad that is DLC.
Imagine what would happen if EA would have purchased Rockstar and GTA5 was released.
You would have gotten a GTA that is so stripped of any content - the game would take place on only one small island and the entire Single Player campaign would last about 6-10 hours and to unlock the rest of the island you would have to do micropayments of $30.

 

[MonkeyM666]

Imagine what would happen if EA would have purchased Rockstar and GTA5 was released.
You would have gotten a GTA that is so stripped of any content ...

Didn't we already get that?....

 

[SmilingKitsune]

]

]Welcome to the Escapist!

Anyways, I think that some companies *cough* Bethesda *cough* are missing the point by charging too much for too little. I mean, Operation: Anchorage is 10 bucks for a small mission and some new weapons. Woo hoo.

And anyone remember the Horse Armor? Dear God.

While I agree that those two DLCs are pretty pathetic, they did release Shivering Isles for Oblivion... a DLC that rivaled the original game in size and content. However you feel about Oblivion, you have to admit that it would awesome if more DLC was like that.

No, no no, don't get me wrong, I loved Oblivion, but when they released the Horse Armor alone, it was some ungodly amount of money...but I got it with The Knights of the Nine, good deal. And Shivering Isles was awesome.

Oh come on, horse armour cost 200 microsoft points I'd hardly call that "ungodly", that doesn't make it any less pointless though.
I'm all for DLC Bethesda style, although OA was a bit of a letdown since it doesn't really have any replay value, but I think it's a little bit mean when devlopers charge so much for multiplayer maps, the Halo 3 heroic map pack was 800 points for 3 maps (although now it's free, bit of a kick in the pants to the people who bought it).
And then there's EA's "pay to inlock stuff that's already in the game" which I suppose is just EA being EA.