Poll: Evolve has more than $130 worth of DLC not covered by its season pass.

[Lightspeaker]

If that bothers you then think of it like this. Do you play TF2? Do you have every hat? Do you play LoL or DoTA2? Do you have every hero?

Quite a number of the players who bought TF2 on launch quit after they started doing that crap and went free to play. And that game actually has drops and a crafting system to get those "extras". LoL similarly you can earn every hero in it through playtime; and yet that's still hammered as a disgustingly exploitative business model. DOTA2 every hero is free and literally the only thing you can pay for is cosmetics...which also drop...and is one of the few free to play games where I've not felt they're trying to squeeze money out of me. Funnily enough its also probably the only free to play game where I'm relatively comfortable spending money now and then, because I don't feel like they're trying to rip me off.

I'm pretty sure Evolve isn't going to have a system where you can "earn" newly created monsters and hunters through drops or gathering in-game points to pay for them. They want your cash.

Well I would of blown a fuse over Evolve charging us $7.99 per character and having DLCs costing up to $135 ... but then I realized something interesting. Doesn't Team Fortress 2 have this feature? If you go to their online shop, all cosmetics for any class are at least $4.99 or more. Granted, the game is free to play plus you get all the classes + item drops and such, but to get the really nice stuff you got to pay. Heck to open a crate, you must buy a crate key.

I never heard anyone rant over that operation. I guess it's because TF2 is such an amazing game with such a friendly-approach to consumers that people do not mind blowing their money. Plus TF2 allows people to run their own trades + websites to manage trades. Scrap metals for stuff, and refined metals for 'better' stuff, then so on.

I have a TF2 platinum in-game badge signifying I had the game since beta and I played through the entire period where they started to introduce those systems so I think I'm qualified to say that the reason you've never heard anyone rant over it is because people who are disgusted by the system have long since stopped playing. Years ago. For me it went from being the greatest multiplayer shooter I'd ever played to a disgusting mess of "stuff" that has, in my view, totally wrecked it.

So no. Its not as universally accepted as you seem to think. I played for the first time in about three years last week and it was still painful to see what they've done to the game I once enjoyed.


As for the OP: I was originally going to buy it. Now I haven't and don't intend to. So they lost at least one customer with their shenanigans. I'll wait to see if the game is even still alive in a year or so and pick up the almost inevitable "game of the year edition" if it is.

 

[shintakie10]

Well I would of blown a fuse over Evolve charging us $7.99 per character and having DLCs costing up to $135 ... but then I realized something interesting. Doesn't Team Fortress 2 have this feature? If you go to their online shop, all cosmetics for any class are at least $4.99 or more. Granted, the game is free to play plus you get all the classes + item drops and such, but to get the really nice stuff you got to pay. Heck to open a crate, you must buy a crate key.

I never heard anyone rant over that operation. I guess it's because TF2 is such an amazing game with such a friendly-approach to consumers that people do not mind blowing their money. Plus TF2 allows people to run their own trades + websites to manage trades. Scrap metals for stuff, and refined metals for 'better' stuff, then so on.

In the end, I can't get to upset over Evolve. I dislike how they're holding Hunters from us and charging such outrageous prices for skins + characters + stuff ... buuuutttt ... they're not the first to do this. I'll simply not get the game, mainly because the demo didn't impress me all to much.

I think people mostly give TF2 a pass because you can get pretty much all that cosmetic stuff without paying, you can trade or craft almost anything in the game. That the game is free to play on top of that would be another bonus, meaning that if you wanted to spend just the initial $60 asking price of Evolve, you could get TF2 and quite a lot of customization items right away rather than paying $60 for just the game and piling more money on top of that to get more customization options.

I definitely agree on the demo, like I said in my first post on this topic, this game reminds me a lot of the situation that Titanfall was in, its got a good core that a lot of people like, but it lacks content and modes at launch to give it staying power. Unfortunately, like Titanfall, this means the game will probably lose a large chunk of its playerbase in a couple of months, which is murder on a game where multiplayer is pretty much your only option (matches against bots do not count as a fleshed out single player experience).

Lets be realistic about TF2. You will never, ever get remotely even half of the content without buying something. I'd go so far as to say you wouldn't be able to even get a quarter of it. To craft even basic weapons you need other weapons and a bare minimum of 1 scrap, most cost a reclaimed metal. To get a single scrap you need 2 weapons used by the same class. To get a reclaimed you need 3 scrap. If you want a single head gear, which is completely random at what you can get, you need 3 refined. If you want to craft change that headgear you need a completely separate head gear, once again totally random result for any class. If you want to narrow it down to at least class you need a set token (which requires 3 weapons from the same class) and 4 reclaimed. Its still totally random what you get, you just narrowed it down to random thing from that specific class.

The only way to get weapons is to wait for them to come to you over time, since you can't trade unless you spend money in the shop.

The point being, you can barely get any of the cosmetic stuff in TF2 unless you spend an obscene amount of money or an obscene (and probably unreachable) amount of time in the game.

That being said, as I've mentioned before I do wish the game was cheaper. $40 with DLC is a nice price if they're dead set on not being F2P. Its not too expensive an investment and leaves you with 20 bucks to spend on either cosmetics or the season pass for the 4 hunters.

 

[Grumman]

Well I would of blown a fuse over Evolve charging us $7.99 per character and having DLCs costing up to $135 ... but then I realized something interesting. Doesn't Team Fortress 2 have this feature? If you go to their online shop, all cosmetics for any class are at least $4.99 or more. Granted, the game is free to play plus you get all the classes + item drops and such, but to get the really nice stuff you got to pay. Heck to open a crate, you must buy a crate key.

I never heard anyone rant over that operation. I guess it's because TF2 is such an amazing game with such a friendly-approach to consumers that people do not mind blowing their money. Plus TF2 allows people to run their own trades + websites to manage trades. Scrap metals for stuff, and refined metals for 'better' stuff, then so on.

This is why I quit playing TF2 and never looked back. I have no problem with League of Legends because "drops" are both non-random (being funny money for the store) and moderately fast - if you play one 20 minute game a day, you can have any champion in something between 2 days (450 IP) and 1 month (6300 IP). Useful drops in TF2 were annoyingly slow, and get even slower as you start getting duplicates.

Even without the DLC debacle, Evolve would only be a $5 for me. As a multiplayer arena game I just don't value it very highly, because I know it is only temporary. I can load up Command & Conquer Generals or Aquaria and it will still be a functional game, but what happens when other people stop playing Evolve?

 

[omega 616]

If it's all skins I don't see a problem.

Do you guys own every cosmetic item in every the last of us? I don't see you guys kicking up a fuss over that and it has weapons as well as tf2 style hats, I'm also pretty sure it has stuff like abilities up for sale as well.

But that game was a masterpiece, can't attack that game! Evolve is just a multi player asymmetric fps.

 

[Seishisha]

Don't realy care about this game, had no plans to buy it anyway so my opinion is probably pretty worthless on this matter but with that said here i go.

So people who are saying this is unfair to consumers or that the game should come with all the skins because of it's inital price, what magic land do you live in where a company is required to give you extra content as a base feature at no extra charge, that would be like buying a car and then getting a free wash and wax everytime it got dirty, they have no obligation to do anything of the sort.

Is the practice of selling a huge ass truck load of DLC upon release realy that much of a contention for people, sure it sucks balls that if you are paying full price for the game and there is still a massive swathe of things that dont come included, but the dev is being upfront about it, its not like they hid the DLC or their plans. Considering the vast majority of it is cosmetic anyway it's not like you need this stuff, which brings me to the next point.

What you should be concerned about is that the dev's who are clearly cash hungry wont fuck up the balance of the additional characters, its not too hard to imagine them essentialy making the new monster more powerfull and inturn more desireable to player's as a way to get it to sell. Considering the current actions of the dev's in regaurds to the huge amount of DLC it certainly isnt out of the realms of possibility.

But again anyone saying they are entitled to all the skins because the game isnt free to play, wake up, the only thing your entitled to is what you pay for nothing more nothing less, decide if your willing to buy it based on what is offered, not on the extra's you dont need.

As a final note personaly i disaprove of these kinds of buisness practices, so i vote with my wallet and only buy what i feel to be worthwhile, if my statements dont reflect that it's because i am also a realist and complaning about what a buisness choose's to include and sell seperatly is pointless when you can simply not buy the product if you don't approve.

(I am currently pretty sick with a fevor so i hope my post makes atleast some sense, i did proof read it but my state of mind might be slightly questionable right now)

 

[Mutant1988]

I'm curious what exactly "Season" is meant to refer to if not all releases throughout a specific period.

A season pass for a sport would let you attend all the matches in the entire season, right?

 

[EternallyBored]

I'm curious what exactly "Season" is meant to refer to if not all releases throughout a specific period.

A season pass for a sport would let you attend all the matches in the entire season, right?

Well they do call it the "hunting season pass" so maybe they did that wordplay for a reason.

Doubt it, but it's funny to think that they limited it to one set of new characters and changed the name on their advertising to reflect that.

 

[Mutant1988]

I'm curious what exactly "Season" is meant to refer to if not all releases throughout a specific period.

A season pass for a sport would let you attend all the matches in the entire season, right?

Well they do call it the "hunting season pass" so maybe they did that wordplay for a reason.

Doubt it, but it's funny to think that they limited it to one set of new characters and changed the name on their advertising to reflect that.

It would not surprise me if they did change the name specifically to dispel any critique like the one I presented, asking what a "season" is actually supposed to mean.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's not about what's essential. Skins and things like that used to be a part of the $60 game.

But you know what Developers would say to that.

"It used to be that a game company could survive on just selling a 60 dollar game alone. But with all the Triple A costs..."

It doesn't matter what the developers say. I don't have to buy their game AT ALL if I don't like their business model. If they manage to sell enough to make a profit good for them. But I'm not gonna buy into this crap when there are so many freakin' games out there. For the kind of money that they're asking I could buy 10 games that I don't own on Steam sale with all the DLC. DLC is one of the main reasons why Steam sales are so popular. People are getting sick and tired of being milked for additional content.

 

[Dandark]

I wouldn't care about the game being full of Microtransactions if it was a F2P game. Instead they want me to pay full price for a DLC shop which has what I would call a bad model even if it was F2P.

I imagine the model might change slightly if it was F2P and I wish they went that route rather than trying to go for the greedy route of selling the game at full price and then loading it with additional content that must be paid for. The fact that most of that extra content is also overpriced doesn't help.

I was interested in this game but the terrible DLC practices put me off because I wouldn't be able to play it without feeling like I was being ripped off. If I ever see a GOTY/Complete edition on sale then I might get it but despite being a concept I love, I cannot justify spending my money on this game over other games that provide more for my money and actually have some respect for their players.

 

[CommanderZx2]

The Polygon article is wrong, or at least they didn't do their math right. The cost listed in the article fails to account that all of the 1.99 skins are included in the other cosmetic packs, paying the listed $135 price would involve buying redundant purchases of the same item more than once. The actual cost of all the DLC comes out to less than $60, the majority of that being the season pass.

I don't give 2 shits about the cosmetic stuff, as long as the default characters are fine and there are in-game unlocks for customization that doesn't really bother me, especially since none of it effects gameplay, and looking at it, the alternate skins aren't exactly super awesome to begin with.

The only thing about Evolve's DLC that does kind of irk me is that they have the gall to charge 5-8 bucks for new hunters, and a whopping 10-15 for new monsters, I can get all of Farcry: blood dragon for that price, being able to pick and choose would be good if you liked to super specialize, but people who like character diversity are screwed, I would be fine with that if this were a free to play MOBA or something, but after already paying $60, it seems a bit steep to be asking $15 bucks just for a new monster type, the game already kind of has Titanfall's issue of being a solid core, but not having enough additional content to justify a new $60 purchase to me, and charging 5-15 dollars for some new abilities and models seems to be asking a bit much for a game I don't see myself playing for more than a couple months if I did buy it. I suppose it might be mitigated by the developer saying that new maps and game modes would be free.

The only other thing is that the season pass apparently only gets you the first new monster and set of hunters and some skins, anything after that initial release is not included in the season pass.

Polygon article was wrong, but Evolve still has a wonky DRM scheme that turns me off the game.

Yeah, I'm seeing this false $135 dollar for all DLC headline bounced around quite a few sites. I'm kinda getting the feeling that several gaming websites want Evolve to fail by spreading false information.

 

[Mutant1988]

I just think they charge an absurd amount of cash, period, for things that were worked on in the period between the game going gold and getting released.

Because that's the usual excuse for DLC that comes right out the door with the game itself, isn't it?

Had it been that much money in a year, I wouldn't have that much of an issue with it.

But as it is, it seems to me like they worked on two simultaneous games and decided to put one on disc and sell the other piece by piece, with the game on disc being required to use it.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I dont mind cosmetics and yes a few straight after release could be ok as they are generally pretty cheap to make and can be sold for a good profit but good god have they not heard of moderation?

This is really balls to the wall full on gouging mode especially with the tiny amount of content included in the full price game. Anything other than cosmetics is just BS as well although cant you unlock those hunters in game? (probably put behind extreme grind walls though).

Whatever I personally cant condone this the game looks fun for a while but also seems it will get old really really fast if it was free with the DLC then I would not have as much problem although I still would not like the practice. As ist stands if it was 20 pounds and had all the DLC included in that price then I would consider a purchase.

 

[Mutant1988]

This is really balls to the wall full on gouging mode especially with the tiny amount of content included in the full price game. Anything other than cosmetics is just BS as well although cant you unlock those hunters in game? (probably put behind extreme grind walls though)

I think one of the selling points for the Xbone version was that it allows you to skip the grind. So there's that...

 

[Ecster]

To be fair though, all of those items are just skins, except for one item, the season pass--which also contains skins [https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/Dlc/Evolve-Hunting-Season-Pass/399b96af-eff4-475b-b3cf-53550cb2a64b]. None of the individual DLC items seem essential.

Doesn't matter to me though, I'll never buy this game. I got tired of shooting other players after the first Halo. Seems to me that games just haven't evolved since then![footnote] *wink* *wink* *wink* *honk* *nudge* *nudge*[/footnote]

Try something new on "shooter front" - like Arma 3, a simulation that will make your hair go frozen when ambushed or under unforeseen fire.

 

[Maximum Bert]

This is really balls to the wall full on gouging mode especially with the tiny amount of content included in the full price game. Anything other than cosmetics is just BS as well although cant you unlock those hunters in game? (probably put behind extreme grind walls though)

I think one of the selling points for the Xbone version was that it allows you to skip the grind. So there's that...

One of those selling points eh buy this version theres less tedium and BS, I dunno this kinda thing just pisses me off NetherRealms are at it again as well with Mortal Kombat X witholding characters and other goods until you pre order and then buy the season pass (yeah goin off on a tangent but its another recent one that has annoyed me). Its not as bad as this one in Evolve but it seems instead of making a game as good and feature packed as it can be on release with say perhaps an even more updated edition in a years time they instead just want to release as little as possible to actually get people to buy it and then bleed them for as much as possible afterwards with witheld content.

Im just gonna follow my own path on this and not buy the games in this state if this is the future of gaming I will be spending a lot less time and money on it.

 

[Mutant1988]

Im just gonna follow my own path on this and not buy the games in this state if this is the future of gaming I will be spending a lot less time and money on it.

Pick up an old console and play through all the classics. Ride out the storm while playing games from before the industry filled them to the brim with consumer rights undermining money generating bull****.

Pre-orders on digital goods in particular is a travesty. What purpose did a pre-order serve? To ensure a copy from the stock (Or that there is any in the first place). How much stock does a digital marketplace have? Infinite.

Bleh, ranting now. Need to stop.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I wasn't even going to comment on this thread or vote in the poll, because online multiplayer games are completely uninteresting to me. But I suddenly and shockingly realized how angry I am at games that do what Evolve is doing. Seriously, I had no idea I even cared until I read one of the random comments here and almost punched something in sudden fury.

Evolve, Destiny, Titanfall, Diablo III at launch, (these being the most recent and high-profile examples) bug the ever-loving bejeezus out of me, I now realize. How exactly has it come to this? That developers can spend $100 million or more on a game with gorgeous production values and next-to-no innovation, then charge people $60 upfront, $30 for a season pass, $2 apiece on three dozen cosmetic additions, and $15 for each of five weapon packs or new character additions that aren't covered in the season pass, AND THEN give us a game that has only a bare-bones set of repetitive missions and uninspired scenarios UNLESS you shell out the extra 90 or so bucks AND spend scores of hours leveling yourself up and getting all the best gear, ONLY to have nothing to do at the end anyway but farm raid bosses for new loot that they will constantly dump into the game just to keep us grinding.

*Deep breath*

Look me in the eyes and tell me this isn't ludicrous. Sheer, shivering, babbling, screaming, crap-eating insanity. And the best part is, it only happened because we TOLD THEM that we would go along with it!

 

[Mutant1988]

I'm currently making a fuzz on the Steam forums about how much worse DLC is getting in regards to Payday 2 (Topic got 659 posts and I'm fairly sure less than half of those are my posts). Made a topic about it here too, but it got locked because I was too confrontational towards people that treated me like an idiot and dismissed the topic out of hand.

Go figure.

Then again, I didn't put nearly as much effort into the topic I posted here as I did with the Steam topic.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Im just gonna follow my own path on this and not buy the games in this state if this is the future of gaming I will be spending a lot less time and money on it.

Pick up an old console and play through all the classics. Ride out the storm while playing games from before the industry filled them to the brim with consumer rights undermining money generating bull****.

Pre-orders on digital goods in particular is a travesty. What purpose did a pre-order serve? To ensure a copy from the stock (Or that there is any in the first place). How much stock does a digital marketplace have? Infinite.

Bleh, ranting now. Need to stop.

Way ahead of yah my PS2 has been setup since 2000 and I still have my SNES,DC,GC and original Xbox on standby unfortunately sold the C64 but not to sad about that. Im currently playing through Okami again on the PS2 game still looks gorgeous and plays amazing so nice to go back to a complete feature packed game with everything on disc and not behind pay walls and yes not every game now indulges in these atrocious practices (thank god) but far to many try it out.

Also never understood the point of pre order digital goods its just ridiculous tbh also have other problems with some digital goods from certain companies but not gonnna go there in this thread.

Interesting to see if Evolve holds its price in stores though hopefully it does as well as it deserves and not any more.