Take-Two CEO Says Evolve's DLC Controversy is "A Good Thing"

[Beetlebum]

But the game won awards at E3 and Gamescon, you guys!
Well, demo footage/beta gameplay judged by industry insiders was given meaningless tradeshow awards.

Gotta love the spin in this. Start with praising the controversy but never explain the controversy then switch tracks and praise your game for the controversy. Then completely abandon the topic and bring back old news in a new light to end on an extremely positive point.
Congratulations, you've effectively said nothing while pretending to make a statement.

 

[laggyteabag]

If having people cancel their pre-orders over excessive DLC plans is good controversy, then what is bad controversy?

I reiterate: The people who run these companies are aliens, right?

 

[Trishbot]

"And all signs are extraordinarily positive."

He either is in major denial, or thinks that we are.

Honestly, I WAS interested in EVOLVE... before its business model came to light. Amazing how such a promising title just entirely dropped off my radar. I have zero interest in the game now. At best, I might check it out with a "complete" edition at bargain price depending on reviews or demos.

 

[Scorpid]

People cancelling their pre-orders is a good thing now? They will most certainly jump for joy if everyone cancels.

considering that noone should preorder ever, its awesome. though probably not to take-two.

Yup. I've yet to be ripped off by a game thats been out for a year and I did basic research on before buying.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

No it isn't. Not for them anyway. It's great for me. And some other people that are becoming DLC weary. I for one have no intention of buying Evolve. Ever. It's not even a bargain bin for me.

I think we're delivering a fantastic title

It's cute that he has an opinion. But my opinion is more relevant seeing how I'm the potential customer. And I think the game can rot in hell for all I care. It's not like the gaming market is lacking fun games to play. I can go to Steam right now and find at least a dozen titles that I can buy to occupy my free time with. And then there's the backlog, books, movies, TV shows, and the classic human interaction and connection through various fun activities. So why the fuck would I even bother with his overpriced shit with an abysmal business model designed to nickle and dime the players instead of focusing on a fun and rich experience out of the box? Why would anyone bother with it? It's not like it's the only piece of entertainment to be released this year.

It's actually amazing that these things can be successful when the market is the way it is. Yet they succeed all the time. Gamers must be really dense or extremely rich to buy into every money grabbing title that comes along with a huge marketing campaign behind it.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I really wish game journalism outlets would stop giving awards at preview events to begin with. "Our game took 6 Best of E3 awards!" Claims a developer, not bothering to note that that's out of about 600 awards given out at that show, since game journalists give out those "awards" like candy. Everyone there is bound to win something with those odds.

 

[Mezahmay]

Controversy, generally speaking, is a good thing. People can argue about the business model. I think we're delivering a fantastic title that's well versed with consumers who will pay for it. And all signs are extraordinarily positive. never like to claim sucuesl beofie it's ocrued. This loakshtho boaehalkga fjbhatoh blahhhghagl hgalg.

Sorry, I kind of crapped out around the end there: I couldn't see through all the glaze that accumulated on my eyes while I was reading the statement fragment. Now I really don't feel all that left out over having no internal hype for this game given the last few weeks.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well he's not wrong is he, only about 10% of their consumers ever cared about the "scandal" and by the time that game comes out even they won't, only thing that will keep echoing is the hype.
So he can rightfully expect a massive success on the basis of sheer consumer ignorance.

 

[XenoScifi]

The guy kind of came off as a smug asshole IMO. To me shitty DLC gouging controversy is not a good thing. Granted it gets the game name out there, but it's doing more harm. Those of us who pay attention to this kind of stuff are more then likely going to pass this one up.

I'm pretty sure those with zero spending restrictions will still pick this up and any/every DLC that can be thrown at them. I try to stay away from gamers like that. More times those type of people tend to be very elitist and make playing with or against them not very fun sometimes. Kind of like those elite players that spend $100's of dollars in CS:GO on weapon skins and play with such shit sportsmanship.

 

[Aerotrain]

Wow. I bet this guy has a poster of Bobby Kotick hanging on his office wall.

 

[AT God]

Just replying to the headline, this is a great thing, people are showing a (somewhat) organized opposition to a practice the consumers have deemed to be unfair or exploitative. That is great, it supports the idea that consumers are becoming resistant to unfair practices and will hopefully vote with their wallets when this game is released, harming its initial sales period and (hopefully) encouraging businesses to reexamine how they treat the majority of players instead of simply the people who are dedicated to buying games for pre-orders and early access. If we are lucky, Evolve will struggle at launch, but will gain players as it ages and is actually 'finished.' What I don't get is why the CEO thinks its a good idea. Evolve is a fairly big name, well known title. He seems to think that this controversy is good because it is getting awareness out, but that only works when awareness is a problem. Games that are smaller and controversial benefit (sometimes) from controversy because a small amount of people will always buy something to see what the fuss is all about. If that small amount of people exceeds the amount of people that would have bought the game without the controversy, then the controversy is at least profitable, while I doubt its good if those involved ever want to make another game. But I have heard about Evolve for years, games media has been talking about it since its announcement (actually before since it's preorder bonus stuff surfaced before the game itself). I just don't get how it is at all good for Take-Two because their vehement defense of something people oppose doesn't look good.

 

[Morganan]

I don't get the outcry. They've said the DLC they are selling is not "day1 DLC", it'll probably be a month or so until it comes out. Sure the dude definitely said some stupid stuff, but if we hated everyone who said stupid stuff once upon a time and didn't walk it back after we'd end up hating everyone (including ourselves).

If the anger is about "DLC fatigue" then fine, I get that. If you pay $60.00 for a game and can't/wont get your money's worth out of it in a month then fine. However if I take 2 of my kids to see an imax movie until I pay for admission and some snacks we're way over the $60.00 threshold and that's an aggregate total of what, ~6 hours of entertainment value? So if I spend 7 hours playing the game before this "evil DLC" comes out I have to feel like I got good value for my money. At that point I can judge DLC on a case-by-case basis and determine if I would get enough value out of it to make it worth purchasing. Plus their DLC won't split up the community unlike loads of other games.

 

[Mezahmay]

Wow. I bet this guy has a poster of Bobby Kotick hanging on his office wall.

Oh man, that had me going. Well played, Aerotrain. Well played, though I feel ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello would be a better fit since at one point he said he wished he could charge players for virtual ammunition in online FPS matches.

 

[Excludos]

He's right. This IS a good thing..Just not for Evolve. Controversies like these might convince publishers steer away from doing similar things in the future. One can always hope at least.

 

[ryukage_sama]

He's still talking about us using the same language of mobile developer's with their pay-to-play models. They could be trying to mimic the MOBA games, but slapping a $60 price tag at the beginning doesn't work.

I was never really interested in the game in the first place. I'll play squad-based missions as a sort of dessert to my gaming, like the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer.

 

[TKretts3]

Is it Take Two or 2K Games that are trying for the dumbest comment of the year award?

2K is Take Two.
2K is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Inc.

I dislike what's going on with Evolve (Seriously, $70 CAD for that? It looks like a good game, but certainly not good enough, or big enough, for that kind of price tag, especially factoring in that there's going to be a ton of DLC for it) but I can't jump on 2K that much since, you know... Firaxis. <3

 

[Lunar Templar]

'No such thing as bad press' eh?

Can't wait to hear about how people aren't playing this after it comes out.

 

[F-I-D-O]

I maintain that Evolve is a fun, interesting experience that I'm looking forward to.
But it is the worst advertised game I've ever seen. Right as people were getting upset with pre-order DLC, piecemeal content, and dodgy launches, 2K decides to market the DLC before the game.
Controversy isn't a good thing - it divides a community before the game comes out, and leaves a lingering doubt in consumers.
The game's fun, the characters are interesting enough, and I want to play it. But marketing completely shit the bed, and didn't leave the devs much room beyond saying "Well, the DLC is going to get finished after the game comes out"

 

[Nurb]

No wonder Valve didn't want these greedy assholes anymore, they're too underhanded.

They announced DLC before the main game announcement, they have those poisonous pre-orders where you skip gameplay, telling you it's just a grind put in place to make you buy DLC.

I went from being interested, to not caring about the game anymore, to actively disuading people from buying from them. That's how dirty these people are.

It isn't hard either, everyone on Youtube gets bored of it pretty quick.

 

[Geekeric]

It's ironic that today on Steam you can buy the latest Tomb Raider with lots and lots of goofy DLC (like "fisherman" or "scavenger scout") all for 80% off, and I also had to dowload a 1.1 GB update of Company of Heroes 2 probably just so they can advertise the next DLC to me every time I go to play it. DLC is just greed, pure and simple; the only good thing about it is: gamers know it and they're not buying it.