2K Goes for a Chokehold With Its WWE 2K18 Season Pass

Hope it does well and turns out better then they handled NBA but this is not for me. The audience is quite big though.

2K just loves making people pay more than they have to. Back then WWE games didn't have this. Just play the game and you'll get everything.

The Title Screen Pack - required to proceed past the title screen: $39.95.

This is just micro payments, might aswell just make it free-to-play and charge for each character

are season passes new to the Nintendo world? this should not shock anyone that plays other consoles....not that I agree with DLC in every game but its no longer news worthy

Well... it makes me feel better about the cost of the Smash DLC

Of course this is all Nintendo's fault.

@ValhallaOutcast generally, yes

Missed a trick by not pricing it at 9.99

I hate DLC, I miss the time games came complete and you just had to work hard (or buy a magazine to discover the cheat codes) to unlock all content. I rather earn it than pay beyond the main price of the game. Call it a generation gap if you will, I call it industry shenanigans.

Looks rather expensive for a load of stuff that really should be included in the game anyway.

No way I'm biting into that Not-Free-To-Pay bait.

Fire Pro Wrestling will be a great substitute, if not even more enjoyable !

@Shiryu games were also tiny in comparison, DLC makes games bigger or adds content it doesn't add things that make or break the game

The gaming industry just gets greedier and greedier. Stuff like this is why people rather buy a Super NES Classic Edition over the modern console craps that had being on the market nowadays.

@ValhallaOutcast That is why DLC should be free, like many years ago when it began back on PC. Companies rewarded your purchase with free extra content. I will even bet the Hardy Boyz are already on the game ROM and that DLC is just a byte you switch the value...

@crackafreeze Seems in the now busy world of today nobody got time for that.

@Bunkerneath i'd say macropayments

This is the worst season pass I think I've ever seen, paying for things that you can unlock by playing, extra characters that I can't imagine many care about, and locking moves behind a paywall. Wow!

Sigh.
Why Wrestling take over some Minor Martial Sports ?
I prefer Kickboxing games like K-1 series on PS2, but Hell No for UFC / MMA.
Or at least somewhat like Animal Boxing NDS in HD...

@Tibob if only fire pro was on the switch. I want it so badly.

There are still 3 weeks until the game is released on other platforms-let alone the Switch. We don't know if it's going to run smoothly, if it will need huge memory space, and if the base game will actually be fun and a full experience to play. Until these questions have been answered my money is remaining firmly in my pocket.

@AG_Awesome

Might be coming :
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/07/fire_pro_wrestling_boss_would_love_to_put_the_game_on_switch

This doesn't seem to be a season pass. A season pass i supposed to be a one time payment for access to the DLC throughout the season. This seems more like a club membership, where you get some initial perks, and a discount towards ongoing DLC.

This is far more preferable to in game currency.

So hey, it's not that bad really. Idk why everyone complains about DLC nowadays

$5 for a cheat code. -.-

The Press Home Button Again Screen Pack - required to go back to the Home Menu: €199,99.

@Shiryu Most developers would probably be happy to include everything from the start and even provide free DLC down the road... and games would cost $80 - $100.

So look at the "pay to unlock" structure as a discount for people who don't care about the extra stuff or plan to unlock it the old fashioned way.

Definitely tempted

This kind of DLC is what really puts me off modern gaming.

@holygeez03 - Lets be real. If they could sell you a 100-dollar game, they'd chomp at the very idea they can sell you a more "affordable" 10 dollar bonus content.

@JaxonH Who says there won´t be any ingame currency?

It´s 2K afterall.

I am being serious now. I legitimately have no idea what I am looking at! I am a Nintendo gamer. Gimme Ultimate Warrior and some faces to stomp and I'm happy. I don't understand this nonsense lol.

I'm definitely picking up the game, and will probably bite on the season pass, but I just think these season passes should be $20.

Shouldn't the hardy boys not be included in the roster from the start

I'm laughing in the face of the current state of the video games industry!

@holygeez03
So basically what you're saying is, not playing the game is worth more than playing the game?

Welcome to gaming in 2017. Not even the Nintendo consoles are safe from carved-out-from-the-main-experience DLC anymore.

@SmaMan
Think about the idea that SNES games were $50 in the mid-90's... and the standard retail price for a typical game today (over 20 years later) is $60. If you know anything about inflation, you will understand how crazy that seems.

Granted, there are other factors... technology and economies of scale have improved, but the size of studios and development times have also increased...

Ultimately, developers have two options: significantly raise the cost of a game... or provide a "limited game" with additional content for a separate fee. Apparently, they have decided that raising the price would create more consumer backlash than providing customers with the optional extra cost/content.

If consumers don't like this option, then they should refuse to buy the extras... and then happily buy the "complete game" at a higher cost.

Waiting for Fire Pro Wrestling instead, FUC2K!

@holygeez03
Oh look, it's this argument again. Yeah, I disagree.

Carved-out DLC is not a symptom of inflation or "games cost more to make now." It's a symptom of the corporate culture that's weeding itself into every crevice of the industry. The name of the game is "How Can We Make More Money" It's been going on at 2K for a long time, and they're sticking it out so that you and other gamers can just "get used to it." Sadly, it seems to be working.

As other commenters have pointed out, season passes and carved-out DLC a new thing for a Nintendo console. Just look around you. Nintendo's been providing "complete games" at the popular $60 price point. Splatoon got weapons, maps, and continued support for nearly two years, and you never had to pay extra for it. Splatoon 2 appears to be following suit, along with ARMS. Not to mention, both of these examples still use the "play through the game, put in the time, and get rewarded with unlockables" model. Had 2K published Splatoon, you can bet the Sloshing Machine would be gated behind a $4.99 paywall, or 500 coins of whatever F2P-style currency they'd come up with. (this after you've already paid them $60.)

When Nintendo offers DLC, it's only on top of the complete $60 game they sold you. Breath of the Wild was a huge, expansive experience, and the two waves of DLC in its "expansion pass" were an extra bit of icing on the cake. Had 2K published Breath of the Wild, you can bet you'd need to cough up more money to do so much as store an extra horse at the stable, or get access to all 120 shrines. (on top of that $60!)

But why stop at Nintendo? Horizon: Zero Dawn is another great recent example of a PS4 game that was made and sold complete (at that magic $60 level!) and only shortly after release was the concept of expansion DLC even brought up.

So no, it's not all game developers who are going down the route of 2K, Activision, EA, etc. It's a growing number of them, but there's not only "two options." There's still plenty of examples out there of why carved out DLC and season passes (selling said DLC before it even exists) don't need to exist to make good, complete, successful games.

But you're right about one thing. If they don't like it, consumers should refuse to buy these carved-out remains (I mean, come on, the Hardy's are on the main roster, they should be in the main game!) to send 2K a message. After the backlash NBA2K18 has gotten, that message might finally be getting through.

@ValhallaOutcast @AG_Awesome It breaks the game if it takes a lot, lot longer to earn things than it should like in NBA 2K18

@Mr-Cup-O-Noodles oh I agree completely. I hate dlc like this. Basically just to cheat/not play. Plus then it encourages developers to make the game take forever to unlock things through regular gameplay. It ruins games.

I'll still be picking this up and probably the season pass too, wrestling games are outdated much quicker then say a football game so in theory its a good idea and a good way to keep rosters up to date for the hardcore wrestling fans.

That season pass is weak