He's quite an interesting little round-table about the differing practises behind DLC on PC and consoles. I think it's well worth a read and certainly applies to WiiWare where most DLC is largely built into the games yet the gamer gets charged extortionate amounts for it.
The obvious candidates that will probably spring to mind are Square's "My Life as a..." series. But come on, do you honestly think that ANY of the DLC on the service is truly worth it, or should it have just been included (and unlocked) by default? I think every DLC enabled game so far needed revised prices for its content - either cut in half or even better, free.
For some games like Bubble Bobble Plus or Puzzle Bobble Plus, there's no rhyme or reason why anyone should pay for the DLC other than to make a cheap game expensive. In the case of My Life as a Dark Lord, the price of much of the DLC is totally rediculous if not bordering on extortion, with the possible exception being the mission packs. Personally, I'd rather pay 1,500 (or even 2,000) points and get the games complete rather than follow the convoluted trend of WiiWare's existing titles.
There's a lot of people that put a hell of a lot of effort into making solid DLC for free and some companies put in real effort to make content that is worth buying to extend their games. DLC should feel real (i.e. actually feel like you're downloading something) and not just be an excuse to eek another 100/200/500 points worth of cash out of the player. This unlock approach is seriously harming the perception of what DLC should be and in all honesty has made me wary of any game that has the Pay-to-Play logo. Am I only going to get half a game? Why should two unlock codes take 256Kb (2 blocks) of storage? Any why the hell should I pay 200 points for what is techincally nothing more than a cheat code?
DLC is no different then retail games. There are some that are high quality and really worth it, like GTAIV and Fallout 3 that let you spend a couple buck to bring life back to a game you already own.
Then there's cheap cash in stuff like the Final Fantasy WiiWare games (save After Years)
It really just comes down to the consumer knowing what DLC is worth their money and what isn't. Some do deserve money with the effort put into them (GTAIV agan) while others probably took 15 minutes of coding if that.
So no I don't think consoles ruined DLC, you can't ruin a form of distribution, you could give it a bad name or put misconceptions in people, but it still works well. There's also the idea that people are just stuck in the past and not willing to accept the evolution of entertainment distribution and development (i.e. they expect the entire game to either be in one game, possibly with xpacs later down the road)
The obvious candidates that will probably spring to mind are Square's "My Life as a..." series. But come on, do you honestly think that ANY of the DLC on the service is truly worth it, or should it have just been included (and unlocked) by default? I think every DLC enabled game so far needed revised prices for its content - either cut in half or even better, free.
I like to believe/justify that if it weren't for DLC that the main game would have to be more expensive to compensate to get a return on the development costs or have been a much crappier game. Plus you don't have to download everything - just pick and choose what you like or need. So whereas you might be given the option to choose from near 7000 points worth of content, you may only need 1000 points of it. Very few people will be downloading much more than 2000 points of DLC but its nice to have the option to pick and choose what to get.
Any why the hell should I pay 200 points for what is techincally nothing more than a cheat code?
Because you're not paying for the cheat code, you're still paying for the main game. 1000 points seems pretty cheap to get Darklord. The amount of effort that went into producing the game must be a lot more than some full price retail titles. But of course they would be shooting themselves in the foot regarding sales if they regularly put out games with a more accurate cost in terms of its quality. 1500 points is the most anyone would want to download something but if a company wants to make a game worth more than 1500 points then they have to do it through DLC otherwise it just would not sell.
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What if...when Starcraft was "new", Blizzard want money for the "map of the week"? I mean, PC games have a good tradition of content added with patch or free download (competition?), but the consoles are new to this "digital delivery". I think there are some plus, like you buy what you want; but at the same there are some minus like you could feel cheated for paying for something already in the original data that only need to be activated. As the OP said, i like more a higher price tag for a complete game. We can end in... a demo that you have to pay?
I don't like the DLC concept at all frankly, however, extra mission packs or whatever is better than charging for wallpaper and accessories -- at least you're getting more game and not just set dressing.
Sometimes I wonder if it would have been cheaper for some of Square's DLC games to be released as disc games that include the entire package given the number of chapters some of them have. With the Wii's limited storage space, it seems to make more sense to release a disc that can hold the whole game instead of make the player store multiple very large chapters on their Wii or SD.
I've never downloaded them though, since it seems like such a money drain, but perhaps the way the game is set up, it makes more sense as DLC, and I just don't know it.
What I don't understand is why they need to ever release another guitar hero/rock band game again. Why not just keep adding song packs to the original games? (I know, more money is the reason, but still, it's stupid).
The rationale followed by Square-Enix and others in releasing games like Space Invaders Get Even or FFIV: The After Years as downloads is that the downloads lack the cost of publication and distribution faced by disc games with a fixed (and therefore more predictable) return. I'd much rather have had Space Invaders Get Even as a single disc release (apparently that's what was originally intended), but from their perspective WiiWare made more sense and I cannot blame them.
Would you want to guess at a number of discs to press knowing that at least half of them would likely just end up in a bargain bin, though you'll need to pay someone to make and ship all of them anyway versus uploading them to a server where you know that every sale will have a minimum figure of which you'll get the majority of the cash? I'm willing to bet when "broadband" allows for much higher download speeds physical media will largely cease to exist; I suppose you could have a kiosk for convenience and pay an extra fee to burn a game to disc/SD card on the spot, but clearly if publishers could move to this model for all their games, they have everything to gain.
I have nothing at all against DLC that actually adds to the game, such as Overlord's Raising Hell, Prince of Persia's Epilogue, and map packs for your average shooter on PS3/360. Those are the ones where it's obvious that the developer has been working on it since the previous release, and it actually takes up hard drive space because it's a real file containing real data and not just stupid unlock codes.
Naturally, that brings me to my hate of games that DO use the unlock code method, the worst offender I can think of being Beautiful Katamari. At release, the game was $60. Then you had to download NINE DLC levels, all of which were mere unlock codes! Then there's the Vader/Yoda thing with Soul Calibur IV...basically, you have to be wary with Namco-Bandai DLC.
I do think that Squenix is really pushing it with WiiWare. I felt that My Life as a King was priced decently, as the base game plus all non-retarded-costume DLC cost $35, and had enough content and quality to equal your average $50 disc. Cont...
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Space Invaders Get Even and My Life as a Darklord both take the concept too far, IMO. With the former, the base pack is just too small and the fact that every DLC pack has MORE maps than it does is nothing but a kick in the crotch! With the latter, there's simply too much DLC, and most of it seems to me to be overpriced by a couple hundred points. I don't know much about the DLC for their other WiiWare games, so I can't really comment on that.
So as Hardy83 already said, DLC can be just as worthwhile or just as much a ripoff as any retail game. The difference in my mind is that a crappy DLC setup can really screw up the experience with an otherwise great game.
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I am mixed on DLC content. As it is the only I have purchased is for Tiger Woods 10 on Wii and My LIfe as A King. Tiger Woods I bought the Fantasy pack so I could get the alien costume ! and My LIfe as a King I just really liked the game so I did not mind it so much. I am not sure if consoles are ruining this practice or not as I am fairly new to it. Prior to the Wii I only played MLB the Show series on PS2 online which was free. My only bone with DLC is in instances it can be downright expensive in the instances I have seen.
I like how with pc games you get that stuff for free or games like blast works you have a lot of great free user made content. I'd rather not pay for most dlc but if it means that the base game comes out cheaper I'm all for it. FFIV after years is the worst offender I think as all the dlc is different chapters that you have to buy in order to experience the whole game. Space invaders at least has a very low initial price and ends up at $20 total which isn't too crazy
FFIV after years is the worst offender I think as all the dlc is different chapters that you have to buy in order to experience the whole game.
And yet each chapter is worth the 300 Points. Given the option of Family Slot Car Racing and the like or The After Years chapters, I'd know which I would download.
Edgey, Gumshoe, Godot, Sissel, Larry, then Mia, Franziska, Maggie, Kay and Lynne.
I'm throwing my money at the screen but nothing happens!
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Topic: Are Consoles Ruining DLC?
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