NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

You have an issue with it? Stop buying shit from developers that keep shoveling shit.

Oh, I have.

Bethesda lost my trust back at Morrowind.
Bioware by the way they've handled Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Obsidian just by reputation alone.

Everything they make is kiddie pool stuff compared to the likes of Deus Ex, anyway.

[cidbahamut]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

My beef with DLC is that it's only released on a digital medium with no physical counterpart. This means five to ten years from now when the company goes under and servers are taken down, I can't play the full game. That is completely unacceptable.

What the hell happened to just manning up and releasing honest-to-god expansion packs?

[Ufgt]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Wow, you guys act like making games is free.

Devs have to meet deadlines set by their publishing contract, and if that means scaling back the project in order to meet milestones, that's just how it is. Sometimes, they need to release a game without full content in order to continuing development, and with DLC, they can do that. In the past, they would just completely chop the content and leave it for the sequel or not ever include it at all. Do they not plan games and deadlines with DLC in mind? Sure, but DLC in and of itself isn't bad. Just because a few companies are abusing the privilege doesn't mean the system is broken.

Believe it or not, devs still have a passion for making good games and isn't in it for the money.

[Ziero]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

My beef with DLC is that it's only released on a digital medium with no physical counterpart. This means five to ten years from now when the company goes under and servers are taken down, I can't play the full game. That is completely unacceptable.

What the hell happened to just manning up and releasing honest-to-god expansion packs?

Because that's a lot of wasted resources just to release a few maps for an online shooter.

Of course this is ignoring the fact that having DLC installed on your system means you can play it whenever you want, regardless of the status of the developers who made it. Unless the game is online only, the company and the servers will have no effect on you playing any kind of DLC. I can play Little Big Planet just fine offline with all my DLC intact, hell Valkyria Chronicles is a completely offline game...but I can still play the DLC.

You're thinking of multiplayer. Not DLC.

[DakAttack]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Oh, I have.

Bethesda lost my trust back at Morrowind.
Bioware by the way they've handled Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Obsidian just by reputation alone.

Everything they make is kiddie pool stuff compared to the likes of Deus Ex, anyway.

What? The first Deux Ex had plenty of bugs, and the second one wasn't even that well recieved, so I'm not sure why you're putting the series up on such a pedastal.

I've played DA:O on two different platforms and haven't run into a single bug, so I'm not quite sure what your issue is, there.

[cidbahamut]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Because that's a lot of wasted resources just to release a few maps for an online shooter.

I wasn't speaking in the context of FPS games.

Of course this is ignoring the fact that having DLC installed on your system means you can play it whenever you want, regardless of the status of the developers who made it. Unless the game is online only, the company and the servers will have no effect on you playing any kind of DLC. I can play Little Big Planet just fine offline with all my DLC intact, hell Valkyria Chronicles is a completely offline game...but I can still play the DLC.

Yes, because reformatting never happens. If I need to reinstall from scratch years down the road with only the original game discs then I'm screwed. That is not acceptable when there could have been a physical counterpart to the DLC. An "option" if you will.

[Ziero]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

A more expensive "option" for everyone involved. One that's usually not worth the money when you consider how small many DLC packs actually are. Make back ups if you're so worried about what will happen years down the line. For most games and most DLCs, actual, physical versions of the DLC are more trouble then they're worth.

If you're talking about MMO games with added expansions, that's a completely different story.

[Firewind]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

ITT: Fanboys whining about developers they don't like.

[Mhurron]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Wow, you guys act like making games is free.

Devs have to meet deadlines set by their publishing contract, and if that means scaling back the project in order to meet milestones, that's just how it is. Sometimes, they need to release a game without full content in order to continuing development, and with DLC, they can do that. In the past, they would just completely chop the content and leave it for the sequel or not ever include it at all. Do they not plan games and deadlines with DLC in mind? Sure, but DLC in and of itself isn't bad. Just because a few companies are abusing the privilege doesn't mean the system is broken.

Believe it or not, devs still have a passion for making good games and isn't in it for the money.

Deadlines are now made such that it is almost impossible to create the finished game in time. Why should they when they can ship a skeleton for full price and then have people continue to pay more for the rest of the game?

0-day DLC, unless its free, is a money grab. They wouldn't get away with new games costing on the order of $80-100 on the box, but thats what they get because apparently no one can do simple math any more.

[cidbahamut]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

A more expensive "option" for everyone involved. One that's usually not worth the money when you consider how small many DLC packs actually are.

Which is why I'd prefer we go back to proper expansion packs. If you're just patching in one or two extra maps you shouldn't be nickel and diming your customers, that should just be a free patch since you couldn't be arsed to finish it before the release date.

Make back ups if you're so worried about what will happen years down the line. For most games and most DLCs, actual, physical versions of the DLC are more trouble then they're worth.

I shouldn't have to make backups though. I should have a CD I can pull out of my binder and pop in the drive. Sure there's plenty of folks who'd prefer to have it all digital but that's no reason there can't be phsyical media too for those who want it.

If you're talking about MMO games with added expansions, that's a completely different story.

Agreed, MMOs are a completely different matter and not all that relevant to a discussion of DLC in the context of single player games.

[Raydeus]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Things like this make me think gaming is reaching it's practical limits with this generation.

I seriously doubt studios will be able to afford development for a next generation console, and PC releases are buggier and buggier as expected from trying to squeeze more complex projects in a last generation schedule.

Or maybe I'm just being unrealistically pesismist here.



One thing I'm sure of though. Being forced to work with the same console/platform for years does more for gaming that releasing the next generation hardware.

[DakAttack]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

0-day DLC, unless its free, is a money grab. They wouldn't get away with new games costing on the order of $80-100 on the box, but thats what they get because apparently no one can do simple math any more.

And yet it's all a choice. Nobody is saying you MUST pay for the DLC if you buy the retail package. Don't like it, don't buy it.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

What? The first Deux Ex had plenty of bugs, and the second one wasn't even that well recieved, so I'm not sure why you're putting the series up on such a pedastal.

Never encountered a single bug (its also a decade-old game, so that was a different time). Also, they do that whole "moral choice" thing in a manner that goes beyond light/dark and let you complete objectives in an open-ended matter rather than one or two set solutions.

I've played DA:O on two different platforms and haven't run into a single bug, so I'm not quite sure what your issue is, there.

Return to Ostagar - paid DLC - had fatal errors at launch. They had to take that shit down for two weeks to fix it, but it doesn't change the fact that fan's game saves were totally corrupted as a result.

Also, DA:O "free DLC" is the epitome of the problem right now. The "free" has already expired on the vouchers. You have to pay for it now. What happens when they decide to just take the content down?

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition on Xbox 360 faces a similar problem. The Gold Edition is really just RE5, the "Gold" part of "Gold Edition" is all download content, redeemable with a voucher. That's awesome if you don't have the internet! Very misleading and unforgivable on Capcom's part.

And Borderlands "Game of the Year" Edition is looking to do the same thing. None of the expansions are on the GOTY Edition's disc. You get vouchers. So here's the same exact problem. If you don't have an internet connect, you've just been conned out of some money because you paid extra for the base version of the game, which is now a $30 Greatest/Platinum Hit.

Bethesda managed Fallout 3's bugs in a pretty shameful manner by offering fixes within the subsequent expansions. And whatever problem occurred in one expansion was addressed with patches that only came in the next expansion, you know, which you had to buy. This brought to you by the folks that brought you horse armor.

Its pretty damn obvious why 6% only go for it. Most of us know DLC is bullshit. More often they're depriving us of content and masquerading it as an incentive and a bonus when its something that was supposed to be part of the game. The Borderlands content like Roxy, General Knoxx and Robot Revolution... that's DLC I can buy into as actually expanding the experience because of how it played out, but how its implemented in GOTY Edition is pretty fucking horrible.

[DakAttack]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Never encountered a single bug (its also a decade-old game, so that was a different time). Also, they do that whole "moral choice" thing in a manner that goes beyond light/dark and let you complete objectives in an open-ended matter rather than one or two set solutions.



Return to Ostagar - paid DLC - had fatal errors at launch. They had to take that shit down for two weeks to fix it, but it doesn't change the fact that fan's game saves were totally corrupted as a result.

Also, DA:O "free DLC" is the epitome of the problem right now. The "free" has already expired on the vouchers. You have to pay for it now. What happens when they decide to just take the content down?

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition on Xbox 360 faces a similar problem. The Gold Edition is really just RE5, the "Gold" part of "Gold Edition" is all download content, redeemable with a voucher. That's awesome if you don't have the internet! Very misleading and unforgivable on Capcom's part.

And Borderlands "Game of the Year" Edition is looking to do the same thing. None of the expansions are on the GOTY Edition's disc. You get vouchers. So here's the same exact problem. If you don't have an internet connect, you've just been conned out of some money because you paid extra for the base version of the game, which is now a $30 Greatest/Platinum Hit.

Bethesda managed Fallout 3's bugs in a pretty shameful manner by offering fixes within the subsequent expansions. And whatever problem occurred in one expansion was addressed with patches that only came in the next expansion, you know, which you had to buy. This brought to you by the folks that brought you horse armor.

Its pretty damn obvious why 6% only go for it. Most of us know DLC is bullshit. More often they're depriving us of content and masquerading it as an incentive and a bonus when its something that was supposed to be part of the game. The Borderlands content like Roxy, General Knoxx and Robot Revolution... that's DLC I can buy into as actually expanding the experience because of how it played out, but how its implemented in GOTY Edition is pretty fucking horrible.

Selling all your game data on discs is like viewing all your web pages on paper. Get over it.

[cidbahamut]

Re: NPD: 6% of console gamers use DLC

Selling all your game data on discs is like viewing all your web pages on paper. Get over it.

That's the dumbest thing I've heard all week.