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DLC The game!: tragically true and a bit funny... has the backlash started?
Britas
Member Posts: 46
Have a look if you havent seen. At last gaming sites are starting to talk about the trend (well...some)
Comments
Yea I noticed this a long time ago when DLC started popping up, companys now feel that since everything is connected online they dont need to release fully finished games cause they can quickly patch it or just add DLC to it to extend the game instead of investing in making a sequel.
Mess with the best, Die like the rest
while this could certainly lead to abuses of the most capitalist type, it could also be an advantage: an ever expanding world of content. rather than huge splash expacs a company can save money and time building a game over time creating more content on a more frequent basis.
while personally not a fan of Rift, Trion i think has shown what can best be done with this model with constant updates, tweaks, dungeons, themed events, and new raids.
it will of course in the end depend entirely on the company. are they dedicated to the game and its continuing creation? or are they trying to cash in quick? i think you can determine how each one would work.
i suppose the real concern will be if DLCs will make it too tempting to simply slap something together and toss it to the public.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
This is what you get with laissez-faire-style-capitalism. Vote for sanity, vote for your OWN self-interest -NOT- the interest of the corporate scum, or the ultra-rich.
I think the issue is more that they now intentionally leave content out of the release so it can be sold later that bothers me. I also think that the vid could as easily be talking about cash shops in MMORPGs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoFe8hRy42o
No, this is what you get when people pirate games or buy used games from retailers like Gamestop. Game companies don't make any money when people pirate games or buy them used. Gamestop doesn't share any of the revenue it earns on the sale of old games, and we are talking multi million dollars in sales. Is it any surprise that the people who actually create, develop, and distrubute these games want some of that revenue that's being essentially stolen from them?
Yes game publishers are out to make money, they are a buisness after all. They have bills to pay like everyone else. That doesn't automatically make them scum. If you call them scum you might as well be fair and call everyone who has purchased a used game to save a couple of bucks or pirated a game scum as well.
PIrating his lower then ever. Damn, when i was young we had club at school to pirate game...
The true problem his that they let there prodution cost go higher and higher by trying to sell us the graphic instead of the gameplay.
LOL another one from PR department ? Ppl buy secondhand things (not only games) becouse they ussualy cannot afford to buy new one - it doesnt destroy car sellers and anothers, so i dont see why it should destroy sw bussines. And piracy is realy poor excuse, just becouse someone is stealing so you are going to get it back on your actual paying customers ? Thats like fair bussines ?
What does pirating have to do with anything? It's not lost revenue when the people doing it wouldn't have even bought anything even if they couldn't pirate games. If anything, DLC just gives people more reason to pirate, because instead of paying $50 for a complete game, they have to pay $90+ for a complete game.
Buying used games is another issue altogether, but the industry has gone a few decades dealing with this "problem" and still managed to do just fine. Besides, the whole online authentication mechanic to link a CD-Key to a single account seems to be enough to force people to buy a game new rather than used.
Sorry, but the developers who skimp on content in the initial release just so they can sell the missing pieces at inflated values is and will continue to be a sleazy tactic.
If they don't sell us the full game they should not charge us the full price for the initial purchase and just sell it to us a chunk at a time.
My theme song.
And what the heck is wrong about buying or selling a used game?
Personaly I don't buy used games from retailer's because their prices for anything current is a joke, ie. I'll pay the extra 5 bucks for a new copy thank you.
But when I pay full retail price for a game and I'm done with it, I expect to be able to sell it or trade it or wipe my a$$ with it, if I so please.
Imagine if when you bought a car, you were only allowed to throw it in the trash, you were'nt allowed to sell it. That way you could keep all the Auto companies and Auto worker's employed and making money.
When it comes to cars, movies, books, games, etc. etc. I have the right to sell trade or what ever I wish
I do not have the right to pirate, infringe on patent's etc. etc.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Yeah yeah , actual video games industry is one of most dynamic industries in whole modern economy. It is continuessly growing at a fast pace. Piracy is getting loweer and lower. Potential market for gaming is rising and rising , especially PC is experiencing renessaince. Even with quite high piracy develoing markets are showing proofs that you can sell alot of legitimate copies of games there, f.e. some titles in Russia hits hundreads of thousands copies sold. With digital distribution some develoers get's bit bigger profit per copy.
So sorry but seeing annual reports from game companies - they certainly show that they are very proffitable and in good health.
So I show one of my fingers to them , with this greedy 1-day DLC , monetarizing everything , raising games prices over and over ( Starcraft 2 as 3x60$ instead of 1x60$ and 2x40$ for them beign expansion packs , 150$ CE Swtor , levelling PC prices to console levels , using very unfair currency conversion rates on non-US markets - where price in pounds, australian dollars , or euro can be like 80-90$ when in US game costs 50-60$ ).
Aside of that in 2011 game industry is considered to have around 74 billion $ and growth is so fast than in 2015 it should be 115 $ billions. info by Gartner
95% of various industry branches would kill for this kind of growth. Many other industries are either in stagnancy or decline.
So feed your corporate talk to someone else who might be actually naive enough to believe.
LOL another person who can't spell or bother to use a spell check. People often buy secondhand because they don't want to spend an extra five bucks for a new copy. Also, your example of the used car dealer isn't valid because we are talking different volumes here. Tens of millions of used games get sold each year, and the number of used cars sold at independant retailers (with no connection to established dealerships) is no where near that amount. Also cars/trucks need service, and parts, which you need to get from the dealer so they are able to recoup their losses that way. It's not like your used copy of Gears of War two needs a tune up or a new head gasket, does it?
And Piracy is a VERY valid excuse. It's theft plain and simple. The game developers don't make anything from the sale and it costs them millions. AAA games are very expensive to make, an investment of tens of millions of dollars. Losing that much revenue is enough to put small developers out of buisness.
Also I'm not in PR for anyone. My name is NAVYJackal for a reason you asshat.
I don't see the point of your arguement. That's like saying that walking into a department store and walking away with a thousand dollar piece of merchandise isn't lost revenue because I never planned to pay for it? It's still theft, it doesn't matter if its electronic data or something tangible you can hold in your hand. The company still loses out and the pirate gets to enjoy the game. How is that fair to the developer? I can understand why they would be upset, don't you? Instead of pirating why don't you purchase it? Also I'm not sure what game you are referring to. Far as I am aware you get a full game when you purchase the product, the DLC is for if the game is resold and the new owner of the 'used' game has to pay to access the entire game. That's not screwing over the original purchaser, it's so the game developer can recoup some of his losses from the 'new' owner of the game.
I'm not saying it's the best idea for the game developers to charge for this DLC, I was just pointing out a couple of reasons why they do it. Are there other options? Yes, but this is one route they've taken.
You've kind of missed the piont of my post. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with you selling a game that you've paid for. It's yours. My problem is with companies like Gamestop that make huge profits from this. They pay you a pittance for your game, mark up the price then resell it, usually only about five bucks cheaper than a new copy, and by doing so completely cut out the game manufacturer. Games cost money to make. Research on new games, innovation, and all that cost money. If the developers don't make any money it limits the games they are able to make.
Forcing those who purchase used games to pay for DLC or a 'chunk' of the game is the developers trying to recoup some of their losses. Is it right? That's what people are debating. I can see why they are doing it though.
only reason companys do that is simple, people are stupid enough to pay then full for half games, only way to stop this is simple never, NEVER, buy DLC again, but I know stupid people always win, and make the smart ones lose
Alright, so big scale companies like Bioware, EA, Sony, Nintendo, and the like all post profits, even record profits. Great, they are established. They don't have to worry about secondhand sales, or folks pirating their games because their games sell enough units to cover the losses.
What about a small developer who sinks all their funds on single project? To them lost revenue from second hand sales and pirates could very well be enough to sink the company and put everyone who works for them out of work. A really nice thought in today's economy. But I am sure someone who is so obviously not naive such as yourself doesn't bother yourself with thoughts like that.
AAA games might very expensive to make, but if they are half decent they almost always earn develpment money back from initial box sales . If they want to prevent secondhand sails, it's freaking easy - THQ for example uses Steam just for that fro their PC games.
Piracy reasons are simply bullshit. Noone is saying that it isnt theft. But using it as excuse to rip off customers who legaly buy your product is just plainly ridiculous.
BTW So what if you use nick NAVYJackal asshat ? ... LOL anyone can do it, and if you think you might impress me more with something like US NAVY you are badly wrong, I'm not from US and I have served my years in military service and dont feel need to put that into my nick ... lol
They missed out the collcetors edition
I think your analogy is a bit flawed. A more accurate one would be if you went into a department store with some sort of futuristic cloning machine and literally copied a thousand dollar piece of merchandise. The original merchandise could still be sold. If piracy was theft, a million pirated copies would mean that those 1 million copies could not be sold. Piracy is still illegal though, just not theft but copyright infringement, there is a difference.
Also, DLC can be pirated. I don't see how DLC can be used to combat piracy and I think the game companies know this.
<childish, provocative and highly speculative banner about your favorite game goes here>
No this is what you get when you have a bunch of idiots who don't want long term growth and stability in compines but quick winfall profits so they can cut and run.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
"Almost always"? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I can come up with all sorts of games that were very good, but didn't earn back the money to develop them. I'm not saying that's entirely due to pirating and second hand sales, but I'm sure it played a role. If your future was riding on the success of a game you developed I can wager you'd be trying to recover your losses anyway you could.
Incidently I couldn't give a rat's fart about impressing you about my occupation. I also don't give a flying pigs fart that you supposedly claim you are in the military as well (incidently I don't believe you, but if you are, yay for you). I don't understand why you automatically assumed I am with the US Navy, or that I live in the USA. I don't work for them and I don't live in the USA either, so....yay for us I suppose...
You in the industry?
You sound very biased.
Every kind of business has a risk on investment. And most have to deal with theft of one type or another. The entertainment industry (including software) has one hell of a profit margin. I'm sure that the industry price's allow for loss's do to theft.
When you start dictating that your customer's can't sell their fully purchased and registered product's, well that's just going a little to far. Just because it's an electronic product and it didn't require any raw materials. It shouldn't make it exempt of the free market.
I have 10's of thousands of dollar's wrapped up in CAD-CAM software and I can legally sell my payed for and registered copies.
What makes the game industry so different from any other?
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Well, yes I suppose that's a good analogy, more accurate than mine. The original copy of the game is still there to be sold. Either way it is illegal and costs developers money. As for whether DLC can be pirated, I really can't say, I'm not a developer or skilled in programming, but I figure any kind of electronic medium is vulnerable to hacking.
No, I'm not in the industry and truth be told I don't have an shred of programming skill. I'm not related to the industry in any way shape or form. Incidently I've never worked for a retailer like Gamestop either. Am I biased? I think everyone's biased to a degree, I just happen to think that piracy is wrong, very wrong. And the worst part is that people come up with all sorts of lame excuses to justify doing something they know is wrong. I guess I am upset about the unfairness of it. The developers work hard to make the games, they deserve to reap the rewards for it. Pirates and companies like Gamestop cheat developers out of their revenue.
Lost revenue means less money to develop new games, which leads to less innovation, less creativity, and more of having the same old titles put out year after year with nothing more than a fresh coat of paint. I want to see the medium's boundaires pushed to it's limits. I want to see how far it can go. I want to see something new! Is that wrong?