Developers and their DLC milking : The DamnLag

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Developers and their DLC milking

By Josh "Genki" Michaelson

-May 25, 2010

I am getting fed up with the crap these developers keep pulling when it comes to downloadable content. It seems like almost every other day I’m hearing about some ridiculous DLC for a game that can either drastically change the way that a game is played, or should have been included when the game was released. Hell, developers now tout around a big banner and proudly announce that their games will have DLC available on day one of the game’s release (Mass Effect 2 for example). It seems to me that over the last five years, game developers have been slowly, but surely becoming greedier and lazier when it comes to the content in their games.

Of course, this has been going on for a while now. The earliest memory I have of DLC stupidity was Oblivion’s Horse Armor DLC back in 2006. Yes, they were actually charging you for armor for your horse. I’m not sure if this was when things really started to get out of hand, but it was definitely a red flag in retrospect.

It wasn’t too long before other developers started taking advantage of the idea that they could charge us for extra content long after their game had been released, and Namco Bandai was more than happy to rape some wallets with their own brand of DLC, better known as “Disc-Locked Content.”

“Hey Jim, I’ve got a great idea!”

“Oh really, Bob?”

“Yep! How about with Beautiful Katamari, we sell unlock keys for content on the actual disc players already bought?”

“Bob, that’s insane …. do it.”

Yep, it definitely started getting worse there. Especially since it’s still done today with games like Bioshock 2; only this time with an excuse. The reasoning here was that by having the content already on the disc, players that didn’t buy the DLC could still play with others that have the DLC. Hmm, I suppose that makes sense… beyond the fact that you have already paid $60 for the damn game and they’re forcing you to spend an additional amount of money in order to actually utilize all the content on the disc.

While these things really start to show the increase in greed with developers, there’s nobody greedier when it comes to DLC than Capcom. Example number one: Street Fighter 4. The game is already $60 and the special edition that came with a shitty figurine was $80. Then Capcom released extra costumes for the game’s characters that would cost an extra $20 if players wanted them all. They didn’t even offer them separately if players only wanted a specific character’s costume! These are damn costumes we’re talking about here; just a simple reskinning of the characters. They wanted essentially $1 for each costume.

Now, of course, you can easily say “Well then don’t buy them,” but that’s besides the point. It’s principle. Capcom just simply couldn’t include these fun costumes with the game for free, or at least could have charged something like $.10 per costume.

Example number two of Capcom’s greed would have to be the Mega Man games. 9 and 10 both have DLC that could have easily been included with the game. They were obviously completed before the game’s release, so why not include them? Because apparently Capcom wants to ream us for all we’re worth. Oh, sure, they like to play innocent and give us nice gifts occasionally, but then they bend us over and screw us in the ass by making us buy Bass for Mega Man 10 as DLC or more extra costumes for Super Street Fighter 4.

Oh, and let’s not forget the deal with Resident Evil 5 when it came out. Remember that terrible Vs. Mode they made people actually buy? It was an incredibly useless mode based on the game’s mechanics and yet they couldn’t bother to include it with the game initially. Of course, the Gold Edition DLC was a better example of doing things right, but that’s only one good instance out of every hundred by this company.

I know it may seem like I’m just bitching about Capcom in general now, but I’m really only trying to use them as an example of how incredibly greedy developers are getting with their game content now. What happened to the days of packing a game so full of fun extra content that we would explode? Remember the old NBA Jam game on SNES and Genesis and how you could use codes to unlock goofy characters like Bill Clinton? I swear, if that game was made now you’d see a Presidential DLC pack rather than have them in the game on day one simply because they want the money.

The only game that could possibly get away with ridiculous amounts of DLC and wallet raping would have to be Rock Band. Sure, Guitar Hero could apply here too, but who plays that abomination of a series anymore? Rock Band is constantly coming out with new songs for players to buy, and it works because the game itself already has a plethora of songs and the idea of having the latest songs being played on the radio as songs in the game is fantastic. However, even here there is a stretch; especially with Beatles Rock Band. That game really screwed people over by leaving out a ton of great Beatles songs for the sake of DLC in the following months. What’s even worse is that these albums of songs usually cost as much as the actual album itself. Why can’t players kill two birds with one stone here and receive an MP3 of each DLC song they buy so they can listen to it on their Zunes (screw iPods) as they go for a stroll?

I’ve talked a lot about the greediness of developers now, and I know it’s a given that greed is what makes these companies run; but there used to be a time when games had a ton of content right off the bat within the game. What makes things even worse is that DLC isn’t just making developers greedier; it’s also making them lazier.

It seems like now, developers strive for their release date so much that if they can’t fit something in the game in time, they label it at “DLC” and release it later. Or even worse, they come up with a concept and then throw it in the “Work on later for DLC” bin rather than try to implement it in the game. Granted, some people handle this situation well. God of War 3 comes to mind (again…) as a recent example. The crew had planned an Epilogue for the game, but wasn’t able to complete it in time for release, so now they plan on releasing it later as free DLC. Now, the game is perfectly fine without it as the story is still complete, but the fact that they’ve owned up to the situation and are offering something that was supposed to be in the game already at no extra cost shows that there is still some hope for this industry.

Meanwhile, you’ve got Ubisoft. These guys decided with Prince of Persia ’08 to totally not give people an ending and then give them an epilogue (that concludes nothing) later for an additional cost. Now granted the game was still “complete” without this, but the fact that this DLC is entitled “Epilogue” would obviously bring most to the conclusion that it would bring some resolution to the game’s cliffhanger ending. It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a horses face in order to get them to complete the race only to find out that the thing was made of wax. It tastes terrible and feels like a wasted effort.

Then they did the same thing again with Assassin’s Creed II; this time with portions smack-dab in the middle of the game. They cut out two chapters in the middle of the game right before a major time jump in the story, leaving players curious as to what happened during the skipped years. Then they are given the chance to find out through DLC later. What the hell? Why wasn’t this just put in the game in the first place?

I suppose you could argue that these things worked well as DLC as they only add gameplay, not conclusive story to the game and would only drag the pacing down if in the story; but they could have still made it into the game as bonus missions or something. It simply loops back around to greed by this point.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things will be getting any easier for us when it comes to the content in our games. More and more companies are relying on DLC for revenue more than their actual game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if before too long we have to start paying to get the actual endings to our games as DLC. I weep for the future of micro-transactions.

*** Want some more hot Genki action? Gotta Rant Em’ All is updated every Saturday. Check back every seven days to follow. (You know you can’t resist this.) ***

About the Author

Josh "Genki" Michaelson

Writer of the column “Gotta’ Rant ‘em All,” Josh became obsessed with gaming after playing Super Mario Bros. 3. Since then, he has been deeply rooted in the culture of video games. This love for the medium had led him toward a degree in 3D Animation at Northern Illinois University.

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I completely agree. In MOST cases (and I stress the word most, meaning not all) DLC should be free and/or included on the disc. There are several factors that demonstrate this.

First, a blue ray disc is used for a PS3 game. Pick up any PS3 game you own and look at the back of the disc, you’ll notice that they’ve made it so that you cannot see how much of the disc has been used up. What are they trying to hide? The fact that their game doesn’t nearly fill the capacity of the disc? So there is one excuse they can’t use, because blue ray discs have gigantic capacity and there is nothing stopping them from putting the entire game on the disc or releasing multi-disc games like they used to (final fantasy 7, fear effect 2, metal gear solid, etc.)

Secondly, how could you possibly forget about EA Games!? They are by far the most greedy developer of all time. I think the Tiger Woods series effectively shows us this, as the day of release for 2012, there was over $50 worth of content, much of which were add-on courses for previous tiger woods games that I already bought!!! EA if anyone at your pathetic company reads this, you are trying to rob us blind! I bought courses (banff springs, predator, ect.) for TW2010 and I refuse to buy them again for 2012. In fact, I flat out refuse to buy any of your games anymore… which brings me to my next point…

I constantly hear people saying, “well if the dlc is good I’ll buy it” WRONG! Don’t buy it! It’s one thing to buy an expansion pack, but these are not expansion packs I’m talking about here. If we stop buying it, they’ll stop charging us or at least drop the prices. We can never force the developers to stop, but goddamn we can try. We need to at least stop them from releasing these “Day-of-release addons” or at the very least get them to explain to us the real reasons (besides greed) that they are allowing the dlc to get so out of control.

To conclude, I like downloadable content when it is called for, and not a blatant money thing. If you want to try and take all of our money, you better be some indie developer who can pull our heartstrings by putting passion and hard work into an incredible game (not to say the big guys don’t, they just have larger studios with more workers). DLC need not be completely destroyed, but definitely regulated. Also there should NOT be any allowance of DLC for games targeted at children under 12, it is partially illegal and just plain wrong.
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