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[TetraGenesis]

Assassin's Creed III for even $20. Illogical game pricing.


AHHHHHH ZING! Sick burn on that nearly two-year old game! God, I'm good.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

BF4 being like $20 or less and premium being ALWAYS $50. The game will probably be $5 and still have premium being $50.

 

[Klocker]

BF4 being like $20 or less and premium being ALWAYS $50. The game will probably be $5 and still have premium being $50.

Yes because without owning the game you wont buy the dlc...

It's the razor/razor blade model.

Low entry level to get you to buy the profitable items

 

[quetz67]

Illogical? Retail prices for games go down, so they react. Retail prices for download content...well...

But I grant them this small weapon against the used games market. Especially with many games getting a GOTY edition later.

 

[Dryk]

Bioware selling the context for ME3's ending 5 months down the line was so dumb

No offense, it just sounds like you're sort of a penny pincher, OP. To put it lightly.

Someone's pinching pennies in this situation and its not the OP

 

[linkent]

These company need to put an option for
GoTY upgrade whenever there is a GOTY version..

It is stupid that buying skyrim legendary edition is cheaper than buying the dlc without the main game..

It makes Early adopter feel stupid

 

[BigDug13]

As the base game gets cheaper the DLC should to? There's no reason for this occur.

I can get Rock Band 2 for probably $10 right now. What of the song library? If I follow your logic, that all may as well be free!

No offense, it just sounds like you're sort of a penny pincher, OP. To put it lightly.

Pay the cost for the content or don't.

Your math sucks. If a game gets a 50% discount on Steam, its DLC also gets that 50% discount. A $40 game on sale for $20 doesn't mean $20 DLC becomes free. It becomes $10.

And the Rock band example is not good. The licensing of the songs specifically and having to pay the artists and music label prevents the kind of discounts that 99% of DLC can do on other games.

The fact that PC discounts also hit DLC and console sales do not is part of why gamers feel like this discrepancy exists.

 

[Soup Bar]

When the MSRP of the game drops, the DLC should also drop. It shouldn't matter if it's a digital product or not. Digital games get permanent price drops all the time.

The real question is who is buying this old DLC for full price still?

 

[Mr. Enigma]

I don't see why DLC should be cheaper than the main game. It makes perfect sense for it to be more expensive. The content is newer and after a while you can push out the main game for cheap and then earn decent money when people who liked it will buy DLC.

The only way DLC should be rated is if the price is justified by content on it's own. Not by comparing to the lowered price of the main game.

 

[Laughing Banana]

I'm still waiting for my Mass Effect 3 DLC price to drop...

They just did fairly recently.

So that means you're gonna wait again for quite a while.

 

[Dr.Acula]

Buying the Legendary edition of Skyrim is cheaper than buying all the DLC for my base game. Because fuck logic.

They do that so they can "sell" another copy of the base game and boost their LTD numbers. Otherwise you just buy the DLC, and Skyrim's numbers stay stagnant. You still get the discount on the DLC in toto.

 

[duckroll]

I don't think the pricing is illogical at all. Is it worthwhile? Probably not, but that's a matter of the content quality, not so much the pricing. In the past games used to have full expansion packs, so let's say a game was 50 bucks, the expansion would be 30-40 bucks. Sometimes by the time the expansion comes out, the game might already be discounted to 30-40 or less. Regardless, later on the game might be discounted significantly at stores while the more recent expansion pack might remain at the normal price and cost more than the main game. This is not unusual.

What we're looking at with DLC pricing is the digital evolution of this logic. When a publisher charges 20-30 bucks for a season pass, I think it's fair to say consumers should expect a significant amount of content. Sometimes the value is worthwhile, often it is not. But this is not illogical pricing, this is simply poor value content. It means the publisher and/or developer are not putting in the effort to make the season pass worth its price.

The base game being much cheaper than the DLC on their own or in a set is definitely something very common these days, especially when we're talking about actual DLC content released months or a year after the release of a game. Before the Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition was released for example, there was a time where the game itself was 20 bucks, while each DLC was 10 bucks. It would cost twice the price of the base game to buy all four DLC packs. I don't feel there's anything wrong with that though, just like there's nothing wrong with Diablo 3 being 20 bucks during a sale, while the expansion is 40 bucks.

 

[BigDug13]

I don't think the pricing is illogical at all. Is it worthwhile? Probably not, but that's a matter of the content quality, not so much the pricing. In the past games used to have full expansion packs, so let's say a game was 50 bucks, the expansion would be 30-40 bucks. Sometimes by the time the expansion comes out, the game might already be discounted to 30-40 or less. Regardless, later on the game might be discounted significantly at stores while the more recent expansion pack might remain at the normal price and cost more than the main game. This is not unusual.

What we're looking at with DLC pricing is the digital evolution of this logic. When a publisher charges 20-30 bucks for a season pass, I think it's fair to say consumers should expect a significant amount of content. Sometimes the value is worthwhile, often it is not. But this is not illogical pricing, this is simply poor value content. It means the publisher and/or developer are not putting in the effort to make the season pass worth its price.

The base game being much cheaper than the DLC on their own or in a set is definitely something very common these days, especially when we're talking about actual DLC content released months or a year after the release of a game. Before the Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition was released for example, there was a time where the game itself was 20 bucks, while each DLC was 10 bucks. It would cost twice the price of the base game to buy all four DLC packs. I don't feel there's anything wrong with that though, just like there's nothing wrong with Diablo 3 being 20 bucks during a sale, while the expansion is 40 bucks.

I think the problem comes when a company like Steam spoils us and discounts all DLC for a game at the same percentage as the game. Then when consoles conduct their own discounted percentage off a digital game, the DLC remains untouched.

If Steam and similar services weren't demonstrating how it "should be done", we wouldn't be pressing this issue. But since Steam is, we should press.

 

[duckroll]

I think the problem comes when a company like Steam spoils us and discounts all DLC for a game at the same percentage as the game. Then when consoles conduct their own discounted percentage off a digital game, the DLC remains untouched.

If Steam and similar services weren't demonstrating how it "should be done", we wouldn't be pressing this issue. But since Steam is, we should press.

I'm not talking about DLC not being discounted at all though, just that DLCs costing more than the main game even after discounts is not unusual when the DLC is a more recent release. Obviously not discounting DLC at all is a stupid move in the long run.

In the case where a game is 20 bucks and all the DLC is 30 bucks, even after a standard discount on Steam, the DLC will cost more than the game. Often more recent DLCs will also have less discount compared to the base game when the base game goes on discount.

That's the sort of logic I'm talking about. It's not unusual, and on its own there's really nothing wrong with it. The focus should be put on whether the specific DLC are worthwhile in the first place, and of course if DLCs never go on discount, that's another issue publishers should look at.

 

[BigDug13]

I'm not talking about DLC not being discounted at all though, just that DLCs costing more than the main game even after discounts is not unusual when the DLC is a more recent release. Obviously not discounting DLC at all is a stupid move in the long run.

In the case where a game is 20 bucks and all the DLC is 30 bucks, even after a standard discount on Steam, the DLC will cost more than the game. Often more recent DLCs will also have less discount compared to the base game when the base game goes on discount.

That's the sort of logic I'm talking about. It's not unusual, and on its own there's really nothing wrong with it. The focus should be put on whether the specific DLC are worthwhile in the first place, and of course if DLCs never go on discount, that's another issue publishers should look at.

Ok gotcha. I was more referring to the usual console thing of rarely ever discounting individual DLC, making the GOTY purchase to be the best alternative to get those DLC's at a discounted price.

 

[Wiktor]

I don't think the pricing is illogical at all. Is it worthwhile? Probably not, but that's a matter of the content quality, not so much the pricing. In the past games used to have full expansion packs, so let's say a game was 50 bucks, the expansion would be 30-40 bucks. Sometimes by the time the expansion comes out, the game might already be discounted to 30-40 or less. Regardless, later on the game might be discounted significantly at stores while the more recent expansion pack might remain at the normal price and cost more than the main game. This is not unusual.

.

Yep. I'm a pcgamer, so that's my perspective too. I don't see why devs should be expected to bassicaly hand out content almost for free just because the couple years older game got discounted. Whether it's fair or not depends solely on the content of the add-ons and their own price. It isn't unusual for expansion packs often have at least as much, if nor more content than the main game.

And even among much smaller DLC it doesn't have to be bad. it's not hard to imagine devs having lots of $10 DLC and after few years, when the sales of main game die out putting the main game for 5 dollars, while also lowering the DLC prices to 5 a pop and this way getting lots of revenue from the new clients who bought the dirty cheap main game and then liked it enough to invest in DLC. Or do people think devs have an obligation to sell each DLC for a dollar the moment the price of main game gets lowered?

 

[Fady K]

Yup, that's really annoying me. I'd certainly check out the DLC stuff for AC3, but 10€ per pack? No friggin' way, sorry.

During the Christmas sale, the DLC were actually more expensive than the game itself. I mean, each piece of DLC, not all of them together.

Ridiculous.

Yes, the AC3 DLC packs are very expensive indeed. I would understand if it cost $10, but it consists of 3 chapters for a total of $28.

I'm still waiting for my Mass Effect 3 DLC price to drop...

There was a sale recently, all half price too I believe (US PSN). Unfortunately for myself I picked them up a couple of weeks before the sale.

You realize that a lot of times games are discounted specifically because they want to drive DLC sales, right?

It's basically the same as the Free 2 Play model, though I suppose it's a bit like the razor & blades model that console manufacturers have always used. Sell you something dirt cheap, then gouge you on the required accessories.

This is particularly common with multiplayer games. They can give you a deeply discounted copy because they know you will buy add-ons and map packs for the multiplayer and those are very high-margin purchases. It's not exactly a coincedence that Super Street Fighter IV was free a month before they started selling the Ultra Street Fighter IV DLC. Sales of Halo 3 maps probably went through the roof when Halo 3 was a free game.

That is a good point but I just wish they were a bit more generous with their DLC pricing. The AC3 DLC in particular sticks out in an ugly way because if you want to experience the DLC then you must pick up all three DLC chapters for $28 rather than just one or two of the three.

luckily, you really aren't missing much with the dlc.

that washington going evil had such potential too

You finished the DLC? What are your overall impressions on them in comparison to the main game?

Yep, its crazy stupid. The best thing to do is wait for GOTY editions.

GOTY editions for those who have not bought the original = awesome. Things is, you can't be sure that every game will get one. Sometimes you end up waiting and then you don't get a GOTY edition and have a hard time finding the original game at the same time, risky decision at times >_>

You know how hardware manufacturers will sell you a console at a loss, so that they can make it up later by selling you games?

In this case, games like ME3 are the "consoles" and the DLC is the "games". They'll heavily discount the core games in order to get you to pay full price for a bunch of DLC. It's ridiculous, IMO (I spent more on ME3 DLC than I did for ME1, 2 and 3 combined), but I think that's where their heads are at with this.

I agree with your point. It just is a bit shocking for those of us who spend full price on the game rather than a sale price. My copy of AC3 was bought for $60 back when it came out >_>

Ever play Train Simulator 2014™ my brother?!

What's the story with that?

I was planning on buying the DLCs for Fire Emblem: Awakening and I almost fell of my chair, since the ones that are left for me to buy equal to more money than the whole game (about 40-45 dollars). Fuck that.

Another DLC stunner for me - very expensive DLC that is more expensive (overall) than the base game >_>

Illogical? Retail prices for games go down, so they react. Retail prices for download content...well...

But I grant them this small weapon against the used games market. Especially with many games getting a GOTY edition later.

It's understandable why the prices don't go down for DLC, what sucks is that their base prices can be way too high in the first place IMO.

Bioware selling the context for ME3's ending 5 months down the line was so dumb

Someone's pinching pennies in this situation and its not the OP

Thanks for understanding my point Dryk.

These company need to put an option for
GoTY upgrade whenever there is a GOTY version..

It is stupid that buying skyrim legendary edition is cheaper than buying the dlc without the main game..

It makes Early adopter feel stupid

I agree! This situation sucks for early adopters.

I don't think the pricing is illogical at all. Is it worthwhile? Probably not, but that's a matter of the content quality, not so much the pricing. In the past games used to have full expansion packs, so let's say a game was 50 bucks, the expansion would be 30-40 bucks. Sometimes by the time the expansion comes out, the game might already be discounted to 30-40 or less. Regardless, later on the game might be discounted significantly at stores while the more recent expansion pack might remain at the normal price and cost more than the main game. This is not unusual.

What we're looking at with DLC pricing is the digital evolution of this logic. When a publisher charges 20-30 bucks for a season pass, I think it's fair to say consumers should expect a significant amount of content. Sometimes the value is worthwhile, often it is not. But this is not illogical pricing, this is simply poor value content. It means the publisher and/or developer are not putting in the effort to make the season pass worth its price.

The base game being much cheaper than the DLC on their own or in a set is definitely something very common these days, especially when we're talking about actual DLC content released months or a year after the release of a game. Before the Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition was released for example, there was a time where the game itself was 20 bucks, while each DLC was 10 bucks. It would cost twice the price of the base game to buy all four DLC packs. I don't feel there's anything wrong with that though, just like there's nothing wrong with Diablo 3 being 20 bucks during a sale, while the expansion is 40 bucks.

You are right duckroll, it is not unusual at all. This practice has been in effect way before digital downloads even existed. Back then though we would get one massive expansion pack (from what I recall) for around $30. Nowadays we get multiple expansion packs that cumulatively can eclipse $40-$60, you know what I mean? It just feels pricier. Comparatively, the pricing of meaty DLC like Bioshock 2's single player DLC is much more logical at $9.99.

Your season pass point makes a LOT of sense, it gives me a different perspective on the whole discussion. I can understand that from a publisher point of view, but again like you said the content tends to be of poor value and for those of us who don't shell out money for season passes (as we usually like to pick specific DLC rather than get a bunch of DLC we don't care for), the price really sucks.

Had I picked up a game like Diablo III/AC3/Fallout NV at the $20 I would have felt a lot less bad about the DLC's pricing. I guess the lesson is for early adopters of games to expect this situation. Thanks for taking the time to share your points, I found them insightful.

 

[coughlanio]

Ubisoft's Season Passes usually go on sale here in Europe fairly regularly. Just picked up the AC4 Season Pass for PS4 for €8.99 on PSN a few weeks ago.

 

[Fady K]

Ubisoft's Season Passes usually go on sale here in Europe fairly regularly. Just picked up the AC4 Season Pass for PS4 for €8.99 on PSN a few weeks ago.

Does that include the big expansion pack Freedom Cry (forgot its name)? Great, great deal if so.

 

[JaseC]

Does that include the big expansion pack Freedom Cry (forgot its name)? Great, great deal if so.

Of course. It wouldn't be much of a Season Pass if it didn't include the game's one and only mini-expansion.

 

[Chemrihi]

Like people said companies release DLC then forgot about it and go on to make more money. However we are ignoring the real issue here. Why would you play through all of AC3 and then decide you want to suffer through more of it? In a series of crappy to decent games 3 is the worst. If you simply must play AC then at least play Black Flag which distracts you from the blandness with pirate stuff.

 

[tigeroreilly]

as with most things, if you want it to stop stop supporting these devs. I havan't bought a peice of dlc in 2 years because of this issue. I couldn't believe titanfall charged for dlc given that i've never seen a full priced game with that little content in my life.

 

[ebullientprism]

On Steam sale Dishonored GOTY was 8 euros i think and only SP DLCs were 10 euros. They are doing this because they can.

Yep. Its so much bullshit. I have the game and want the DLC but I just cant bring myself to buy the GOTY edition.

 

[duckroll]

Yep. Its so much bullshit. I have the game and want the DLC but I just cant bring myself to buy the GOTY edition.

I don't get it though. Like, what's the hold up? Is it that 8 bucks is too much to pay for the DLC? Or is it some irrational justification where you don't want to "buy the same game again" even if the price is fine? If the DLC alone was also 8 bucks, would you have bought it?

 

[Wiktor]

Yep. Its so much bullshit. I have the game and want the DLC but I just cant bring myself to buy the GOTY edition.

THen just wait for DLC sale. Those are big meaty DLCs. I don't see how it's bullshit that you have to pay 10 dollars for each.

 

[ebullientprism]

I don't get it though. Like, what's the hold up? Is it that 8 bucks is too much to pay for the DLC? Or is it some irrational justification where you don't want to "buy the same game again" even if the price is fine? If the DLC alone was also 8 bucks, would you have bought it?

Its a mixture of both. If the GOTY is 10 bucks. And I only want the DLC, then reasonably it should be cheaper than the GOTY since I am not getting/want the base game. Almost the same argument the OP is making.

I buy the GOTY and a third of the package is essentially me paying for something I already own. Why would I want to do that? I dont see how thats irrational.

 

[duckroll]

Its a mixture of both. If the GOTY is 10 bucks. And I only want the DLC, then reasonably it should be cheaper than the GOTY since I am not getting/want the base game. Almost the same argument the OP is making.

I buy the GOTY and a third of the package is essentially me paying for something I already own. Why would I want to do that? I dont see how thats irrational.

Well sure, aside from the stand alone DLC being priced in a stupid way, if 8 dollars is the lowest price they were willing to sell for that package, and if you are willing to pay 8 dollars for part of that content anyway, why does it matter? It's a single product, it's not worth thinking about dividing the total cost among the contents. If it's not being sold separately with the same discount, then it doesn't matter.

My point is just that passing on a deal which is priced at a point you're happy to pay, and would give you what you want, just because it contains "more" than you want, is silly especially in the digital realm where none of it really means anything anyway. It's just a license key. It's not like you're buying an extra book and throwing it away hence contributing to "waste". Right? If on the other hand, you feel that the price should be even lower and are willing to wait for a bigger discount down the line, that's perfectly rational.

 

[mitx]

They just did fairly recently.

So that means you're gonna wait again for quite a while.

There was a sale recently, all half price too I believe (US PSN). Unfortunately for myself I picked them up a couple of weeks before the sale.

I'm on the EU PSN. The sales here are rarely as good (tough they are improving IMO). I'll just have to keep waiting (and waiting and waiting...)

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Almost three to five years later and publishers could still haven't learned from how Rockstar/T2 handled the GTA IV episodes and RDR's Undead Nightmare.

My general expectation for DLC is pricing proportionate to the cost of the base game at its initial price. If it's too far out of whack with the DLC offering for example 1/6th the content but at 1/2 or even 1/4th the price of the base game then I'm not interested.

 

[SaucyJack]

I'm on the EU PSN. The sales here are rarely as good (tough they are improving IMO). I'll just have to keep waiting (and waiting and waiting...)

Have you seen the latest EU "sale" for COD!

Notwithstanding the crappy prices on games as old as COD classic and COD4, the DLC prices are laughable. You can get all the map packs for MW3 or Black Ops for only £36, down from £45!

F U Activision.

 

[EdwardTeach]

I agree. I recently played through assassin creed 3 on the wii u, enjoyed and looked into getting the king Washington Dec only to find it cost way more than I paid for the game (£5), the end result is that I won't buy the dlc.

If I really want it I imagine it will be cheaper to rebuy the game with dlc in a steam sale?

 

[Memorabilia]

DLC is usually put up in its respective store and outside of a rare sale, is forgotten about. I agree they need to reduce the prices along with the main game.

GOTY editions are the way to go until that happens.

This.

This practice obviously reflects publisher greed and how they cravenly view gamers as nothing more than consumers and ATMs from which to suck more money in any way possible beyond that initial retail purchase.

Its because of this practice that I only purchase new games at steep discounts and/or used and/or GOTY editions with all DLC included.

This practice is also one of several that, IMHO, is heralding in a major shake-up in the industry. Over-bloated AAA development and disingenuous or even anti-consumer pricing models are a bad mix for the long term health of the industry.

 

[Fady K]

Of course. It wouldn't be much of a Season Pass if it didn't include the game's one and only mini-expansion.

Oh, I had no idea that was the only expansion pack so far. Cause with AC3 there are about 5 single player DLC packs to buy ;_;

I'm on the EU PSN. The sales here are rarely as good (tough they are improving IMO). I'll just have to keep waiting (and waiting and waiting...)

What I usually do is, as i have a large backlog, I put a game with DLC on standby at times and when the price drops I pick it up and play the full game then. Works when you have a lot of other games to play ;D

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Well sure, aside from the stand alone DLC being priced in a stupid way, if 8 dollars is the lowest price they were willing to sell for that package, and if you are willing to pay 8 dollars for part of that content anyway, why does it matter? It's a single product, it's not worth thinking about dividing the total cost among the contents. If it's not being sold separately with the same discount, then it doesn't matter.

If you buy a game at release to support the dev, you somehow feel kinda effed, if after some time you see a GOTY for like 15$ with everything included, while the DLC is like still 25$ and you just want that and thebase game is like 7,50$. You would expect the DLC to be maybe like 7,50$ or if they wanna earn something maybe 10$.

It really feels like the publisher is shitting on those that bought the game day one...

 

[JaseC]

Oh, I had no idea that was the only expansion pack so far. Cause with AC3 there are about 5 single player DLC packs to buy ;_;

Yeah, Freedom Cry is it for Black Flag as far as SP content is concerned. I prefer it to the 3's Tyranny of George campaign, but the latter definitely has bit more meat on its bones.

 

[Fady K]

Yeah, Freedom Cry is it for Black Flag as far as SP content is concerned. I prefer it to the 3's Tyranny of George campaign, but the latter definitely has bit more meat on its bones.

I'll likely check them both out. When I heard that Freedom Cry doesn't require the main game to be played I figured it had to be pretty big!

 

[duckroll]

If you buy a game at release to support the dev, you somehow feel kinda effed, if after some time you see a GOTY for like 15$ with everything included, while the DLC is like still 25$ and you just want that and thebase game is like 7,50$. You would expect the DLC to be maybe like 7,50$ or if they wanna earn something maybe 10$.

It really feels like the publisher is shitting on those that bought the game day one...

You shouldn't buy commercial products to "support" anyone honestly. It's a silly mindset which no one ever gets rewarded for. These are just disposable entertainment products coming out of huge corporate development factories employing hundreds if not thousands of people. It's not a moral transaction, they're not your friends, it's just business. You should buy something because you want it, and because you feel the price is right. Otherwise you should just wait and get the best deal for yourself. Sacrificing for a big publisher is ridiculous and only hurts yourself.