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Crazy DLC: Hastune Miku Project Diva F 2nd

Is there any notion of how many songs the song DLC would include? It better be damn near as many as the game comes with for frigging $30.
 

rpmurphy

Member
Lol that module season pass.

But if the quantity matches the price, it's not that bad. The season pass still is more consumer-friendly than Idolmaster DLC.
 

fernoca

Member
Is there any notion of how many songs the song DLC would include? It better be damn near as many as the game comes with for frigging $30.
Basic math puts at least 12 songs, seeing each will cost $3 and pass costs $30; which has at least a 20% discount.

Could be more, we'll see.
 

Ogawa-san

Member
I'm here finding bizarre that songs cost more than anything in Rock Band, but they're around $5 each in Japan. That's insane.
 
So it seems to me there are a lot of people judging the pricing of the game's DLC without having played it, so there is a bit of a disconnect between what the game offers and what people think it offers. Let me try to clear up any misconceptions here:

In Project DIVA, each song is a fully and independently produced affair. Everything from backgrounds, dance moves, special effects, all of it is unique to each song, with little to nothing reused in other songs. There have been five DLC songs in the Japanese version so far (with much, much more to be announced given the existence of the season pass in Western markets) and this has extended there as well - none of the five use any assets that come with the game beyond the costume you select to use.
All have come with unique backgrounds, which tend to be extremely detailed, and feature individual dance choreography. This is much more bundled content than music DLC in some other games, and I think the amount you get makes the asking price reasonable.
 

Gameboy415

Member
I'm grabbing both (retail) games at launch but I definitely can't justify spending that much on DLC.
Well, I might grab the song pack at some point (depending on the song list/# of songs) but I doubt I'd ever get that costume pack considering I barely even glanced at the alternate costumes in the first game.
 

bobawesome

Member
This doesn't really bother me considering the amount of content in these games to begin with. While I'll pass on the passes, I may throw a few dollars at Sega down the road.
 

Draikin 2

Member
So it seems to me there are a lot of people judging the pricing of the game's DLC without having played it, so there is a bit of a disconnect between what the game offers and what people think it offers. Let me try to clear up any misconceptions here:

In Project DIVA, each song is a fully and independently produced affair. Everything from backgrounds, dance moves, special effects, all of it is unique to each song, with little to nothing reused in other songs. There have been five DLC songs in the Japanese version so far (with much, much more to be announced given the existence of the season pass in Western markets) and this has extended there as well - none of the five use any assets that come with the game beyond the costume you select to use.
All have come with unique backgrounds, which tend to be extremely detailed, and feature individual dance choreography. This is much more bundled content than music DLC in some other games, and I think the amount you get makes the asking price reasonable.
I agree that the content is unique, and I don't get the impression that this content existed when they first released the game. So that's good. However, the assets aren't as new as you make it sound. At least some of these songs have been released before on the PSP games or Project Diva Arcade, so there are definitely reusable assets there (admittedly adapted to the visual style of the PS3 version). But the real problem is that the game itself has more content than the DLC by no small margin, yet the DLC costs twice as much. Imagine if they took all that DLC and made Project Diva F 3rd from it and sell it for $100. Does that still sound reasonable?
 
I agree that the content is unique, and I don't get the impression that this content existed when they first released the game. So that's good. However, the assets aren't as new as you make it sound. At least some of these songs have been released before on the PSP games or Project Diva Arcade, so there are definitely reusable assets there (admittedly adapted to the visual style of the PS3 version). But the real problem is that the game itself has more content than the DLC by no small margin, yet the DLC costs twice as much. Imagine if they took all that DLC and made Project Diva F 3rd from it and sell it for $100. Does that still sound reasonable?
It's true that the DLC so far originates from the PSP version, but the process of bringing that content over is not a copy and paste job; the backgrounds obviously have to be redone to the visual standards of he newest game, and care is definitely made in regards to updating the choreography, especially to take advantage of the much more powerful facial expression engine (of which an equivalent has only recently been introduced to Arcade). I would also assume it isn't any less expensive to relicense the songs just because they have been used before.

As for the cost, it's true that it is more expensive than the base game, but let's look at this from another angle. The announcement makes it clear that all the content was originally acquired and developed for the Japanese version of the game. The Japanese market is obviously a very different place where the sales of this content is viable - without the season passes and at a higher base price, no less. Sega of America/Europe obviously had nothing to do with that state of affairs, but when bringing the game over, a decision had to be made with what to do about content the Japanese had already decided on and developed the delivery method for. The localized versions of the game are also developed Japan-side, so the options are limited; I don't think it is a stretch to therefore assume the choices were to release them with the pricing scheme we got (which is preferable to the Japanese pricing) or to get nothing.
 

Draikin 2

Member
It's true that the DLC so far originates from the PSP version, but the process of bringing that content over is not a copy and paste job; the backgrounds obviously have to be redone to the visual standards of he newest game, and care is definitely made in regards to updating the choreography, especially to take advantage of the much more powerful facial expression engine (of which an equivalent has only recently been introduced to Arcade). I would also assume it isn't any less expensive to relicense the songs just because they have been used before.
I don't disagree, I'd never argue that they can just copy-paste these things. I was just saying that there are assets that can be reused. Work is needed to port the songs, but they don't have to rebuild them from the ground up.

As for the cost, it's true that it is more expensive than the base game, but let's look at this from another angle. The announcement makes it clear that all the content was originally acquired and developed for the Japanese version of the game. The Japanese market is obviously a very different place where the sales of this content is viable - without the season passes and at a higher base price, no less. Sega of America/Europe obviously had nothing to do with that state of affairs, but when bringing the game over, a decision had to be made with what to do about content the Japanese had already decided on and developed the delivery method for. The localized versions of the game are also developed Japan-side, so the options are limited; I don't think it is a stretch to therefore assume the choices were to release them with the pricing scheme we got (which is preferable to the Japanese pricing) or to get nothing.
That still doesn't mean that we should just accept the pricing as it is, just because this practice works in Japan. I'm not saying the content should be free, far from it. They're working on it after release so it's only fair that they're compensated for that. But asking people to pay double the price for 1/3 of the content that was in the full game? I don't think anyone at Sega can seriously defend this pricing. There are ways they could give people a better deal. For example, letting people pre-order a digital edition with the Season Pass included for a lower price than it would cost them to buy the game and the Season Pass separately. They already did that for Alien Isolation. Right now the digital edition has zero benefits due to retailer exclusive pre-order bonuses anyway.
 

Sakujou

Banned
big fuck you @sega.

and a general fuck you@DLC.
but there are tons of people spending money on this.

this was during the ps2 era normal that your game had tons of omake stuff, but now ripping off the poor gamers wallet is just absurd.
would spend 100 dollars on yakuza 5 retail copy though (in english)
 

antibolo

Banned
Woah woah woah, that's some kneejerk reactions right there OP.

First of all, the DLC in Japan is actually more expensive and they don't even offer a season pass. We're getting a better deal here. Buying a season pass for the modules (ie. costumes) is silly, there's no way you're going to want them all. But the option is there in case you really do. Just ignore it and move on.

Also, people have to realize that the DLC in this game IS ACTUALLY REAL DLC. As in, it's content they made after the game that is not already on the disc! You download real content when you buy it, not just a key to allow you to use it!

I think people have become cynical about DLC because 99% of the time it is abused because it's content that's already in the game. But this game it's not!! They are still making content for the game as we speak, 6 months after it was released in Japan. And judging from the prices on the season pass and their promise that it offers "25% better value", we can infer that they still be still doing at least 8 more songs (5 songs have been released in Japan so far).

So yeah, if you want to complain about shady DLC tactics, THIS GAME IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

I'm here finding bizarre that songs cost more than anything in Rock Band, but they're around $5 each in Japan. That's insane.

No no no no no, you can't compare 1:1 with Rock Band. Rock Band songs don't include an entire music video with original assets and choreography that is rendered in real time. There is a considerably larger amount of work that goes into each Project Diva song compared to Rock Band.
 
big fuck you @sega.

and a general fuck you@DLC.
but there are tons of people spending money on this.

this was during the ps2 era normal that your game had tons of omake stuff, but now ripping off the poor gamers wallet is just absurd.
would spend 100 dollars on yakuza 5 retail copy though (in english)

What? As has been said many, many times, this is all post-release content that didn't exist at the time of release. In fact, the game in its release state is full of content to the point that not all the content can even fit on the Vita card (you have to get a supplemental free download from PSN to enable the optional edit function).
 

LowParry

Member
big fuck you @sega.

and a general fuck you@DLC.
but there are tons of people spending money on this.

this was during the ps2 era normal that your game had tons of omake stuff, but now ripping off the poor gamers wallet is just absurd.
would spend 100 dollars on yakuza 5 retail copy though (in english)

This isn't the whole DLC on disc. Best put your fucks back where they were.
 

Wonko_C

Member
For those with the Japanese version: Does the vanilla game have any "reserved" for DLC empty boxes and stuff like that that keeps making you feel you only have part of the game? Because if it doesn't, that means it's the complete package and can be fully enjoyed without having to spend on stuff that's optional.
 
For those with the Japanese version: Does the vanilla game have any "reserved" for DLC empty boxes and stuff like that that keeps making you feel you only have part of the game? Because if it doesn't, that means it's the complete package and can be fully enjoyed without having to spend on stuff that's optional.

It doesn't.
 

tenton

Member
big fuck you @sega.

and a general fuck you@DLC.
but there are tons of people spending money on this.

this was during the ps2 era normal that your game had tons of omake stuff, but now ripping off the poor gamers wallet is just absurd.
would spend 100 dollars on yakuza 5 retail copy though (in english)

Game is complete with tons of omake in it. Unlock costumes in the base game. Have fun. DLC not required. DLC not needed. Game is complete with any of that. Go bitch at some real problems.
 

mollipen

Member
Eh, I can't be too mad in this case.

Project Diva isn't the kind of game where you buy everything in terms of the songs—you buy the stuff that you're a fan of. Plus, so long as the original artists are getting their fair share of the money, I'm totally fine with $2.99 per song. Vocaloid music comes straight from the community most of the time, so I'm giving money more to people who aren't already getting income from record deals or being major artists.*

And for people not really familiar with the whole Vocaloid scene, there are, at this point, probably thousands of song choices that could be made for a game like this. This isn't a case of making a bunch of songs specifically for the game, it's about trying to pick a good mix of what's popular in Vocaloid fandom but which also offers enough variety to be different from previous releases. There will never be able to be enough included songs in the game, so adding in more via DLC (where the costs can justify the work of adding more "risky" tracks) is really the only logical route to take.


* Of course, some Vocaloid stuff is done by musicians and artists who are already established, but I'd say a majority of the creators aren't in that kind of position.
 
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