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How did DLC become the worst value in gaming?

O

Owzers

Member
Staring at my copy of Dragon Age 360 and debating whether or not to buy the Warden's Keep DLC, i've just now decided that DLC officially blows. Yes, the signs were quite clear early on with Horse Armor but i thought the future would even things out a bit, but all it really did was:

Charge a lot of money for very little content, even if that content is the direction things should head.

I'm not opposed to 30-40 minute new quests. I am opposed to paying $7 or $8 for a 30-40min quest. It's insane. You can buy SEVERAL dd games for that price. But not only are the prices for DLC high to begin with, they RARELY ever go on sale either and when they are "discounted" by 20% on 360, you'll have to be a Gold member in order to get it. People often say that when more games are available through DD on consoles, prices will drop, which just isn't likely at least on 360, otherwise DLC would cost more than a new game.

So what do you think gaf, will DLC EVER course adjust to moderate prices for moderate length of content, or will it just keep being crap because people cave in and buy a $10 map pack? Everything is trying to find an equilibrium in pricing, from XBLA/PSN/Wiiware titles, Xbox Indie Games, Steam/PC DD games, and even retail software. But with DLC, it seems like developers and publishers just don't give a damn.
 
It'll only be worth it to those who are extreme enthusiasts of the game already. But frankly it started at bad value and it's stayed there. Pay $2 for a map, or $2 for TF2, or KOTOR, or any number of sale-priced games every week. It's just because of the low value that I don't even buy DLC, even for games I like.
 
It should moderate itself. DLC is a choice - one you have the freedom to not make, as you illustrated in the OP.

Vote with your wallets, and be sensible, do a little research, and you'll never overpay for DLC that's not worth it.
 
Or look at how Bethesda is handling Fallout 3. $10 for a short quest, buy all the quests and you've spent more than the initial cost of the game. Solution? Make a Game of the Year edition making THAT a good value while completely ditching current owners.

Then on a separate rant, you have Epic who releases DLC without ever fixing their broken game.
 
Yes, the tide is starting to turn. Make your time, devs and pubs. The clock is ticking on how long you can rip off the console userbase before they start taking notice.

I agree completely. DLC is a joke, 99 percent of it is garbage.
 
The price probably would have settled much lower if people were not so quick to buy when this gen started.

At least the same did not happen on the iPhone, and the games themselves usually have to drop to bargain prices before people buy
 
I think the situation will only get worse. Yeah, you can "vote with your wallet", but there are enough people who buy DLC to justify the price.

Think about how much of an outcry there was against the horse armor DLC a few years ago. Now look at the fact that people are happily paying money for avatar clothing, which is arguably even more meaningless than horse armor.

Companies like Infinity Ward announcing map packs months before the game's release isn't very encouraging either.
 
sillymonkey321 said:
Or look at how Bethesda is handling Fallout 3. $10 for a short quest, buy all the quests and you've spent more than the initial cost of the game. Solution? Make a Game of the Year edition making THAT a good value while completely ditching current owners.

Then on a separate rant, you have Epic who releases DLC without ever fixing their broken game.
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To be fair it wasn't it was a surprise on Bethesda's part. They did it with oblivion and the DLC lets them release the game at full price and sell some more units when it is dropping in price used for the original. It balances out.

Dragon Age on the other hand was bullshit. Go collector's edition or you would run into day 1 DLC missions. THAT is bad.
 
Sunflower said:
It should moderate itself. DLC is a choice - one you have the freedom to not make, as you illustrated in the OP.

Vote with your wallets, and be sensible, do a little research, and you'll never overpay for DLC that's not worth it.
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The problem is they put the only storage chest in the game IN THE DLC. A storage chest is a staple of RPG's and they purposefully put it in the DLC knowing that people would purchase it unless they wanted to trash or sell tons of gear.

Pretty soon we will see stuff like DLC to unlock "Dual wielding!" or "Mage class!" or other things that would otherwise be standard features.
 
I don't think they've hit the price point sweet spot yet, no. However, it's pretty hard to do so. I tend to stay away from two kinds of dlc. The too expensive stuff, and the too cheap stuff. Sometimes, it's entirely my loss, but it's the devs problem at the same time. At this rate, I doubt prices will go down overall by any substantial amounts. Like you said, we are too gullible & cave in too often. As usual, it's just the small hardcore gamer minority that's truly vocal.
 
NeoCross said:
128kb unlock codes.
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as opposed to them still making them and you having to download several MB instead?

As a consumer you have NO idea when they produced the content, complaining about unlock codes is asinine.

Never understood the silly notion that unlock codes made any difference in the publishers choice to produce DLC.
 
pr0cs said:
as opposed to them still making them and you having to download several MB instead?

As a consumer you have NO idea when they produced the content, complaining about unlock codes is asinine.

Never understood the silly notion that unlock codes made any difference in the publishers choice to produce DLC.
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The fact that publishers hold back content doesn't make unlock keys any better.
 
NeoCross said:
128kb unlock codes.
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this is the problem

honestly I understand if its a project that is worked on after the main game is finished, but at least make me feel like I have to acquire the DLC, not just unlock content on the damn disc :lol
 
It was never a good value?

Rather than the "HD generation" or the "waggle generation", I tend to think of PS3/X360/Wii as the "monetization generation." Some very acute suits figured out there was a lot of money on the table, and now that money is in their pockets.

DLC, balance boards, $200 hard drives, $600 systems, $50 online services, premium themes, premium cheat codes, pre-order bonuses, $150 collectors editions... it's madness, and we're all mad.
 
pr0cs said:
as opposed to them still making them and you having to download several MB instead?

As a consumer you have NO idea when they produced the content, complaining about unlock codes is asinine.

Never understood the silly notion that unlock codes made any difference in the publishers choice to produce DLC.
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If it's on the disc, you know it was produced before the game shipped.
 
Balb said:
The fact that publishers hold back content doesn't make unlock keys any better.
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agreed, holding back content can be dumb if it hurts the game but saying "I'd feel better downloading several MB of data" is just dumb.
 
pr0cs said:
as opposed to them still making them and you having to download several MB instead?

As a consumer you have NO idea when they produced the content, complaining about unlock codes is asinine.

Never understood the silly notion that unlock codes made any difference in the publishers choice to produce DLC.
Click to expand...
So you have no problem paying for something that's already in the disc, that you need to pay for to use the conten? :|

And wtf, it's already in the disc. Of course they produced the content before they shipped it :lol
 
DLC is better when the word "expansion" is involved.

Pixel Junk Monsters' second island that is like buying a sequel? Great value.

A couple of measly quests or an extra level for the same price? Terrible.
 
I've bought one piece of DLC in my gaming life and I really regret it. I decided after that that I will never buy another piece of overpriced DLC. So I will be sticking with full fledged expansions if anything. Another bullshit one is Empire: Total War, to get some of the more interesting units you have to buy them separately. Fuck that noise.

The DLC I bought is what was mentioned in the OP :(
 
NeoCross said:
So you have no problem paying for something that's already in the disc, that you need to pay for to use the conten? :|

And wtf, it's already in the disc. Of course they produced the content before they shipped it :lol
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Yes, but if they say kept if off the disc you'd feel better about downloading it? That's just dumb. I'd rather download a 128k code instead of waiting for several MB to download.
 
Every now and then Bethesda would release a retail disc with the DLC attached. Bungie also did this with the Halo 2 DLC maps. What did people do? They ganged up and shared that content.

My rule of thumb is: £1 per hour of content.
 
Like I said earlier, too, do the research before buying. Finding out what you bought is light on content/time, well, in this day and age of everyone ELSE buying and talking about things as soon as possible, there's nobody else out there to kick but yourself. Take some time before buying to make sure you're not getting ripped off. If you do get ripped off and didn't do research, hell, the gaming companies likely consider that an "Idiot Tax."

Also, make sure to put your own personal feelings into the mix as well. Most people may have got jack shit out of VF5's costume unlock codes, but to me, I needed that. I am fully aware it was a ripoff for 99% of the players, but I love VF5 so much I just had to have it.
 
At this point I'm glad DLC is being used to rape people. The only reason it's successful is because of the dumb fucks who buy it in the first place. I wish they'd raise the prices to punish them even further for being so stupid.
 
I think the only DLC I've boughten has been Lost and Damned. It's laughable that companies think I care about their game so much that I'd pay 5-10 bucks for some shitty mission when I could just wait for a Steam sale and pick up a game for less.

Wormdundee said:
I've bought one piece of DLC in my gaming life and I really regret it. I decided after that that I will never buy another piece of overpriced DLC. So I will be sticking with full fledged expansions if anything. Another bullshit one is Empire: Total War, to get some of the more interesting you have to buy them separately. Fuck that noise.

The DLC I bought is what was mentioned in the OP :(
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Seriously, fuck CA up the ass for the bullshit they're pulling with E:TW. Instead of fixing the goddamn game they keep working on the multiplayer campaign and the stupid Napoleon crap. I'm done with that series.
 
John said:
If it's on the disc, you know it was produced before the game shipped.
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Yes so you'd rather them just 'fool' you and make you think that they produced the content AFTER the game is released? Sorry but my time is valuable. I'm not daft enough to assume they're going to screw me either way, at least if they're going to screw me save me some time and put it on the disc so I don't have to download it.
Until they discover that DLC isn't working (which it obviously is considering how fragmented Dragon Age is) they're going to continue to split the content out. Don't waste my time being stupid saying that a 128k code is somehow worse than making me download the full package.
 
pr0cs said:
Yes, but if they say kept if off the disc you'd feel better about downloading it? That's just dumb. I'd rather download a 128k code instead of waiting for several MB to download.
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It's not about 'feeling good.' A code is just a big 'fuck you, sucker!' from the publisher, where if it's a larger file you don't know whether or not they're guilty of withholding content.
 
I cry every time I see someone with an avatar decked out in Halo or COD gear. What is it like 800 points ($10) for a little digital costume? sad.
 
pr0cs said:
Yes, but if they say kept if off the disc you'd feel better about downloading it? That's just dumb. I'd rather download a 128k code instead of waiting for several MB to download.
Click to expand...

You must've loved how Beautiful Katamari locked away a big chunk of the game so you could pay an additional $10 to be able to play it!

If you have a genuine problem with downloading anything over a few KB, I don't think the problem is with the DLC itself.
 
If we all work together and not purchase any DLC maybe just maybe it will be less of a problem in the future. I hate the shit personally.
 
pr0cs said:
Yes so you'd rather them just 'fool' you and make you think that they produced the content AFTER the game is released? Sorry but my time is valuable. I'm not daft enough to assume they're going to screw me either way, at least if they're going to screw me save me some time and put it on the disc so I don't have to download it.
Until they discover that DLC isn't working (which it obviously is considering how fragmented Dragon Age is) they're going to continue to split the content out. Don't waste my time being stupid saying that a 128k code is somehow worse than making me download the full package.
Click to expand...

I think the moral of the story is: all day 1 paid DLC sucks, especially for full priced games.
 
The value of DLC is subjective. I personally don't mind paying $10 for a map pack because I know I'll be getting several hours of entertainment from that purchase.

I always try to break it down to $'s per hour of entertainment. If I feel I can get my entertainment value out of the purchase, I'll pay.
 
So, here's the problem with DLC.

When you produce something like this, you're selling to, essentially, the target market of everyone who bought the original game, but you know that a huge part of this market isn't going to bite -- they aren't online, or they didn't beat the game, or they're just not that enthusiastic, whatever.

There are also a small number of people who are really dedicated and will happily spend more money on your game if you give them a way to do so.

The reason DLC is a terrible value, basically across the board, is that companies have looked at the curve and realized that there's a split between a large group of people who are unlikely to buy much DLC no matter how it's priced and a small group of people who are largely price-insensitive and will buy a lot of DLC even if it's overpriced. The end result of that is that even though all this content is priced higher than it "should" be, it'd actually bring in less revenue priced "correctly" because it'd inspire very few people from Category 1 to buy more, and it'd earn less for being bought by people in Category 2.

This is also why "vote with your wallets" is sadly useless advice here -- it's not like you can refuse to buy games that have DLC (that's basically everything now) and by virtue of not being in category 2 you're already expected not to buy DLC so you can't really influence anything by refusing to do so.
 
Ridley327 said:
You must've loved how Beautiful Katamari locked away a big chunk of the game so you could pay an additional $10 to be able to play it!

If you have a genuine problem with downloading anything over a few KB, I don't think the problem is with the DLC itself.
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I'm not defending DLC, I don't think it's all bad but in general (EA especially) it hasnt' been great. But i'm not stupid enough to think that keeping the content off the disc somehow makes the DLC better. ie: complaning about 128k keys is retarded.
 
charlequin said:
This is also why "vote with your wallets" is sadly useless advice here -- it's not like you can refuse to buy games that have DLC (that's basically everything now) and by virtue of not being in category 2 you're already expected not to buy DLC so you can't really influence anything by refusing to do so.
Click to expand...

Well, in the grand scheme of things, voting with your wallets might not do any good in the publisher's eyes, but in your personal situation, it absolutely will do some good.
 
alr1ghtstart said:
I cry every time I see someone with an avatar decked out in Halo or COD gear. What is it like 800 points ($10) for a little digital costume? sad.
Click to expand...

And they don't do ANYTHING. Why are people buying this stuff? Yeah it would be "neat" to have an Avatar pet but not for $3 and especially when i'd only see it for the 5 seconds i scroll past my avatar to get to my Games page.
 
pr0cs said:
I'm not defending DLC, I don't think it's all bad but in general (EA especially) it hasnt' been great. But i'm not stupid enough to think that keeping the content off the disc somehow makes the DLC better. ie: complaning about 128k keys is retarded.
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It's the difference between DLC and ULC.
 
yes, you guys deserve all this shit. keep pressing that button, your CC is an endless pit!

alr1ghtstart said:
I cry every time I see someone with an avatar decked out in Halo or COD gear. What is it like 800 points ($10) for a little digital costume? sad.
Click to expand...

:lol

so sad.
 
Low/no distribution costs -> not as many people need to buy it to make a profit -> they just have to target the most dedicated fans who are willing to spend more than they should.

Also, MS and Sony seem pretty terrible about dropping prices on DLC, so often it sits indefinitely at its initial price after the game has hit clearance pricing.
 
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