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[Foxix Von]

So I was thinking about replaying Mass Effect 2 on the 360 and for a brief moment I considered that the expansion missions are supposed to be pretty good. On a whim I decided to look up the price of the the three main expansion missions. All in all they add up to about 24 bucks, which is a nice chunk of change especially considering that the game only retails for 20. If I look at it as if I was going in fresh that pricing doesn't really make a whole lot of sense as I severely doubt the content in the expansions is equal to that in the full game, yet it costs more.

It then occurred to me that the PS3 version is currently the same price at amazon and gamestop and includes those packs. So when I get around to playing the game again it's cheaper for me to just buy the entire game new again than to purchase the content separately for the copy I already currently own.

Now I'm sort of curious about what other DLC quirks might exist out there.

Any other pricing oddities that I'm unaware of?

Also I'm curious about whether or not there's a point at which anyone thinks DLC prices should scale as time goes on to match a sort of relative balance to what you pay for the full game.

 

[Woorloog]

Horse Armor. 200MSP for something that should've been free or already in game.

 

[toythatkills]

Old games cost less than new games, but DLC pricing (on XBLA) remains constant. It's not a shocking turn of events.

 

[Chavelo]

Yeah.

When you have to pay for them.

Seriously, what the hell.

 

[elrechazado]

gears of war 3 weapon skins are so freaking overpriced.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II: Retribution has some ridiculous prices just for skins, 6€ for the Ultramarines and Dark Angels chapters each.

 

[StuBurns]

Lumines DLC on every platform is offensive.

 

[Sneds]

Some people think the idea of selling DLC on disks is ridiculous. But a lot of the time, if not all the time, it works out cheaper for the consumer in the long run. Disks quite quickly come down in price but DLC prices stay the same.

I've just completed the GTA campaign and was looking into getting the two expansions. It would work out much cheaper for me to buy the disk than to download them from Live.

 

[Uriah]

Almost every DLC ever. Seriously. All map packs should be free.

 

[Durante]

I got a retail copy of Fallout 3 GotY edition for 17€ or so when the combined DLC cost was 50€. Fallout 3 DLC is actually pretty good, but it was still overpriced.

 

[Salsa]

all of em

 

[baekshi]

most EA games dlc are such rip off... good chunk can be unlocked in game.

 

[NIN90]

Map packs :x

 

[SouthernDragon]

Rune pages in League of Legends

Jesus Christ

Spoiler

I paid

 

[Acerac]

The expansion packs for Fallout: New Vegas cost more than twice what the base game does.

 

[fernoca]

Though, I think the PS3 version of ME2 doesn't include one of the DLCs; Arrival was it?
I (also) think that DLC in the case of ME2 was released before the PS3 version too.

Same happens with Gears of War 2. Even when they've been bundling the DLC stuff "for free" with their $30 re-releases; it still costs money if you happen to just own the standalone disc. Oblivion too, Burnout, Super Street Fighter IV costed $40, AE-DLC $15. SSFIV AE-retail costs $40...and well..basically every game that has DLC at some point.

Sadly is the way things works, when it comes to DLC and pricing. That's one of the reasons there are constant sales of them (and ME2's stuff has been a lot ). Pricing tends to be a general set price; instead of a "fair price".

 

[BeautifulMemory]

Hnorable mention goes to EA and Capcom for me

 

[FlyingTeacup]

Horse Armor. 200MSP for something that should've been free or already in game.

came in to post this.

 

[TheYanger]

The ME2 dlc have been on nice sales before and I suspect they will be again before ME3 hits...it depends on if its worth it to you to only make a few choices on the ps3 version I suppose. To me, mass effect is a series that I still wouldn't play any version of that I wasn't importing a complete character through (Yeah I know, most of it just ends up as emails, but so what)

 

[alr1ght]

Welcome to DLC.

 

[Derrick01]

I don't like how most mission based or story based DLC is automatically $10 at the cheapest. Most of these only last an hour or less and you're asking for 1/5 or 1/6 of what I paid for the entire main game, I don't like that at all.

Now the fallout DLC gets it right. Multiple hours of content in each $10 pack. If you're not going to do an expansion, and most people won't anymore, then this is the way to go.

 

[Neuromancer]

I never question the invisible hand of the marketplace.

 

[Grayman]

If I look at it as if I was going in fresh that pricing doesn't really make a whole lot of sense as I severely doubt the content in the expansions is equal to that in the full game, yet it costs more.

I do not buy a lot of DLC but most of it seems to be priced wrong if you look at it this way even if compared to the original game. Take a hundred hour RPG and add 4 hours of stuff and any price will seem wrong on those grounds.

I am still holding out for my fallout new vegas game of the year expansion pack style upgrade.

Capcom was charging a dollar for a bunch of little shit for the megaman games, that is pushing "Capitalism Ho!" too far even if it is cheap.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

People who are saying DLC should be free need to realise that more often than not the dlc is created outside of the original game development schedule and with a seperate budget.

Your not entitled to anything.

ME2 DLC is fantastic well worth the money and i bought every pack. If you wanna buy the ps3 version then do it nothing is stopping you. However for the best experience you should play me1 and 2 back to back on 360 with the same imported character.

GoW3 dlc is pretty odd. On one hard its 21p per skin. On the other the content shouldnt be charged for at all.

Obviously some content is a joke, unlock keys ect i with a rare exception avoid this DLC all together.

 

[MRORANGE]

all of em

the correct answer.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Lords of Shadow. Two DLCs, both short, both bad, both 10 bucks.

Almost every DLC ever. Seriously. All map packs should be free.

There's plenty of DLC that isn't just a map pack.

 

[Atolm]

NFS Hot Pursuit. 7,99€ for 3-4 cars in a game in which handling is pretty much the same for all of them? C'mon...

 

[codswallop]

DLC pricing--particularly on XBL--seems to be a set and forget type thing. It's not driven by the market like retail games are. If something bombs it gets reduced in price, not so with DLC.

If Microsoft actually curated their offerings and had good deals like Steam, instead of two or three weekly deals for Gold subscribers, then it could be a good service. But that ain't gonna happen this generation. And probably will just get worse next gen.

 

[neoemonk]

At least they have sales on 360 from time to time. I'm waiting for a sale on the PC versions of the DLC for ME2 still.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

All of them that aren't episode or expansion length add-ons. Ballad of Gay Tony, Undead Nightmare, Lair of the Shadow Broker, Da Vinci Disappearance... these are all things that I would (and in some cases, have) spend money on.

 

[GraveRobberX]

Batman Arkham City

Did you see the all those pre-order skins/different characters playable, guess what? if you pre-order and got one of those special characters, it's free, but if you didn't, get ready to loosen your wallet

Spoiler

Nightwing

DLC - $6.99 (11/1/11)

Spoiler

Robin

DLC - $6.99 (11/22/11)
Batman Skins Pack (all those retailer/region ones) - $4.99 (12/6/11)

Spoiler

Catwoman

- Free if you buy game New (I think, no clue on used/rented)

The trophies/achievements associated for DLC are just like the SP for AC, the Batman Challenges he has to do, but use that character

Spoiler

Batman/Catwoman 72 & 108 medals

Spoiler

Nightwing/Robin 78 & 114 medals

 

[Syriel]

It's always odd when you look at music game DLC vs game discs.

Dance Central, Rock Band, etc.

Hell, at $3/per, 30 Dance Central songs will cost you $90.

Dance Central 2, with 40+ songs ain't that expensive.


You run into the same situation with disc bundles.

Sega just released Bass Fishing and Space Channel 5 Part 2 as downloads last week. They're $10 each. Doesn't sound bad except a disc based version came out in Feb and is $15 on Amazon. The disc based version has those two, plus Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure which makes the individual games look completely overpriced.

 

[Orayn]

The vast majority of DLC prices are about $5 higher than they should be. Penny Arcade got it right, way back in 2006.

 

[Anilusion]

Call of Duty (and all other map packs for that matter)

 

[TricksterLoki]

Call of Duty (and all other map packs for that matter)

Bah you took mine XD 15 bucks for only 4 maps? No thanks. I was surprised it wasn't said earlier.

 

[Des0lar]

all of em

Boom. Dropping the knowledge.

 

[VariantX]

DLC pricing--particularly on XBL--seems to be a set and forget type thing. It's not driven by the market like retail games are. If something bombs it gets reduced in price, not so with DLC.

If Microsoft actually curated their offerings and had good deals like Steam, instead of two or three weekly deals for Gold subscribers, then it could be a good service. But that ain't gonna happen this generation. And probably will just get worse next gen.

Yeah that's my no #1 issue with the pricing. Its better to sell something at a lower price than to sell nothing at all stuck at the original pricing. It looks even worse if you bought a game at retail that dropped way down in price. If you bought a brand new game at retail for $20-25, you're not gonna want to buy its dlc which may cost upwards of $15. The worth of the dlc is just way out of proportion to what the game itself is worth in the real world marketplace.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Soul Calibur XBLA, 800 MS points

Soul Calibur Soundtrack for SC4: 1200 MS points

 

[Mike M]

I wish more DLC was released on discs. I got 4/5ths of Fallout 3's DLC for the price of what a single download would have cost me. I could resell the discs and shave the margin even further.

 

[Creamium]

All of them that aren't episode or expansion length add-ons. Ballad of Gay Tony, Undead Nightmare, Lair of the Shadow Broker, Da Vinci Disappearance... these are all things that I would (and in some cases, have) spend money on.

This. So far the only times I felt my money on dlc was well spent, was with GTA IV and RDR's Undead Nightmare. Not because of the actual length of the expansions, but because I felt a lot of effort went into creating them and the result is a substantial addition to the original game. My n°1 award goes to Lost and Damned in that regard.

With a lot of dlc you just feel cheated afterwards, and tbh a lot of times I don't even bother anymore. Looks I should bother with ME2's though.

Another problem I have with dlc is that most of the time I can't get excited for it, even though it's supposed to be good. Reason is that sometimes you spend a substantial amount of time on a game, say 40 or 50 hours on Fallout 3, get totally immersed in the world, but afterwards you're just 'done'. If you know what I mean. I realize some of Fallout 3's dlc content may be great or worth looking into, but I just don't care anymore. I finished the main game, did all the sidequests, loved it... That was Fallout 3 for me. When you feel like you've gotten everything out of a game, dlc may be too little too late.

 

[bs000]

No one ever says anything about Burnout Paradise 'cause it's awesome and 'cause of all that free DLC. But when they started offering premium DLC, I must've spent over $70 to own it all. They've lowered the prices on alot of their DLC since then (I bought them all as soon as they were released), so it's not as bad now.

There is still some goofy stuff going on. Like the Hawker Mech is 400 MS points ($5 for one car?), and the Extreme Hot Rod is 400 MS points, even though the package deal that includes both cars is also 400 MS points.

 

[Zakkath]

-CoD, Halo, Gears map packs.
-Everything alternate costumes/skins. Worthless crap.
-Stats boosts in sports games. Just play the game ffs.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Castlevania: LoS. $10 for a shitty add-on chapter... and there's a second one that's even worse which I've yet to purchase.

 

[hank_tree]

The second Castlevania: LOS DLC was pretty bad. You bascially just fight the same boss twice. One boss for 800 space bucks.

 

[sixteen-bit]

BBCS DLC characters were absurdly priced.

 

[erpg]

Casltevania's DLC is horse shit. 20 for two short, useless chapters.

 

[vg260]

It's always odd when you look at music game DLC vs game discs.

Dance Central, Rock Band, etc.

Hell, at $3/per, 30 Dance Central songs will cost you $90.

You can't do the math that way. It doesn't work like that. Licensed songs post-release can't be held to the same standard. The have to keep a staff, to chart (RB) and choreograph (DC) each new DLC on it's own budget.

I contend that the Rock Band and Dance Central DLC are easily the most fair priced DLC out there. Considering the amount of work that goes into making a DLC track (licensing master tracks, mixing, charting etc.) and the music companies are involved, $2 for a RB song or $3 for a DC is a perfectly fine price point. For DC they actually have to have people choreograph it. To me $1 more for all the RB content aside from the track itself which you can get as an mp3 for $1 seems reasonable. We should be thanking our lucky stars it's not worse.

A theme (glorified wallpaper) on XBL costs $3. A $2 playable song w/ guitar, drums, keys, harmonies, bass and four difficulties seams like an epic steal by comparison. Level of effort is not even comparable.

 

[Satchel]

I wait now for almost any DLC or Arcade/PSN game.

Waited for Outland, got it for 400, waited for Lost and the damned, got it for 400. Waited for Noble and Defiant, got them both for 400.

Now I'll wait for the Dead Nation DLC to drop.

 

[Giard]

Nothing can beat the Gears of War 3 weapon skins. 3600 points for all them...

 

[PetrCobra]

Even though all the DLC for music games seems overpriced to me, I'm still gonna buy the hell out of the Pro-enabled RB3 songs when my Fender Squier Stratocaster finally arrives.