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The utter insanity that is the season pass.

I am not against season passes on principle, but you should have a very good idea of what you are getting prior to purchase. I don't think it makes sense to pre-order a season pass. Wait until you have a much better sense of what the content will be. You may also find that the core game is all you ever want.

Season passes that made sense for me:

BF3 & BF4 - you know exactly what you are getting - a roughly quarterly drop of ~4 maps and the occasional new mode. If you like Battlefield, this is a reasonably safe bet. A little on the expensive side, but a lot of content over time.

Driveclub - this game is in reasonable shape nowadays, and the track quality is high. I'm happy to get more of it over time.

Last of Us - the single player story and multiplayer maps have been great


Season passes that I have a hard time justifying:

Shadow of Mordor - I platinum'ed this game, and I can't see paying 50% of the price of the core game for a few more story missions. Really hard to tell what you are getting for the money.

Anything Ubisoft - the season passes are expensive - $30 for Far Cry 4 season pass? The core game has a ton of content, so I'd rather attack my backlog then buy more Far Cry 4.

Alien Isolation - again, the core game was criticized for being a little too padded as it is.
 
I have stopped buying games that have a season pass attached. Luckily there is a shitload of games without them.
 
mamoui said:
Of course they will!
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yup and it will be worth it, I've put so many hours into the game and don't regret doing it at all.

Season Passes can be worthwhile, I've bought probably a half dozen season passes and only regreted one of them but most of the time I've felt it's worth it.
 
zeelman said:
What is going to happen with Destiny season passes if there's going to be more then 2 expansion packs? They're not going to sell another season pass, are they?
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From what I have read, it appears that each "season" you will need a new pass. Essentially, its a buy to play, and pay to keep playing game after Dec. 2014. Technically you never need more than the base game, but that locks you out of quite a bit.

I'm at peace with the model, I just wish there was more content at this point. I kind of feel like they decided to release the game a year earlier than they should have content wise, so that they could shift the cost of development to the gamers 1/2 way through development.
 
Bought 2 season passes in my life ..
Uncharted 3 : i trusted uncharted 3 and ND after the beta MP , everything was in .
Despite all of that i was kinda let down by my money.. in retrospect , i shouldn't have bought it. ( Prestige twice )

Driveclub : perfect dlc.. new content , from the start everything was clear on what i was getting and the delivery is consistent and high quality.
The fact that the dlc didn't split the player base was another good point

Season passes are good when everything is correctly explained before.
 
I've only gotten season pass for BF4, and Dying Light.

BF4 Season pass alright. I like most of the new maps and the new guns, and I've put in a lot of time in this game so, worth it.

Dying light, we'll see.
 
I have bought 4 season passes in my time gaming and will probably never do it again. The only two I do not regret is Borderlands 2 and BF4. I don't have a problem with them, just that unless I really like the game (and won't know until after purchase) there is no point to pre order them for myself.
 
Ooccoo said:
season pass is how the industry is selling you $100 games
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AbsintheGames said:
Ding ding ding!
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Not that I totally blame the industry for trying to bring the sale price a little closer to the value in 1988 dollars....
The inflation adjusted cost of video games as entertainment has tumbled, especially in context that mobile games are competing for time and dollars.
The freemium/FTP model is an interesting experiment in monetizing the work that goes into creating these experiences that we are crazy about.
 
If someone wants to spend $100 on a $60 dollar game then go right ahead.

I personally won't do it, but what you all do with your own money is your business.
 
Krakn3Dfx said:
The smart thing for developers/publishers to do would be to offer the season pass for free to people who buy the game new, just throw a key in the box, it would cut down on trade-ins, which apparently is a huge deal, right? Give people a reason to hold onto games and not trade them in.
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I think this is a great idea. I rarely pay full price for games anymore, but if they included the promise of a bunch of free DLC content? That would be a huge reason to buy a game day 1.
 
The only two I have ever bought were bf4 and driveclub. But that was after there first set of dlc so i kind of knew the kind of stuff I was getting.
 
I generally distrust season passes.

The ones that detail what you get are ok but even then the companies can lie about it and get away with it, such as the Uncharted 3 season pass (advertised 4 map packs, gave us 3 map packs and a co-op version of a map we got in the first map pack, they called it a map pack at the time to try silence complaints but much later when the game went free-to-play they only advertised 3 map packs so I guess even they gave up the BS).
 
xDUMPWEEDx said:
If someone wants to spend $100 on a $60 dollar game then go right ahead.

I personally won't do it, but what you all do with your own money is your business.
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I don't know.. What games do you think are not offering 60 dollars worth of content where you feel the season pass DLC should be free?
 
I never bought a season pass ever. And I will buy one only if there's a game where there's at least the amount of the pass itself that is already released and that I want to buy. Long story short, this never happened so far. :P
 
Why buy the season pass immediately and then complain in the first place?

You can wait and buy it after all the DLC is out to see if it's stuff you want, and then usually get the pass at a discounted price to boot. People who buy it immediately - when they don't have to - and then complain about what they've intentionally done are the problem..not the season pass concept itself.

I generally buy a season pass after the first piece or two of DLC is out. If the first one is solid, then I'm willing to take a flier on the rest being good. If they don't prove worthwhile until the last pieces come out, I don't buy until then - if I'm even still interested in the game anymore.
 
I disagree with paying for something that technically doesn't exist.

What if the publisher went tits up before all the DLC was released and it didn't get released?
 
Used to buy COD DLC,s in the past, but i quit COD like since Black ops 2 ( Bought Ghost, and havent bought AW yet ). I bought two map dlc in BO2...and i think its the last time i supported DLC like that.

But seasons pass? Who the hell is crazy enough thinking they will get enough for their money for one year? Will you still enjoy the game in a year? Neer bought one, never will. There is too much games to stick to only one game for a full year.
 
Season passes are dumb to begin with but this constant whining about companies lowering prices later being a "middle finger to consumers" is so damn annoying.
 
I was thinking the same thing when i saw that PSN sale.

Forza Horizon 2 has some pretty dodgy DLC. It has 2 season passes, and from what i understand, the storm island expansion is included with neither of them.
 
In my opinion season passes should never be discounted until the last piece of DLC has been released and even then only if all the piece meal DLC is also discounted at the same time...Season passes are supposed to be value driven.

Dropping the season pass price before even the first piece of content has gone out is really in poor form for a publisher and hurts trust with the consumer

I've only ever bought the BF3 & 4 season pass, but only because I normally buy dlc for that game day 1 and play the hell out of it
 
FonkyByNature said:
?

Some season passes are well done. Call of Duty season pass is great if you're interested in all the maps and you save money in the end.

Driveclub is another good one.

Bottom line, some season passes are well done and some others are a scam.
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Indeed. If you know you're going to be buying the content, want to play as early as possible, and you can save money doing so while playing the game, it can work out. Best personal example I can think of was Bioshock Infinite's Season Pass. Really depends on the game and developer though.
 
It's a good idea to at least wait until the first bit of content is released before buying into passes. There is rarely a good incentive to buy into additional content that early, and there's always a chance you will have had your fill and moved on to the next thing by the time said content actually releases.

In single player games, I often find the base content is enough to satisfy me and unless the game was exceptional, I'm not particularly interested in paying extra for a few more hours of the same gameplay. MP is obviously a different beast, but these days there's no saying what the state of the online environment will even be a few months out.

In my experience, the number of quality season passes have been few and far between. It's mainly an opportunity for publishers to get more money out of you when your hype is at a maximum level, which is right before the game releases.
 
Literally the only Season Pass I feel was worth it was one of the first ones: Gears 3. It added a new 5 hour campaign, more than doubled available maps and characters, added 300 new ranks, and brought back Guardian.

Halo 4's was the worst for me because 1/3 of the content was accidentally released for free but taken away a week or two after release after everyone already realized how shitty it was. The later 2/3 consisted of only 6 decent to bad maps. $25 wasted.
 
Season Passes are definitely a waste on PC where DLC receives the same STEAM sales as the main game. (unless you buy the Season Pass during the STEAM sale)

Season Passes on console were never really discounted before, so this throws a new wrinkle into the "are you really saving money buying the season pass" that we never saw before.

If console Season Passes are going to see heavy discounting once the first DLC hits, then it becomes absolutely meaningless to purchase the Season Pass early.

I think what we will end up seeing is more "pay for Season Pass now at full price and you get early access to this bullshit locked-out content that will only become available to normal non-Season Pass holders at a later date" or some shit.
 
My funniest instance and what really cemented why I don't bother, is when I picked up injustice.
"You can buy the season pass and get these other characters one of them is green Martian.
Who are the rest?
They haven't revealed them yet. "
Like What the hell. Preordering is one thing.
Throwing your money to the wind with whatever a season pass could be is bad.

Thankfully lately they have said exactly what the content is for the most part.
 
I like to think I justify my CoD season passes. I buy them when the first DLC hits and not with the game at launch. And when I'm sure I like the game, then I pick one up. I know I'm going to play it, and why not save some money while I'm at it.
 
I really like season pass when everything for it is out. Less headache to scroll through every dlc the game have to offer.

Just don't buy it blindly.
 
I just don't understand the mentality behind DLC pricing. If a full game is £40, I'm not paying that again for the promise of a few multiplayer maps and a couple of hours of missions in future, when I could buy another, complete game for that long before the full 'season' is out.
 
I try to not buy one of them until I see one part or all of the content come out for it. That way I know what I am getting and sometimes get a discount over buying separately. But preorders and pre sale of season passes are all asking for the same amount of trust from the consumer regarding the delivery of a good product.

BTW. Has Tango or Bethesda said anything about the delivery of Evil Within content. I am not opposed to more content but it seems they have been radio silent.
 
Had to buy the Destiny one since it's pretty much mandatory, but generally I avoid them like the plague if I can help it. Most of the time you're barely saving any money anyways for paying upfront (5 off a 20-49 dollar purchase) with no guarantee that the content will be worth it, or if it gets released at all.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Borderlands 2 have something along the lines of two season passes or at least a ton of content that wasn't covered in one season pass?
 
TheSlySoul said:
Seems about accurate. You buy it saying that you will want to get in shape/play the game some more but you will forget about it.
I only bought one season pass ever and that was because GS screwed up.
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You control how much you get out of a gym membership, though. The content creators control how much content you get in a season pass, if content is delivered at all.
 
never understood why people buy them early.

you can still buy the season pass after all the dlc is out.... just wait until then.

80% of the time dlc sucks because its made by the C team anyways, might as well wait until its all out before commiting.
 
Minus 40% before a single pice of dl?
Lol.

Is there even any reason to pre-order/buy a season pass?

What if you don't even like the game?

So glad I didn't buy the dark souls 2 season pass.
 
I've only ever bought BF premium for BF4 ams that was worth it a lot of content not just map packs which was nice. Probably get premium for Hardline and Battlefront as well because of it. Oh I guess I have the season pass for Farcry 4 but that's only because it came with the game for free. If they can outline dates and the content I'm usually okay with a season pass. Don't see it being that huge of a deal if people just want to buy all the dlc in a lump for a discount why not
 
The Season Pass, in concept, has its uses, but mostly its just this disgusting thing that they come up with in marketing, before the game is even finalized. Season Pass first, content later is fucking ass-backwards, especially when they don't even know what the content is going to be.
 
Season pass should really be called a suckers pass...

The gaming industry has been doing more and more shady shit, thank goodness for stuff like indies...and Nintendo, while jumping on the DLC bandwagon at least the value is there.
 
Season passes going on sale before any of the actual content has released ?. Sounds about as sketchy as the passes themselves.
 
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