GAME TREND: Pay extra for stuff that's already on the game disk, other simple things

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26638827&sid=6199611&om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;1
That’s right, Namco Bandai is asking you to pay 5 dollars for Darth Vader or Yoda (depending on the console), and guess what, you’re paying to unlock a character whose data is already on the disk.

A lot of people are shouting ‘scam’ at this. But this is the new trend, pay a high premium for unlocking stuff already on the disk or small additions that you generally wouldn’t think should fetch such a price. No more free content, you pay for every ounce of additional content now

They may have learned this from EA, what with them charging 20 for a spore parts pack and another 20 for a space expansion with things that were actually demoed during development.

2

and guess what, you’re paying to unlock a character whose data is already on the disk.

Why does the location of it change anything?

A lot of people are shouting ‘scam’ at this.

Unless it was promised originally, then this is surely not a scam.

3

Agreed
They only do that because there are users that pay for it.

4

You know whats funny…

These characters aren’t even on the game disc, which is the basis for your whole rant. The characters are provided as downloadable content. Do you even read the articles that you post?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26638827

That’s from the link you provided in your original post.

There’s nothing to complain about, they made two specific versions of the game with different characters exclusive to each console. So what? If you don’t want to pay the extra 5 bucks (which is a reasonable price) then don’t buy the character. It’s as simple as that. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay for anything. You should be glad that they’re offering the exclusive characters from each system so you can have the best of both worlds.

By the way, there’s tons of free content out there for other games. Just because they’re making you pay for a character in one specific game dosen’t mean that its the end of free add on content for all games.

You need to just sit back, relax, and enjoy your games. :eyebrowlift:

5

Lol,

Here’s your house. Buy it.

Okay

3 months later.

Remember when we said that you could choose between a bathroom on the first floor or a bathroom on the second.

Yeah

Well we lied. Turns out there is a hidden wall that we will unlock if you fork out 3000 extra dollars. Compared to the price you bought the house at that’s a steal.

Why not just include that in the initial price and not lock it?

To build hype and add a false sense of value, and test to see what we can do and if people will accept it silly. Also, it keeps network bandwidth down. :wink:

Oh. Well here’s your 3000 grand. Now, give me my bathroom.

Thank you.

Hey I just thought about this, What if I want to let my friend borrow my bathroom?

No, your friend can’t borrow it unless he borrows your entire house as well.

Why?

Because we set the rules so that we are in control, not you. You can’t be trusted.

Okay, fair enough.

Anymore questions?

No, this just feels weird is all.

Well, you’ll get used to it.

Okay…

Insanely sensical

These characters aren’t even on the game disc, which is the basis for your whole rant. The characters are provided as downloadable content. Do you even read the articles that you post?

Well that all depends on the size of the download doesn’t it? We won’t know until we see how large the files is.

There’s nothing to complain about, they made two specific versions of the game with different characters exclusive to each console. So what?

Just because there is nothing to complain about doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worth discussing. Right?

I mean, I can’t really complain that I’m alive, but I can discuss what it means, no?

6

Well we lied.

This is the key part, for me at least. It they said that it had that character, then that’s a scam. If they heavily implied it then

Why not just include that in the initial price and not lock it?

Because it costs money to make, so charging for it makes sense, and not everyone might want it. I’d rather the price was lower and included less characters, especially since those that buy the characters pay over the odds, subsidising the game for me.

Having it there, but not being able to access it is very different in computers than physical objects, too. There is no down side to having content on the disc you cannot access. It’s no different from not having the content there at all, except when you buy it you don’t need internet access. Sounds like a bonus to me.

You can’t compare information to physical objects, it just doesn’t make sense in so many cases.

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This is exclusive. Wait no it’s not, sorry.

Hey, you lied.

I know…

Because it costs money to make, so charging for it makes sense, and not everyone might want it. I’d rather the price was lower and included less characters, especially since those that buy the characters pay over the odds, subsidising the game for me.

Having it there, but not being able to access it is very different in computers than physical objects, too. There is no down side to having content on the disc you cannot access. It’s no different from not having the content there at all, except when you buy it you don’t need internet access. Sounds like a bonus to me.

You can’t compare information to physical objects, it just doesn’t make sense in so many cases.
It does, however, make sense in this case. Except for the part about well… all of it.

I meant include the DLC price in the original game price. For example the game cost 65.99 instead of 59.99. It’s obvious this was going to happen. Games don’t have empty character spaces for nothing.

They planned this from the beginning. Why pretend as if there were some merit in owning one version over the other?

It’s manipulation in a very unusual way. I say unusual because it doesn’t make sense.

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The funny thing is that before we got bonus content free with updates and patches. FPS games got more maps and models for free with no one wanting more money for it… It was good customer service, but nowadays they want to suck out every last penny they can get and resort to name calling on top of that(they imply that you’re a pirate even if you bought their game) as well as to limit how you use their product(all that DRM stupidity has made me rethink how I spent my money on games, in other words I don’t buy heavily DRM infested games anymore).

It’s sad that big game publishing companies have begun to treat their customers like crap, but like always every action has a reaction. The fact that big ones are heading out to the console market and leaving PC market hanging gives smaller more creative studios(that know the value of a happy customer) more market share to play with.

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The PC still receives a lot of free updates.

It’s mostly console companies that require companies to charge a price for their content. I think.

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I think there is nothing wrong for paying to unlock a character. Remember Mortal Kombat II. There was a character that can be unlocked only certain amount of winds in a row. What if I want it now? If there is an option to pay to unlock it, and I want that character soooo badly, I will pay for it. On the other hand, if I am short on cash and I want it, I will have to play and unlock it by playing. So there is a choice. What’s wrong with that?

11

I remember a 3d software that was free, but you could pay an amount to get a number called “c-key” if I’m not mistaken.

With that key, you could unlock some features.

Oh, now I remember! This software was called Blender!

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Yeah, but blender didn’t build hype around exclusivity, did it?

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Aharr my mateys!

I’m sure a good solution to this annoying but otherwise perfectly legal trend will arise.

14

Justy like Vista,

All installs actally install all software for all versions on your PC at the same time (15Gb install), then if you want to upgrade they just unlock what is already there.

This is a little more sinister than the games, as it is using up real HDD space which does not belong to them.

Alltaken

15

I don’t understand the problem here. If you don’t want to play by their rules, don’t buy their software. It’s that simple. They made the game, they own the copyright, they set the terms of its use. It’s all very legal, and absolutely no one is forcing you to buy anything.

If you were being placed under duress by an inappropriate level of coercion or pressure from the game company, then there would be a reason to complain. I’m waiting for the day when they start saying “If you don’t buy the update, your existing copy of the game will stop functioning.” As long as you didn’t purchase the game on a subscription basis, you would then have a reasonable gripe and an actual legal claim against the company.

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At first being able to download extra content in things such a Guitar Hero was cool, but now it’s getting a bit too extreme.

With this ‘paying to unlock a character’ thing it seems as if they had planned to have the character in the game (maybe as an unlockable?) but then made a last minute decision to make you pay $5 to get them. Games are getting expensive enough as it is, without having to pay extra for something that should have been there in the first place!

Game companies (mainly the big ones) need to stop trying to pump as much money as possible out of a game, and instead need to focus on making a great game!

17

We on these forums get so upset about the littlest annoyances, don’t we?

I agree with Blendenzo, except nobody is claiming to have a legal gripe here, we just don’t like the current penny-pinching publishers.

So don’t buy their games if you don’t like the way they do things. As for me, I get annoyed when they include so many extra characters on the next-gen console versions of the game. It’s completely pointless except that maybe, say, someone owning a PS3 would otherwise buy the PS2 version of Ultimate Alliance, even though the PS3 version is already better in so many ways. (Or maybe some people would buy a PS3 just so they could play as Venom in Ultimate Alliance…)

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Oh but there is as allready mentionend: USE YOUR POWER AS A CONSUMER AND DON’T BUY IT! Oh and tell your friends not to buy it either. When sales drop the publishers will surly stop this business model.

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This reminds me of something I heard about today. Apparently, you can either buy the game, or the ‘ultimate’ (or whatever it is called) pack. This includes a real life golden Lancer (the big chainsaw-gun-thingy). The pack also comes with other random stuff like booklets etc. BUT it also comes with a code to unlock the ‘Golden-Lancer’ in-game. In my opinion (which may be totally wrong), then the code will be eventually leaked on the net, and everyone will have it. Kind of stupid if you want my opinion.

EDIT: Lol, oops, my bad! Apparently, the in-game golden lancer is only available for online play. But even so, I think the code will still be leaked, but yeah.

20

This business model taken to extreme can actually be a good thing for the user…

When Phil Harrison was in charge of Sony Computer Entertainment he envisaged giving the games away to the consumers for free and making money from “micropayments” for optional content, eg range from custom colour for your car in a racing game to whole new car models…

It’s not all negative either, the core game would have to be good to encourage you to play in the first place and to get you to fork out for the extras!