Being a fan of rolling, nonsense, and the rampant homoerotic gestures of intergalactic regents, I picked up a copy of Beautiful Katamari earlier this week, eager to sink my teeth into the latest installment of one of my favorite series. It was great until it was, y'know, over -- I had completed the game proper in just shy of three hours. Even Me & My Katamari had a longer shelf-life, provided you didn't chuck your PSP out a window in a fit of hatred over the controls. Well, shucks; some games are just short, so I guess them's the breaks. Or is them?
Ol' Major Nelson dropped a notice today on his marketplace round-up which included some of the Beautiful Katamari DLC dropping in Asia, all of which is more than likely to hit our shores in the near future. Four new levels at 200 points a pop will grant you access to create the Milky Way, a space station, Vega and Cetus by rollin' up various brands of junk. That's swell and all, but one wonders: why weren't these in the game as released?
Taking a look at the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace reveals that the four downloadable levels occupy only 384kb of space per addition on your little ol' hard drive. Whether these files are keys to unlock content already on the disc or actual levels is largely irrelevant; four levels up on Marketplace coinciding with the day of release seems a might suspect. While this is a story we've heard before for numerous other Xbox 360 titles, what makes Beautiful Katamari's situation unique is that the nickle-and-diming microtransaction shenanigans, when entirely unfurled, will likely top out the game's price at a standard sixty bucks, just like any other game.
The original Katamari Damacy's $20 price tag was probably the biggest force in getting copies off of retail shelves -- the logic behind keeping the MSRP as low as possible for the Prince's latest outing on the 360 seems rational, but it's an established series with a ravenous fanbase. If Katamari's success mandates a heftier cost of admission, that's cool, but let's not maintain this charade of budget title status while withholding content, yeah?
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i just ordered katamari damacy from amazon. im excited about this but cant play it until ive played the original. super saver shipping ftw.
And I take it there's no Action Replay on the 360 yet. This is almost as reprehensible as EA taking cheat codes out of The Godfather and selling in-game money. At least you're getting full levels, but srsly, that's sneaky, especially when the game is so short presented as is.
I wonder what the Wii version will be like.
That's complete crap! People need to stop shelling out the dough for this stuff or the publishers will continue to rape our wallets, our minds and our childrens.
That is probably the lamest thing I have heard in a while. I always shudder to think how far people will take these "micro-transactions." Maybe in the future, when Halo 5 comes out, we'll have to buy each gun packs, map packs, campaign level packs, etc.
{sarcasm} That would be truly next-gen. {/sarcasm}
Mobilize the mob! We've got some rabbling to do! Rabble rabble!
I loved the original Katamari game, but I haven't played any since. They're all the same thing, right?
Pretty much, Dex. Still a whole lot of fun, though -- and less of the same thing really chaps my ass. That game was short.
Sweet.
That's sad. I was planning on buying this, but now I certainly will not.
Aaron Linde, good catch man. I have taken such arguments to the Official Xbox forums and find that people sadly don't care about this crap, there are a few that get their eyes opened what such shit happens, but for the most part the sheeple just turn the other way for whatever reason, it blows my mind.
Oh yeah, forgot, I was going to pick up Beautiful Katamari because of its price, but something like this makes me think twice about it. I mean, I want to support this title and hope other developers/publishers see a non shooter/sports game doing well on the 360, but on the other hand, they are assholes for doing this. I mean, at least try and cover it up by releasing the extra content a month after the game is released, not so soon. Bah.
I was going to pick up BK, but I remembered that they didn't release it in PAL regions, and KEPT THE REGION LOCK. Fuck you Namco.
Shame on you Katamari. You were supposed to be different.
God damn microtransactions, they ruin everything
Great job, Namco...
This is the kind of DLC strategy I hate the most. They tried to pull something like this with Phantasy Star Universe as well and I wasn't having it.
greedy MicroSoft is back at it
BOO TO THAT.
I say that's bad businessmanship.
@ Paco
Now I remember why i stopped visiting the Xbox forums..double digit IQs all around FTL.
I completely agree with you though, theyve started taking away portions of the game and selling you something that should have been included to BEGIN with.
I cant say Im completely innocent of that, I did buy the GOW maps when they came out, although I had the extra MS points lying around. eh.
I would rather have paid 60 bucks up front got it all then this. I hate unlocks like this. Especially if the game is as short as people are saying I have just played a hr or so playing many games at once. That is one thing I like about katamari you can play it a little at a time or alot at once and still enjoy it.
This is total bullshit.
Great, now I'll wait for Beautiful Katamari to drop in price to $20 just because I won't buy into this sort of online purchase scheme. The content is already on the disc, why should I have to pay to unlock something I already paid for?
On one hand i was already planning on buying Katamari before i knew it wasn't 60, on the other it's really bastardy when they do something like this and i don't wanna promote it.
Help make people aware, yo.
Yeah! And Microsoft is 'teh best' according to internet nerds. Yeah, you get what you deserve. Brb, gotta check my torrent and make sure my full version games I got for 0 MS points are still there.
Yup.
PC gaming, ftw.
@DryvBy
Bragging about stealing your games, way to go, its people like you are ruining PC gaming, are you also the same kind of dickhole who whines that console gaming is demolishing PC gaming in sales as well?
Please choke on a dick.
The point of all Katamari games is to play them through more than once, BK is no different, although this is an incredibly dick move on MS, and before you continue to say Namco fails etc, MS is the one that dictates that people must pay, Namco may have wanted to give this for free for MS doesn't let them, the Gears maps are the best example I can give, they where supposed to be free but MS said no, they worked on the agreement to make them free later.
@Kyousuke Nanbu
Lol@you. No, I'm not ruining gaming. I actually buy my games. What's the fun of playing a game without any multiplayer? As for your constant mentioning of the penis (and your anime man art avatar), I present you with a Homo Award!
Fear a vagina, fag.
I believe you are completely, 100% wrong. 384kb sounds about right for a brand new katamari damacy map. Hear me out.
With a game like Gears of War or something, yeah, maps are going to be huge files. However, that's not because the game has high-res graphics, or anything, it's just how shooters work. A new map means *tons* of new geometry and textures, to fill the scene. You aren't just getting a simple text file that says 'stuff goes here' + a simple base model for the landscape, you're getting a ton of individual assets and textures, plus a rather big file that keeps all of the gameplay necessary scripting for the map.
A game like Katamari Damacy, though? It should just be base geometry for the map, some numbers to designate flat color textures, and then the positions of every single object on the map -- no new objects, katamari damacy doesn't *work* like a shooter where it's hallways and rooms carefully modeled, it's just an object named 'house' stuck at point 33, 44, 120, as an example.
Basically, the whole map format could, in theory, be 384kb. Which makes more sense than a key, try and save a .txt file that takes 380 kilobytes. Would have to be the longest fucking unlock key EVER.
Suprore, regardless, it's content that was made available on the day of release in Japan and just five days after the US launch. If it's not actually on the disk already, it fuckin' should be.
How dare you insult Kyousuke! Its revolver stake time
Mmmm, the delicious smell of failure and rape. I'm still perfectly happy with my original Katamari copy I got for $20 wayback when. Still the best soundtrack too.
This should be illegal. You've purchased those maps and "extra" content...they are in your possesion and ownership since you now legally own the disc they are hidden on. Right? It's like charging extra money for the keys to the car you already bought.
If the content ever gets hacked (like with a modded Xbox...like what people do with Guitar Hero on their PS2) is it actually legally or morally wrong to play something that you already purchased anyway? It wouldn't be like you snuck a copy off of the shelf....or downloaded it....but just unlocked what was on YOUR game cd.
Yep they locked parts of the game. That's why it's only 39. The DLC unlocks the rest of the game. In the end you pay 59.99 anyway.
It's like those infomercials, that tell ya that you get shit for free, but that's actually the value of everything together. But they tell you like a knife set cost $99 dollars, but will throw in this slice and dice gadget and 3 extra replacement blades for free! ll for only $99. See that way it's like you're getting free shit, but you're not.
I'm not sure you've thought this through all the way. So it's 384kb. Why would a Katamari level have to be any bigger? In other games, levels are huge because you've got new map geometry and textures for each surface. In Katamari, you've got none of that. All the tools for creating a new Katamari level are already on the disc: the object collection. The new levels probably only come with one new object (the one you create when you finish the level), but the arrangement of the old objects in the level can be entirely different.
and 400 kb is way too big for an "unlock key." That'd be 1 or 2 kb at the most.
The only content you're unlocking by buying these levels is any object that's on the disc, but has yet to be used in a level yet... which we should've already noticed, because the achievements for getting all the cousins and such say you need to download levels first.
Bottom line though, the levels you're paying to download are not on the disc, but the objects you're rolling up in them are. But seriously, would you expect a whole new set of objects for each level?
@Supree and dave rhodes
You could be right about the size of the maps, but i think that has nothing to do with the whole "it should've been available from the start" that i think this post is trying to say, unless you can prove that the content didn't fit on the DVD or that it required so much development time that it would've delayed the game.
and now i'm not going to purchase BK...whether its MS fault or the publishers...if this content wasnt on the disc originally...it shouldnt be a bonus level the day (or 5days after) the game comes out...if your going to screw me over...at least wait for me to get ready for it...this should've been on the disc...
@knives:
Yeah, I actually wasn't aware of the dates, I completely agree that this *should* have been on the disk.
I wonder if there is a web page/blog somewhere tracking this slippery slope... From memory:
-Oblivion horse armor
-Godfather in-game money
-Lumines missing game modes
-Guitar Hero II track packs
-Tiger Woods 08 maxed out golfer
-and now -Beautiful Katamari missing levels
Feel free to add if I missed any outrage.
The Guitar Hero packs and Luminies packs are actual downloads though, no? I mean, a rip off, yeah, but they were actual downloads that were offered well after the initial release of the games as well as not just some unlock keys of sorts.
Stuff that was on the disc already:
NFL/NHL/NBA/etc games made by 2KSports have the "Reel Maker" that is on the disc.
From an old Kotaku post-
Alaskan Adventures
Alaskan Bonus Pack 1 (100 points)
108.00 KB
Cabela's Safari
Safari Bonus Animal (150 points)
108.00 KB
Chromehounds
Total price of all downloadable parts keys (1800 points)
The keys are 108.00 KB each
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
LEGO Star Wars Characters (200 points)
108.00 KB
Rapala TOurnament Fishing!
California Delta Bonus Level (150 points)
108.00 KB
Samurai Warriors 2
Total price to buy horses and hire people not otherwise available (580 points)
The keys are 108.00 KB each
The Godfather
Favor Pack - 3 Favor Missions (250 points)
108.00 KB
Viva Pinata
Accessory Pack 1 (80 points)
Accessory Pack 2 (80 points)
Accessory Pack 3 (80 points)
Accessory Pack 4 (80 points)
The keys are 108.00 KB each