Aah, downloadable content. Videogame publishers must have spunked with the fury of a thousand Suns after they realized what could be done with it. Like creating the stuff long before a game's release and stockpiling it for later. Paging Halo Wars.
Yes, the DLC for Halo Wars isn't just planned -- it's as good as finished.
"The main thing is that DLC was built into the game design from the very beginning so we've actually been working on DLC all along," explains lead designer Graeme Devine. "It was never the plan to finish the game THEN start work on the DLC.
Just in case you were wondering why Halo Wars won't just ship with more content rather that deliberately holding stuff back, don't worry. Devine has that argument all taken care of:
"I think the thing with DLC is that, if you release it all, how do you sustain interest in the game? One of the ways of sustaining interest in a game is with DLC. So I think it is there for that purpose and does a good job.
"I think if you get it all it's like a massive blitz of content in your face and you don't get all the value of everything we've put into the game. I think the game contains an awful lot in the box already so DLC is a good way to be able to add to that experience."
You can't really argue with the logic of "we want to keep people buying and playing our stuff," but the idea of holding back content rather than making it later still seems really tacky to me. I'd prefer that the game I buy at launch have 100% of the resources and attention behind it, but then, we've all learned by now that games are not made based upon what's best for the consumer.
Contest:
7:42 PM on 11.17.2008
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eternalplayer- that is a awesome idea! *joins you in waiting for said game*
This isn't like selling Horse Armor, it's selling us the horse's legs and saddle post-purchase.
Fuck.
Haha I'm exaggerating but it'll be a dark day if things really do go this way >_>
Adding about 5% to my game doesnt warrant a 10$ purchase when that game was 60$ and most of the time I waited for it to op in price to buy it !
I love buying a fun game but being nickled and dimed is getting annoying.
This just in... having to buy an overpriced HDD in order to have space to store your overprice and held back from that actual game is completely crazy !!!!
It's absolutely retarded to hold stuff back to "keep interest" in the game. How about you try to "keep interest" in your community and it's fans.
You know, what we as gamers could do about this is just not buy Halo 3: Recon,
but I don't expect any of you guys to do this, I know that you will all be lined up for hours in the middle of the night, begging for Bungie's hot, steaming, money hungry spunk splattered in your face.
EPIC FAIL!!
This kinda upsets me because if they were gonna nickel and dime the game then at least I'd be happy that some of it goes to the studio that made it and would use it for the sequel or other projects. That's not the case this time around.
I hope it IS free, or the content is rather sizable (and cheapish).
Point is, any successful game gets locked content wise pretty early so that they can focus on making what is there work correctly. The fact that they want to add more to the experience isn't ALWAYS a desperate plea for cash.
It justifies them selling more copies as well as DLC.
It justifies them making money at the consumers expense.
Look at Criterion, they made the first content free to create more interest in Burnout. I would think the first Halo Wars DLC being free would be justified in a similar manner.
If its already done, it should have been in the disk. This is no different from Katamari 'DLC'. Its just easier to swallow because its not in the disk.
But I'm fine with their decision. Its their job to make money, but lets not sugar coat the fact.
But when you have finished content ready to go in your game that isnt on the disc, you have fucked up. This tells me you have not put the full game(as you have created it) on the disc and hence it is not worth the retail price.
In fact, i wouldnt care at all if they said its all free DLC. But hell, even if they wanted it to be (and with an attitude like this, fat chance) MS would force a price on it.
"Yeah...we made more stuff for the game but we cut it out deliberately so we could make more money later"
That'd be like cutting out the last 3 chapters of a book to sell later to "keep interest". Well good news you've just lost my interest in this game. So when's Dawn Of War 2 coming out?
Oh, i dunno....how about "make a good fucking game"?
There are PLENTY of games from the Pre-DLC era that are still more than interesting enough for me to pick up and play now. Even if i've already played and beaten them, they're still THAT good...
This was back when developers were creative, talented, and original.....now everything's the same formula...
1 Release incomplete buggy game
2 Patch the shit out of it for the next 6 months
3 Monsoon of DLC "micro-transactions"
4 ???
5 Profit
These days, it's either devs have forgotten how to make truly epic games, or, they make games that are almost epic, but are so flawed that you forget all the good in them, and just see what's messed up. and their rational is that they don't hafta do the job right the first time, because the game's already been hyped all to hell, everyone's going to have it, the bugs can be patched out later, and DLC will drive future profits....
Kojima is the rare exception....his games are epic, they're not broken, and they don't rely on DLC to drive sales or future profit...they're so good, that they actually sell themselves...imagine that..