With all the fuss lately over DLC in games like Battlefield: Bad Company and Final Fantasy: My Life as a King, I kind of find myself hoping that the topic kind of falls off the radar for a week or two, at least giving people long enough to simmer down, now. Not the case, I'm afraid. This time around the news involves the Mass Effect DLC pack Bring Down the Sky, which costs 400 Microsoft points ($5) for 360 owners. How much will PC owners be paying for the same DLC? Not a red cent -- as long as you join the BioWare community, you get it for free on launch day, which is May 28th.
Give me a second to get out my shield -- I'm glad I invested in the kevlar one this time. At least the DLC is optional and you get a complete gaming experience out of Mass Effect without it, but it doesn't seem very fair that one type of gamer should have to pay for it while another does not. Maybe some people won't be bothered by spending the $5 difference. What's the word, Dtoid -- annoyed, or unphased? Also, to continue my theme of the week, hookers or cheeseburgers?
[Via CVG -- Thanks, Jonathan]
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Contest:
1:15 PM on 04.18.2008
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And we can all thank Microsoft for charging for DLC
U.S. gamers get stuff before Europe. Do European gamers get free stuff? No.
I find it ridiculous that I have to pay for what other people who are playing the game on a different box are getting for free. I will not be purchasing the DLC.
However, they realize that trying to milk money out of such a small amount of content won't go over well with PC gamers. We'd just go find some community-made stuff to install and play instead.
And to answer your question, hookers with bras made of cheeseburgers makes me make a Chad face.
I'm sure I read that somewhere...
@Professor Pew: COD4 maps are free on PC??! really?? wtf!!
A DECENT PC system to play Mass Effect on without lag issues: $800 (This is just like the cheapest you can get and still play the game half way decent)
I still say 360 owners are paying less.
I am a PC guy, I don't play console systems except for certain RPG's and the occasional oddball game that comes out of japan so I feel that this is a pretty fair deal in the matter
If the game was being released on the PS3 I think it would also get the DLC free.
@Itchy
Maybe they'll get something back from ads? I dunno, but there has to be something related to that or else they would just put a link for the download or include it in the game.
you do not even get dedicated servers for most of xbox live online games and yet people keep paying for it.
So by the time microsoft has charged you for all this junk over the years you could have bought tons more for the PC.
and ya you got it month earler but it was rushed full of bugs and controls/looks bad on your console. it's obvious microsoft pays tons of money for that little window to have PC games exclusive on there little console and have it rushed out for a time window in this case xmas 07.
Of course they are not going to say anything about the real PC versions sitting in dev until the microsoft xbox 360 deal passes.
They say stuff like this.
"Keep the PC in the back and make sure everybody buys the unfinshed console ports with a horrible game pad interface and poor performace and make sure it is out by xmas and don't say anything about e want to sell some xbox."
Then give them the content that was in the game but since it was rushed when the real "finished PC games ship for PC in the summer,
Nice job microsoft
and if you think these console version of games liek mass effect are finished wake up and open your eyes they are not and mass effect is the best example.
Then when another format of the same game comes along with all of what they purchased for a fee, which they can't give to you for free, they moan? You chose MS you know your going to need MS points.
Come on, did people who buy the Xbox really go in blindly?
Also I don't think the game was rusehd, the console just couldn't handle it.
If the developer knows they're going to be charging for DLC later I think they ought to charge less for the disc in the first place.
Yes, it costs money to produce the DLC, but you don't make that money back by charging for it. Free DLC won't cost you in the end if it convinces me to plunk down another ~$60 on the sequel. Make good games and support them after launch; I promise you'll get a loyal base for your next release.
Also with companies like Valve, they figure it's more important to reward your initial purchase of their game instead of punishing you with micro-transactions of more game content.
There is a long, long, long history of studios releasing free content for their games and a dev kit to the community. In fact even when this isn't the case, the community often mods stuff extensively (see the changes made to the piss poor RE4 port, for example - new character skins, hi-res textures, bloom, added effects etc).
If someone tried to charge PC gamers for anything short of a full blown expansion it would be subject to epic fail and just boost piracy more to boot. Bioware, with their roots in PC gaming are well aware of this.
If console muppets took a stand instead of letting MS suck their wallets dry like fawning fanboys they might have the same arrangement one day.
I wouldn't even be paying attention to this if I wasn't currently trying to decide whether I should get a PS3 or a 360, but it's just something I noticed.
Also. Cheeseburger. Food poisoning is temporary, but herpies is forever.
Well DUH!
Unless its horse armor anyways...
Also, people pay for their own servers in COD4. Thats why we get the maps for free, suck it bitches.
That aside, I don't see what you're whining about. You get your exclusivity period, and we get the lovingly patched up cheap edition a while later.
This has also happened with Gears and Assassins Creed, and seems set to be the temporary industry model until games become increasingly episodic in digitally distributed business models.
As has been said, PC gaming has a very long history of bonus content after release (official or otherwise), which we're never asked to stump up cash for unless it's an all-out expansion pack. Take the witcher for example, which is arguably a better game than Mass Effect to begin with. The developers have just added a patch which adds a load of new sidequests, and are working on an 'enhanced' version which fixes some of the more critically derided aspects of the title as it stood on launch day.
PC owners don't pay significantly more to be a PC Gamer. Especially when you take into account the cost of games and DLC, which ties directly into the topic. Just like PC owners who don't recognise how powerful consoles have become, console owners don't recognise how relatively cheap PC's have become. Granted you pay more for your PC, but chuck in a few years worth of games (averaging a saving of £15-20 a title) and the ability to upgrade individual components, and you're quickly looking at very little difference in price. The PC I'm running now runs Gears and COD4 better than my 360 does, and at a higher resolution... yet you could easily build my PC for £350-400.
Anyway, isn't the DLC just spacehorse armour?
I thought you were better than that, Bioware.
lol like they care
I fully support the artists and designers behind DLC but when the DLC is held back at the games release to BECOME DLC, or the DLC is over priced (Halo 3 maps) or one group get the DLC entirely for free, it really shits me.
While I am happy the PC guys got the DLC for free, I am annoyed that I did not. The only reason is because the PC guys got it for free so WHY did I have to pay for it? It obviously doesn't mean much for Bioware to make money off their DLC if they are handing it out like candy to the PC guys.
Oh well, I paid for it already so can't do much about that except complain with the rest of the internet.