The damn DLC evolved to something worse.

Fallout and Skyrim are good examples of DLC being what it should be. You can get it, or not. It's a fun extra set of things in the game but you still have the main game if you don't get any of it. Plus then you have your GotY edition that has all of it.

Call of Duty is somewhere below that. The DLC is new maps. In one of them it was so bad, if you didn't buy all the DLC you could be put into a match with a map you don't have and get kicked from the lobby. The fixed that in the later CoD games though. Black Ops 2 had pretty nice DLC cause of the Zombies maps. But I remember thinking about how if you bought the game and all the DLC you were spending an awful lot on that one game.

Then I'm sure you have plenty of good examples of DLC at the bottom level.

 

Yeah, Jim made a video about Watch Dogs as well

The Last of Us DLC is indeed an expansion. Reminds me of what we used to get in the 90's on PC games. Game companies seems to have forgotten what an expansion content actually is.

 

The best way to boycott and stop the companies is very simple.
Do not buy any games that does this shit or just pirate them.
If everybody start doing this, the producers maybe will stop exploiting the consumer (or they will just go bankrupt).

 

This isn't news, its been the new 'normal' for at least 4 years.

 

Not to argue against boycotting, but why pirate? Why do you feel entitled to something you did not pay for?

 

OOh, my absolute least favorite kind of DLC
http://us.playstation.com/games/add-ons/tales-of-xillia-level-up-5-2-ps3.html

The Tales games let you literally buy levels, like in a pay-to-win freemium game, but you pay full price for the disc.

 

While jimquisition make great points, he comes off as a tool.

 

IMO, it's the consumers fault. (this desperate internet generation)

For the publisher, is a tentative to get more money. If it fails, they (the publisher with loss) will think twice about the next "new dlc".

For the publisher, games are not "special". It's about money. Just read the Nintendo sharehloders meeting. They don't even play games.

But think about some bullshit like this in their hobby. Think about a dlc-like-thing for their Yatchs, Sport Cars, exotic trips. They have the power and organization to boycott nonsense bullshit. But the gamers are just normal people, and don't have the power to keep the crowds calm.
Popular stuff = shit happening

 

Vote with your wallets, it's simple to not support the companies. It seems consumers are small minded and forget about this every new release. I haven't bought an Activision published game in a very very long time. Not after how I was treated in support.

 

There was allways DLC, they just had different names. Special Edition, Anniversary Edition, Special Missions, International, Director's Cut, Dual Shock Version, Championship, etc.

 

True, but back then it didn't come out for every game.

 

There's a difference between enhanced/expanded whatever version and dayi one DLC or stupid pre-order or even worse - store-specific DLCs.
If the game was released as complete and some time after its release some expansion is out - it's ok. But if you have to pre-order or DLCs are required to get a full game when you had to pay 20+ for incomplete game already - it's cheating or even a fraud. Look at Capcom for example. Yeah, Street Fighter 4, Super Street Fighter 4, Super Street Figher 4 Arcade Edition, Hype... Ultra Street Fighter 4... Mega Street Fighter 4 Ultimate Enhanced Galaxy Turbo Titanium Edition EX Super Hyper Plus? Maybe i don't like how they milk a single game, but well they actually add some stuff and they are not the only ones who do this, Guilty Gear is pretty much the same. But...

Here comes Street Fighter x Tekken. You pay a lot for the game, just to get a half of the game and rest is Disc-Locked Content (on PC those characters were released later but it doesn't change the fact that those were made already and they selling you the game twice). And not just that. DLC gem system aka pay-to-win. This game is total rip-off unless you pirated it or got in Steam at -75%


Same for pre-order DLC. They lure you into buying a game that's not out yet. You think like "oh! nice, some pretty costumes for free and game is a little bit cheaper when pre-ordered". And... when game is finally released, you get buggy unfinished piece of crap that doesn't look and play nearly as good as it was in that trailer like it was with Colonial Morons, and "little bit cheaper" will face you with -70% sale in less than a month after release.

 

Well, there are some really good games out there that are just being ruined by DLCs, and pirating them is maybe the best way at this point to boycott the company that abuses the consumer (*cough* Capcom and others *cough*).

 

On top of that, platform exclusive content. Like RE5 suffered on PC by not having DLC. Ever. Post-release or otherwise.

 

I find it pretty much the same.

A few examples of Playstation "DLCs" that i know.

Metal Gear Solid Special Missions (Integral). New clothes for Meryl, Cyborg Ninja, Very Easy Dificult, more codec frequencys, FP view and Pocketstation shit. Exactly the same you can find today in a DLC.

Final Fantasy VII International. Ruby and Emerald Weapons. Cloud and Zack flashbacks. Control improvements on Gold Saurcer minigames. What can i say?

Resident Evil Directors Cut. Arrange Mode for new locations of ol items. New clothes. Beginner dificult. Auto-aim. Classic DLC shitty stuff.

V-Rally Platinum. New car and Dual Shock compatibility. Wow, just wow.

Even Gran Turismo have updates. You can find on redump the 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 versions of the game. And they are just bugfixes. Fixing text, prices, % errors and else. If you are the unlucky bastard that own the 1.0 version, well, enjoy your game.

The ONLY good one DLC i remember from Playstation was Wip3out Special Edition, the best futuristic racing game of all times, so far.

 

Capcom doesn't nickel and dime as much as people believe. In the case of SFIV (I would defend SFxT but I don't know enough about it) there is a reason Capcom released new iterations. SFIV on launch felt like a full game worth the price. As a fighting game its fate is to be played on professional tournaments. Lots of effort is put into balancing the game, but there is always some cheap technique or glitch found after shipping that is exploited. Hardcore players will demand the game be completely fair, and Capcom has to spend extra money to painstakingly study the metagame and test patches. The companies who own the consoles charge money for studios to patch their games. Why doesn't Capcom simply release a new game? The competitive scene analyzes a game to make certain it is worthy of developing a metagame for. Once they are satisfied and invested they may not support a sequel if they find it is even slightly inferior or the skill ceiling has been lowered. To be honest I prefer what they're doing now instead of releasing "Activision sequels". Ultra Street Fighter IV is not full price, and you can buy the extra content if you have older versions. USFIV (and its previous patches) serve the purpose of balancing the game further, keeping the game alive at tournaments, and paying for the game testing necessary for it to be fair. The casual player isn't going to pay for subtle game fixes. Capcom bundles them with new characters for that reason. I didn't play RE5, but I heard the commotion. If the game feels like it gave you enough for the money why does it matter if their is extra stuff on the disc?

 

Because when you spend $60 (or whatever the cost of a new game is somewhere else) you should get to play all the content that is on the media you purchased. That means that when SFxT (the most notorious offender)'s servers go down (could be 6 months, could be years), a good portion of the game will be behind a permanent block.

Also if I remember correctly, didn't Capcom force people to buy SSFIV, even if they had SFIV?

 

that's what a EULA/TOC is for.
if you don't read the small-print, corporation have us by the knackers, in a vice!
...
it got said best above, 'vote with wallet'...
i agree!
there's SO much to catch up on.
hitting them in the money-jewels en masse will make them think twice and possibly reform/return to a 'gold standard'...if you will. :wink-new:
...
other fair points were presented, but a game is a game on relz...
a good ten years ago, you NEVER got that shit in a 'pay-to-play' environment (coin-op) and the home ports were just as strict, bugs were rare.
the DLC way of life is directed at the lazy or those who can't be arsed to study IN FULL what they're buying into...
unless they DO, and it's back to my earlier response?! :concern:
...
not getting into the piracy thing when i BUY retails, DUMP EM and share, the other way, not as much, trying for a super-dick-out-ratio..nothing to do with subject!
...
i 'boycotted' them a long time ago, it wasn't a choice, because it didn't really occur to me at the time, my interests were shall we say, 'antiquated'...
ignore the transmission, and they'll be forced back to a standard, ONLY if enough of us DON'T send money their way, grow some, call the shots...or carry on regardless.
[edit]
typo.

 

Don't know if Capcom failed to put SSFIV as DLC. What if there are debug options left in a disc? Should we allow everyone to use them and cheat? If a game did not provide you with a reasonable amount of gameplay then I can sympathize. Losing support for DLC is more the fault of the platform owning corporation, assuming it still works on PC (correct me if wrong). Capcom is helping GFWL owners of SSFIV AE transfer to Steam even though they are not obligated.

 

As much as I love SFIV, the Ultra version seems like a cash-in since four of the new characters are just imported from SFxT and one is just a modified Cammy. As far as patches for balance go, there's no reason they couldn't be free like the 2012 patch was (although you needed AE which kinda felt like it should've been free or like $5 at most too).

SFxT's pre-order gems were just the worst though, since unlike the gems you could unlock normally, they only had benefits and no drawbacks. It's almost fortunate the game in general was so shitty that didn't matter.