EA + DLC = Profit

[Ibonibo]

So we all know and hate EA, which won several most hated company awards, with it's politics on DLC.

EA had a profit last year of 8 Millions. This year 875 Millions. Respect!

As EA is so succesful with it, others follow, even those that tried to avoid it for years.

The Witcher now has 2 paid DLC. Maybe not the best exemple as CD Projekt really delivers on a lot of content, a lot of free DLC (16), but it shows a trend, that they need to follow in order to ensure happy investors.

Nearly no game anymore costs 50-60 bucks. If you want the full game.

COD around 100 bucks. BF same. New Batman game 120 bucks. And the list goes on.

Now who's fault is it?
The publishers?

Maybe, but I don't think so. They are a business and just try to sell. If it sells they continue the practice.

So it's us. The Gamers that gobble everything thrown at us like addicts waiting for the new batch to come in.

I for one, try to avoid DLC as much as possible. Season pass included.

Only if it's a package in Steam sale, or sale in general, for a heavy discount (>75%) I buy.

Agree? Disagree? Discuss...

 

[JR98]

I heavily agree (I believe I made a similar thread about peoples thoughts on DLC a few months ago). I NEVER buy DLC unless it's part of a bundle with a Steam game HEAVILY on sale. I NEVER buy Season Passes and I steer clear of paid DLC in general. Only DLC I ever bought was Race 07 DLC (In the heavily discounted Simbin bundle in January), FTL + soundtrack (heavily discounted during Easter) and a slew of free DLC for pretty much every game I own. If we (the consumer) stop paying for this crap then maybe devs wouldn't push it at us, locking in game content away for profit. I blame the PS3 generation for this. That is when this all started.

 

[CinnamonOD]

The only DLC I've ever bought from EA was the SPECACT Kits bundle for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, It is 5 or 6 dollars and you recieve 4 guns and 4 skins, in my opinion it is just a little bit overpriced, but nothing compared to what happened in BF3 and 4 (50 Dollars for "Free DLC", yeah right).

The only other paid DLC I've got was GT5's DLC

 

[ImaRobot]

You can't lump DLC as a whole into one subjective thought. You have to take it case by case with each individual game/publisher. I am not against DLC, paid or otherwise. If its worth it and offers enough content for the price, then I'm all for it. I'm not going to just blindly hate it because there is a price tag attached to it.

The way I see it, is if you have a job, you'd like to get paid right? Well this is no different. We cant just expect extra content to be added in for nothing at all, there has to be some gain to it. What is reasonable is up to you, but don't just lump into one general category of "OMG THIS DLC COSTS MONEY, WHAT AN OUTRAGE. ALL DLC SUCKS."

I'll pick and choose what is worth my money, and that is up to you to be wise with your money. Sometimes I've avoided a Season pass because I wanted to pick and choose what DLC packages I wanted. Then there are times I'd end up actually spending more then what the season pass actually cost. What I think why people think season pass prices are absurd, is just because the weight of the actual up front price, rather then the lack of content.

The only DLC I've ever bought from EA was the SPECACT Kits bundle for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, It is 5 or 6 dollars and you recieve 4 guns and 4 skins, in my opinion it is just a little bit overpriced, but nothing compared to what happened in BF3 and 4.

The only other paid DLC I've got was GT5's DLC

The odd thing is, is that for just $15 dollars, you get 4 maps, weapons for both factions, vehicles, as well as little patch's, dog tags, and new game modes. Sounds way more worth it then what you paid for the 4 weapons and skins.

 

[Brend]

You can't lump DLC as a whole into one subjective thought. You have to take it case by case with each individual game/publisher. I am not against DLC, paid or otherwise. If its worth it and offers enough content for the price, then I'm all for it. I'm not going to just blindly hate it because there is a price tag attached to it.

The way I see it, is if you have a job, you'd like to get paid right? Well this is no different. We cant just expect extra content to be added in for nothing at all, there has to be some gain to it. What is reasonable is up to you, but don't just lump into one general category of "OMG THIS DLC COSTS MONEY, WHAT AN OUTRAGE. ALL DLC SUCKS."

I'll pick and choose what is worth my money, and that is up to you to be wise with your money. Sometimes I've avoided a Season pass because I wanted to pick and choose what DLC packages I wanted. Then there are times I'd end up actually spending more then what the season pass actually cost. What I think why people think season pass prices are absurd, is just because the weight of the actual up front price, rather then the lack of content.

Exactly, I bought the GT5 DLC and was absolutely appalled by most of it but the Mario Kart 8 DLC was the best value I've ever had for DLC. It's all about context.

 

[Robin]

I don't buy DLC, especially nowadays as they are often being used as a thinly veiled cash-grab. I judge a game on whether I feel it's complete enough in it's launched condition to be worthy of purchase or will wait for a complete edition.

Also DLC should not be released day one because that's just insulting people. Everyone knows that stuff should have been on the disk and would have been in a pre internet console era.

 

[ImaRobot]

Also DLC should not be released day one because that's just insulting people. Everyone knows that stuff should have been on the disk and would have been in a pre internet console era.

Ah this is something I forgot to mention. I do not agree with day one DLC at all, that is something that I find ridiculous. I guess that kind of falls in line with me judging case by case though.

 

[Jawehawk]

I think the blame lies both with the dev/publisher and with the consumer. It's one thing for publishers to get greedy, but it's far worse when consumers just blindly toss away their money without considering the consequences of doing so. Go back 5 years, and day one DLC was the exception. Now? Well, now it's the rule. Take Project Cars as an example. Several cars that were used in their promotional material for more than a year before release, and was available in the alpha, was withhold from the full game in order to gain a little more money by sticking them into the limited edition, and as pre-order bonuses. And people are actually buying into that? Really?

I don't want to call people stupid for buying stuff that like, but in all honesty, it seems like the most fitting word. You're actively telling devs and publishers that it's okay to remove content from your game, in order to squeze a little more money out of your consumers.

Now, you might say this only hurts the people who are buying it, but that's simply not the case. With more and more people supporting this business strategy by paying for day one DLC, it's happening with more franchises. So because of the stupidity of some, we'll all have to pay extra to actually get the full game. Fact is that it is never okay to leave out content from your game, just so you can earn a little more money. It's a foul business practice.


Then you have the rather steep season pass prices. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Forza season Pass usually cost 60 dollars? Battlefield and Call of Duty have been doing the full price times two for a while now, and it's just sad how many people blindly buy into it. How can one possibly justify charging 60 dolllars for DLC, when it's overall less content than the 60 dollar game itself? Is continuity in pricing too much to ask?


Evolve caught a lot of flack for its day one DLC, and it confuses me a little. While I agree that the content should have been part of the game, there's no denying that all the day one DLC was entirely superfluous. So why is that not okay, yet Battlefield leaving out maps from the full game, or PCars leaving out cars, all for the sake of limited editions, is completely fine?


In conclusion. While DLC can provide quality content for fair prices, more often than not, they are nothing but convenient ways for the publishers to earn a little extra with minimal effort.

 

[ImaRobot]

@Jawehawk I believe it was $50, saving you 10 bucks over individual purchases. So its like buying 5 DLC packs and getting one free. Not to much of a savings, but Forza also releases a boatload of free DLC as well.

That's why I pick and choose with Forza though, there are just to many cars that just don't interest me. Glad that doesnt stop them from giving me free tracks and car's though.

 

[PletdeKoe]

I am just a sheep who buys anything if I'm told to do so. Just as I respond to anything on the internet, when people tell me to, like in this thread.

The sad thing though.... Nobody cares about any of it.

Oh and for the record, I don't hate EA. I think they are the single most succesfull gamescompany of this moment. So anything they did they did because it worked. And you cannot argue with something that works. It doesn't work that way....

 

[GTPorsche]

I don't understand the hate for EA. They're a business. The business model for every business is to make a profit. It's working for them.

BTW, they're nowhere near as nasty as the oil companies, and yet they get the "most hated" awards....

 

[Jawehawk]

On the topic of EA. They're the cancer of the industry. The people in here need to consider what they are actually saying, when they say that what EA does, works. Many of the biggest EA games released in the last few years didn't work at launch. Origin was and is a mess, and Battlelog is the biggest pile of crap to ever be mandatory for any game, ever. It works in the sense that it secures them profit, but that's about it.

The fact that they continuesly get away with releasing broken products, and forcing some of the most BS "services" on to people who want to play their games, goes a long way in showing just how little they care outside of things earning them money.

@Jawehawk I believe it was $50, saving you 10 bucks over individual purchases. So its like buying 5 DLC packs and getting one free. Not to much of a savings, but Forza also releases a boatload of free DLC as well.

That's why I pick and choose with Forza though, there are just to many cars that just don't interest me. Glad that doesnt stop them from giving me free tracks and car's though.

Still, that's a bit steep when compared to the price of the base game, and all the content you get when paying for that.

 

[ImaRobot]

Still, that's a bit steep when compared to the price of the base game, and all the content you get when paying for that.

I figured it somewhat evens out with all the free goodies you get, but yes it is subjective.

 

[Shirrako]

It's the consumer's fault for buying DLC, companies would have no reason to invest in DLC if they saw no profit from it.

Sure we would miss some content from our games for a year or two if we stopped buying DLC, but eventually it would send a message to publishers and cause them to either drop DLC prices or release games in the finished state.

Now, this applies to DLC in story games, taking away a portion of the story is terrible, or selling addition fighter in fighting games (MKX) and making it unfair for others since they will have no idea of the enemies move set.
Driving games and FPS games such as CoD or BF benefit from DLC, it's overpriced but it adds a lot to these games, we know that modelling cars takes awhile so it's a great way of adding content to games, my problem are the prices.

£14 for a few CoD maps is just crazy, £25 for MKX 4 characters and few skins is also a disgrace, the pricing of DLC is going up due to the consumer's interest, this will not stop until the sales go down.

 

[ToyGTone]

The only time i bought DLC's is Gran Turismo 5, basically every single DLC from that game.

I totally agree to what you saying guys.

 

[ImaRobot]

The only time i bought DLC's is Gran Turismo 5, basically every single DLC from that game.

I totally agree to what you saying guys.

With who? because there is a lot of contrasting posts in this thread