Comments on: Shut Up and Get Over It: BioShock 2 DLC

By: Infinity Ward Responds to Price Complaints Over DLC | Button Masher

Infinity Ward Responds to Price Complaints Over DLC | Button Masher — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:56:29 +0000

[...] I know I’ve defended the right of game publishers to distribute their content the way they see fit in the past, but there’s a big difference between working in the best interest of the [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:44:28 +0000

I thought of theater too, but how many amazing shows have you seen for free, and how many have you seen that you wished you hadn’t paid for?

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:04:34 +0000

But even for movies, a flat rate doesn’t really make that much sense. If you knocked a couple bucks off the price, you may entice people to go see a small indie film they’d otherwise ignore. Likewise, bumping the price up on a ticket for Avatar wouldn’t stop many people from seeing it if they were already planning to go. The inflated price of 3D tickets has shown that much to be true.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:01:49 +0000

Theater.

By: Foster

Foster — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:39:36 +0000

I think a good model for this argument is the Orange Box. You get a few games for the price of one, or as in the case of the eventual downloadable standalone Portal, one little game at a little price.

Then again, my movie tickets to see Avatar and the Hurt Locker weren’t that much different. It’s hard to think of a venue where the entry fee is directly proportional to the quality of your experience.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:24:43 +0000

The game is worth what you’re willing to pay for it. If you think you’re owed the $5 to $15 it would have cost as DLC, buy it used and call it even.

What makes less sense to me is the fact that nearly every game for a console is priced the same regardless of length, features, or cost of development. Should a quickie cross-platform crapfest adaptation of the summer’s big blockbuster sell for the same as Final Fantasy XIII, which cost $XXXV million to produce? I think that throws the whole economics of gaming a lot further out of whack than a couple hours of DLC.

P.S. The idea of getting to try part of the software and paying to unlock the rest is not new. It’s called shareware, and it’s how a little game called Doom ushered in the first person shooter as the future of gaming.

P.P.S. I know Wolfenstein 3D came before Doom.

P.P.P.S. I know Wolfenstein 3D wasn’t the first FPS. But it was the first one where you got to eat dog food and shoot Hitler.