Witcher developer: paying for DLC’s not the future

Will DLC's across all games every become universally free? The developer of The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings seems to think so.

[krazykombatant]

sadly enough there is a lack of devs like CD Projekt Red.

[fossilfern]

I still cant believe a company of this size gave away HOURS worth of free DLC for the Witcher 2 that bigger companies like EA,Capcom etc would charge out the ass for! It shows you that free doesnt necessarily mean lack of profit.

It can breed loyalty and although its just a company and I have no affilation with CDprojekt i.e no shares in the company, I will happily pay full price for their next game and spread the word because we cant let a good company like this go down.

[krazykombatant]

Actually has more of an impact because they are a small dev studio, with smaller means than the likes of what EA and companies offer their devs in terms of money and what they look in return. Lets just hope that they can keep churning out great games.

[fossilfern]

@Krazykomatant

Think about it CDProjekt cant afford to give paid DLC.

I know that statement doesn't make much sense but put it in context, The company doesn't make games with mass appeal compared to the likes of COD, BF and other FPSs. They make games that core gamers appreciate and if they started shafting us then core gamers wouldn't buy their game and the mass market has no interest in their product. So they'd end up digging themselves in a hole.

[MadLad]

Nor many developers who can create a game at the scale of Witcher 2 at the cost that they can.

DLC, as I've always said, is reflective of the times and the rising cost of game development.

The cost to develop the average game has multiplied since just last generation, yet the sales price of the average game has only risen by ten bucks or so.

I am not a supporter of half-developed games, nor unfair business practices such as on-disc dlc, mind you.

But when you see things such as online passes, or large amounts of dlc, much of it worthless or not, that is reflective of publishers/developers having to take that extra step for their games to be profitable today.

Not to take away from what CD Projekt tries to promote. There is no doubt that they promote a business model that every company should aspire to, considering they could actually pull it off. Again, I don't think most can. Nor do I think most would if they could. Which is why this company is great.

[vortis]

There's so much that's wrong with this post I don't even know where to begin.

Simply put: EA and Activision put themselves in a bind with overspending. No one told either company they needed to spend more than three quarters of a billion dollars in marketing.

Look at DayZ...that game has no marketing budget and it's pushing Arma 2 close to a million sales.

CD Projekt doesn't do all the bullcrap and they know how to keep expenses down. This is what we should be promoting in the game industry. If companies can't keep expenses down then they shouldn't be making games.

Us gamers shouldn't have to foot bills for half-hearted AAA titles. There's no reason for it at all.

[aliengmr]

Though I think your post is well thought out, vortis is right. EA and others have spend too much time and money on selling a shiny product instead of actually making a great product. Great games sell themselves. With how fast word can spread on the internet, a great game doesn't need a marketing budget. DayZ is a perfect example.

[MadLad]

I am not going to get too into this, because I truly feel my points are valid.

But, I feel you two aren't looking into everything here.

Marketing is very, very important in how well a game can do in sales. And I don't agree that a good game can get by on word of mouth alone. Not normally. This has been proven time and again.

Also, Day Z gets it's marketing through youtube. It became this viral sensation that really, really helps the game sell, simply because there are tons of people doing videos. It was the same with Minecraft. It would have never moved in the way it did without catching the lucky break it did. Most games can't expect for this to happen.

Also, I didn't mention cost of advertising in my post. I mentioned purely development cost has gone up by multiples. It is to the point that moderate sales don't normally turn profit. And then, almost no one spends the amount in marketing that you listed, for most any game. CoD and BF3 doesn't make up the entire market.

But marketing is important. It goes hand in hand with selling the game, and does what it can to make sure you know it exists.

You also don't take into consideration the difference in cost when it comes to developing games outside of U.S. It can dramatically lower the cost, as seen with Witcher 2 and Metro 2033. Making it much easier to turn profit, even with moderate sales. Which is where both of those games, Metro more so, sort of fell in terms of sales.

[shammgod]

Very true. The folks at Capcom would definitely disagree.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

This applies to pc more than consoles. Free portal 2 dlc + free Witcher 2 dlc. The freebies tend to come from pc devs. just sayin. Console industry is making you pay for dlc on the disk that you already bought for $60. Imagine cloud gamimg + console crowd. I can see the publishers having orgasms..

"CD Projekt: Releasing free DLC for The Witcher on 360 may be a bit “tricky”"
http://www.vg247.com/2012/0...

Mincreaft on 360.
pay for 40 skins.
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

Minecraft pc 2200 free skins.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

If you love portal 2 this is exciting!
http://mygaming.co.za/news/...

At the end of the day people will be loyal to these companies.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

It won't come back to haunt them though as there are always idiots willing to spend money on even the most pointless DLCs.

[Locksus]

I wish there was more developers like them. Witcher 2 is an awesome game and looks fantastic, even on the 360.

[ApolloTheBoss]

God I love these guys.

[Moncole]

This is why I love PC devs.

[ChunkyLover53]

I was so happy to support these guys by buying The Witcher 2 for the Xbox 360 when it launched earlier this year. The problem is, most developers don't really have a say in DLC and the pricing, its usually the publishers and things like that like.

[Somebody]

I'm happy that CDP have been doing so well and became the shining example what the PC can offer. Unfortunately I'm also worried with the direction the rest of the PC developers are going. They are fast turning the PC into a console-like monstrosity.

We may smirked at the questionable DLCs and online passes that are rampant in consoles but the PC is starting to churn out more and more games with the F2P model. From my point of view its the opposite of what CDP is preaching and so much in what console publishers are hoping for - getting more money off the gamers. No wonder they have been very friendly towards the PC over the last months. They need something to get money flowing fast for next gen and F2P is great for that.

I already walked away from Diablo 3 and Mech Warrior Online. Tribe Ascend and STALKER have been reborn into F2P games and I just heard that Relic is also thinking of turning Dawn of War 3 into a free to play game.

CDP and some of the indie developers are probably what's left of the great PC developers who still stick with the old ways.