Randy Pitchford comments on the price point of the Borderlands 2 level-cap increase

Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software, has commented on the fact that the developer is charging for the upcoming level-cap increase releasing for “Borderlands 2” next week. The DLC which will increase the game’s current level-cap from 50 to 61 will cost $4.99 on the Playstation Network and 400 Microsoft Points via Xbox Live. Pitchford reassures fans that the $5 price for this DLC isn’t arbitrary and is a result of thousands of hours the team took developing the level-cap increase alongside a third playthrough of the game. Randy Pitchford stated, "It's just $5 for 1000's of hours of work in design, engineering and balancing. If it is not worth it to you, it is elective."

[Snookies12]

Why 61? Why not 60?

[Agent Smith]

Because they like to go 1 step further!..... except when it comes to Aliens >_>

[neonlight45]

haha

[HorrorGod]

Because they go to ELEVEN!

[CalvinKlein]

Price??? shouldnt this be free, at least if you buy any DLC? I dont care I sold my copy already anyways. I was at level 50 for so long that I just didnt care to play more of the DLC because I couldnt level.

[OhMyGandhi]

because...

[Skate-AK]

Probably cause the first Borderlands had an extra level cap up to 61. Not sure why they chose that to begin with though.

[Mr_Writer85]

If this was a story based DLC AND a level cap I'd say fair enough.

However a level cap on its own = no sale. I'm still only level 38 anyway so still a way to go.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Wait is this included in the season pass? BL2 was a day 1 buy for me, but after how they handled it and the LDC all gearbox games are now a wait and see for me. Its a shame really cause i enjoyed it but I was expecting more from them.

[Mr_Writer85]

It does which is good for those who did buy it I guess. However I didn't the story DLC can be hit and miss and things like skins and new characters weren't included.

[Skate-AK]

Yeah it is. There is one more story DLC that is being released through the season pass also.

[akaFullMetal]

This is cheap, and I love the dlc from Borderlands, but this sucks.

[Alos88]

I remember how the first game's level increase came with one of the proper DLC releases, I miss those days.

[GusBricker]

Who bought the season pass, Randy?

[Captain Qwark 9]

agreed. i payed 30 bones for that season pass. thats half the cost of the full game no reason i shouldnt get half a games worth of dlc. so thats at least 20hrs worth of campaign, like 50 new enemies, 2 new bosses, and 2 character classes

also whats the point of a season pass if your not gonna release all dlc under it. seems like a huge screw job to me.

[FunAndGun]

All season passes benefit the publisher more then the consumer.

They make the content valued at $20 to THEM, then they say the content is worth $50...BUT you can get the content for $30.

It is all trickery to make people think they are getting value out of something when in fact that is the price point the publisher was looking for all along.

Just like shopping at Kohl's. EVERYTHING in the store is on sale, but the sale price is what they are OK selling the item for anyway. They get a sale on what you think is a deal.

I don't know why anyone would buy a season pass without knowing what they are getting in the end. Guess that is why I have never bought one yet.

[Nevers]

Yeah, Borderlands 2 is the last time I ever buy a Season Pass. Of course, I'm partially at fault cuz I made assumptions as to what the Season Pass would include based on the VERY NEBULOUS DESCRIPTIONS provided. But now I know *and knowing is half the battle.

*the other 50% is 25% blue lasers and 25% red lasers.

[xander70769]

@ GusBricker

People who purchased the season pass are getting the level cap increase for free...did you even read the article?

@Captain Qwark 9

The season pass explicitly tells you exactly what it will get you before you even purchase it. It tells you, upfront, that you will ONLY get the 4 story add-on DLC's, for the price of 3. The level cap increase is an added bonus that wasn't even mentioned when you made the purchase. Complaining about the season pass not doing anything other than what it said it was going to do just makes you look like an idiot. If you didn't think getting the 4 DLCs for the price of 3 sounded like a good deal, then you should not have purchased the season pass.

[Captain Qwark 9]

i know what it said when i bought it, i dont dispute that. im just saying the whole idea of a season pass should be so someone can easily get all the dlc at one nice convenient price point. dont bother with a season pass if its not gonna include all the dlc, just keep it broken up like they are anyway

it would be the equivalent of a tv show you buy per episode selling you a "season pass" and then having an extra episode or two thats not included. flippin stupid

EDIT*

Nevers explains my point better than i do. i couldnt agree more

[Nevers]

I'm only arguing semantics but if one does not get a pass for the entire DLC "season", then the correct terms are not being used. When you buy a season of DVDs you get the whole season plus extra content. When you buy a season pass for a team sport or a theater, you get a seat at every game/event/show plus some extra stuff for being so loyal. When you buy a "season pass" for a game you get maybe all the major DLCs and usually none of the minor ones. Season Pass seems to be a great term for publishers to legitimately pull a bait and switch.

[xander70769]

@ Nevers

It is just semantics. It is not a bait and switch, you are told in a very clear cut manner what you are getting before you finalize the transaction.

Sure, gearbox could have made the season pass include *all* DLC, but this would have increased the price of the season pass considerably, and would have led to complaints from people who dont necessarily want every piece of DLC, like all the extra skins and whatnot. Instead they basically offered you a 4 for the price of 3 deal, for the 4 major DLC packs. Maybe they should have called it something else, but like you said, its just semantics, it really makes no difference what it's called, as long as it is made clear what you are paying for before the purchase is made, and it is made clear.

All I'm hearing is people complaining that the season pass did not save them ENOUGH money. Gearbox/2k didn't have to offer it to begin with, and maybe they shouldn't have. They offer a deal to gamers and all it does is hurt them in the end because this generation of gamers is the whiniest, most entitled group of babies I have ever seen.

[Nevers]

I already admitted to making assumptions as to what I was buying. I already owned that mistake. No need to be so redundant.

In marketing semantics is everything. All these publishers are well aware there is a certain connotation associated with “Season Pass” to your average consumer. There isn’t a regulation about what defines “Season Pass” so it’s well within their right to take advantage of that. Just as it’s my right to call out that this tactic is preying on consumer ignorance. No matter how many pedestals they are put upon, the intent for these companies is to make THE MOST profit off us one way or another. I think many times people forget this.

[X]

@ nevers

Buying season tickets for your sports team doesn't give you tickets to your teams' away games.

Would the games your team play on the road for about half the season be considered minor?

[Nevers]

The analogy of sports isn't directly 1 to 1. There are only similarities to each business model.

If we are going to keep with the analogy - I would think that your teams away games are another team's homegames. If the league is the developer and each team represents a videogame schlepping a Season Passes, then the away games would be classified as DLC for the other games.

But whatever... Season Passes aren't going anywhere anytime soon. They make too much money.

[mydyingparadiselost]

If thousands of hours were spent raising a level cap then Randy needs to talk to his team about time management...

[Pro_TactX]

They added a third playthrough as well. True Vault Hunter Mode had new character models, and there is probably a fair amount of tweaking to increase the weapon stats for the higher levels, and the drop rates, etc.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Do you think its as simple as adding more levels? You don't think they had to test the game with newly powered up characters and their spent points? You don't think they had to test the entire new playthrough to make sure they didn't break the game? I know its easy to criticize developers. Its all people do this generation, and its even easier to do it when everyone else is already doing it. But sometimes you have to be logical.

[LAWSON72]

1000hr to make a increase in lv cap if anything gearbox should have future proofed there game for updating not charge us for them not thinking.

[HorrorGod]

I didn't get into Borderlands 1 until last month. I downloaded part 1 from PS+, beat it, then really wanted to play the DLC. So, I went out and bought the GOTY edition for 20 bucks.

I'm hoping they release a "Complete Edition," or something, for Borderlands 2. I'd rather wait and pick that up.

[MestreRothN4G]

"It's just $5 for 1000's of hours of work in design, engineering and balancing."

lol just lol at the 1000's of hours needed to push a level cap up.

They really think we are stupid and will not perceive that they are (again) screwing their fans to cash up after their recent (and reincident) fails.

After all, this company has only one franchise above average.

They are never seeing one cent of me again.

Ladies and gentleman, behold the next THQ!

[GenericNameHere]

Lolz that "1000 hours of work in design, engineering and balancing" could have gone into Aliens...
Randy, Randy, Randy.... *facepalm*

[Captain Qwark 9]

the hilarious part is "balancing".....noth ing about borderlands is balanced lol so why bother now. your a one man wrecking crew solo or a team of pure destruction. the game is easy as shit because you are way overpowered so clearly nobody took the time to balance anything

[KrystofKage]

waahhhh!! Another overly entitled diva gamer who holds double standards for gaming companies.

THQ had amazing titles, they went under because they didn't know how to market games or their money.

You never spent a cent on them. You most likely pirated it and bitched that the download was taking too long. But that's ok, while you were waiting you were trolling EA and Mass Effect 3 posts to express your opinion that nobody gives a sh*t about. Ken Levine made a rape joke by the way, you should probably go express you thoughts about how Bioshock Infinite sucks because of it.

[MestreRothN4G]

Derp much?

[kostchtchie_]

remember in days of final fantasy when level cap was already 99, now you need pay for it... my how times have chaged

[xander70769]

Dumb, and you are not the first person I've seen make this asinine argument. You can't measure a game by the amount of "levels" you can level up in game. Mass effect games never let you level up to 99, and it did not have any negative impact, because the game wasn't designed to do that. Same with other games, like fallout, fire emblem, hell skyrim was vastly enjoyable even with just the 81 level cap. I could name tons of games that don't have a 99 cap and are still fantastic games.

Borderlands is not final fantasy. People are looking at this like "oh it's just 11 levels, how lame, it's only to go up to 61, wah wah."

But people who actually play borderlands and enjoy the game should not be seeing it that way. This level cap is about the possibility of now getting two cap tier skills for your character. Now you can have a commando with gemini AND double up, and that is seriously bad***. Or a Zero who has taken up both the cunning and bloodshed tree to full potential, becoming a melee monstrosity. etc, etc.

[MysticStrummer]

Gearbox has fallen a long way, and gives no sign of impending recovery. Wake up, Randy.

[MooseWI]

Wait, do Season Pass owners not get this then?

EDIT: Read it closer and see that it is free.

[MestreRothN4G]

Free?

[Mr_Writer85]

A season pass should be pay upfront for all DLC none of this 'story only' season pass, you get a small discount for paying upfront for content not yet released.

It's a very easy concept made complicated by companies like Gearbox.

[InTheLab]

I'm sure the 1000's of hours spent on balancing 11 levels all came from the Duke Nukem and Aliens budget...so it should be free :I

[SolDojo]

I'm gonna be honest with ya'll, and this is kinda out of line to say.

Seeing that "Season Pass" for DLC thing become more and more prolific is sad. The consumer has NO OVERSIGHT into the purchase they are making. It is literally worse than buying into a Kickstarter in a way, because the big companies like Ubisoft and Gearbox DONT TELL YOU what the DLC you'll get is.

SO for this situation, you have people who made a purchase based on the idea of "getting all the DLC for one price" when in fact, that was never the case, and even if it was, you have no control over the quality of the releases YOU"VE ALREADY BOUGHT. At least when you Kickstart something, they tell you what you'll be getting. In the Season Pass case, they developer is in a position of wanting to hide information until it is fully final, so they don't tell you what you get. And they never will. It's not in the business model, much less the NDAs those guys live under.

Long post short TL:DR; stop buying season passes from ANYONE, unless they explicitly state EXACTLY what you are buying, or you will end up disappointed. Once a company has your money, they have NO REASON to put any effort into earning that money, as they already have it. If you want Gearbox to make decent DLC at reasonable prices, pay for what you can see you will like, and DONT PAY THEM ON FAITH.

Make them give you a good product for your money, OR DONT GIVE THEM MONEY. Buying a Season Pass is like tithing to a Game Developer. It's a faith based pay in for future efforts, and in this industry, you're very likely to get burned by such an expenditure.