Is DLC Greed Bleeding Us Dry?

Hate Day One DLC, premium passes and bonus kits? You’ve come to the right place. Armed with his usual brand of dark humour and very strong language, Dave McConkey takes aim at money-grabbing gaming giants - and their shameless attempts to squeeze more and more from a cash-strapped public.

[firefoxprime]

Nope. People always complain about these companies "milking us" dry. Yet no one is forcing us to purchase these overpriced content. And that is simply what I choose not to do. I won't shell even a cent.

[wiggles]

How do you have only 2 bubbles? Easily the smartest thing I have read on here in a while.

[firefoxprime]

-sighs- some people just don't want to hear the truth. Its like parents who blame television for screwing over their kids. Who purchased the cable provider? Who holds the power over the remote? Most people "want" other to tell them what to do. What's right/what's wrong. Backwards mentallity, huh?

I've only been at 3 bubbles, so my drop wasn't "too" severe lol. I guess I could fine tune my posts to appeal to the majority of the N4G community, but that's just downright shady.

[firefoxprime]

Wow...thanks you guys :D never thought I'd see 3 bubbles ever again! I'll make sure to continue to make thought provoking posts : D

[DarkTower805]

Absolutely right, I've only bought 1 map pack on COD 4, that's the only dlc I've ever bought and likely ever will.

[KurianOfBorg]

It was free on PC for CoD4. It was a solid entertaining map pack even if you had to pay for it.

[STONEY4]

That was back when every game didn't have at least 5 DLCs and DLC actually seemed like a great idea. And when Infinity Ward still cared about PC and the quality of COD.

But there are also still high-quality DLCs that are worth the price, like The Missing Link for Deus Ex and Fury for Wipeout HD. It's just extremely rare these days.

[liquidhalos]

Well said, its the worst aspect of this generation, i cant believe that its become acceptable to pay extra for whats already on your disk

[Hellsvacancy]

The last dlc i bought was for Deus Ex 3, it was alright, got my moneys worth, i havnt bought the new BF3 dlc, ill wait for Armoured Kill dlc

I will definetely buy the Dark Souls dlc, thats a no brainer

It depends if dlc is worth buying, you should know what games you like, i dont buy day 1 dlc, if i finished the main game and liked it enough then dlc becomes an option

[KurianOfBorg]

I grabbed the BF3 Premium subscription when it was $27.

[theshape31]

I think you're missing the big picture, here.

These developers are holding back game content that was meant for the "full" game that we all paid full retail price for.

"Let's pull this, this, and this out of the full game... then let's charge this much for each one of them... There, now the customer has to pay us $80 for the full game instead of $60."

You see, this on-disc DLC, day-one DLC, and add-on DLC are all scams that benefit no one consumer.

And yes, they are forcing us to purchase this content if was actually want to experience the full game. The reason so many people pay for this stuff is because they haven't been educated on what this content actually is.

Hopefully some of those people read posts like this one and come to the realization that they are indeed being bled dry by greed. And that maybe these full retail game shouldn't be purchased in order to protest these overpriced and unnecessary DLC scams.

My final thought:

If I pay full retail for a game, and later on the developer decides to release extra content as a side experience, or as an extension of the main game, that should be free. I've already paid in full, so if there's any more content to add to this "full" game, then I've already earned the right to own it. To charge for DLC of any kind is forcing us to make donations that go straight to the developer's pockets. The idea of fairness has gone out the window when people post comments supporting the developer's efforts to scam the consumer.

[avengers1978]

Not one time did I ever buy DLC and think I cant believe they are ripping me off. I made a choice to buy content to a game that I enjoyed, and things like Map packs for FPS I don't really go for, Ill just play the ones that are in it to begin with.
But all in all it's a choice you make, Hey I wish games for PS3 and 360 weren't 60 when they release but I pull the money out of my wallet myself and buy the game.
I really can't think of a time when someone from EA, Epic, Naughty Dog, Activision, MS, or Sony came to my house and forced money from my hand.
Don't make a choice to do something then B*tch about getting ripped off...

[Majin-vegeta]

-
http://youtu.be/ixZU1hMh8ro

[NoWayOut]

That is what they do. Just ripping people off.

[TrendyGamers]

I tend to wait for a sale on DLC so it doesn't bleed me too much.

[cgoodno]

No, because I don't have to buy every DLC that is put out there. I have this thing called freedom of will. It allows me to make decisions on my own when it comes to buying things like this.

Ice cream on the other hand, that's something someone should look at about bleeding us dry. I mean, seriously, I can't stop buying the stuff no matter how hard I try.

[Horny Melon]

Videogame industry lost far more from me than it gained this generation. My entire purchase amount this generation doesn't equal one year of my purchasing last generation.

DLC, DLC on disc, online pass, etc are directly responsible for this. I don't buy anything till game of the year is 20.00

[GhettoBlazta]

That is the most TRUTHFUL thing that can be said about this Generation. DLC is something that should inspire people to buy the game, it doing the opposite.

[NoWayOut]

I wait for game of year edition comes out too. I don't pay $60 + DLC. Games are not even worth $60 now.

[yoyo12121]

Battlefield is worth 60 dollars

[SeekDev]

Perhaps $60 buyers/preorderers should get the DLC free? That might encourage more growth in the industry. $60 is a lot for a game, it's a lot of money for anything, so free DLC doesn't sound all that bad to a consumer like myself. To a publisher it might sound horrible though.

[Hicken]

Not me. I don't buy DLC for many games.

[Flatbattery]

Nope, it's not cake so I can resist.

[JoeSchmoh]

I laugh at how we pay money for stuff that we unlocked for free during the Gamecube/PS2 era. Now we pay for unlockable content. Street Fighter X Tekken was cool though and gave away Megaman and Pac-Man free..so at least you see some hope out there. And the PSplus members get free games up the ying yang like every week. So, there is hope out there, but I understand these companies have to make money on something they were giving away for free because there was no such thing as a connection with videogame consoles and the internet to make money in the first place.

[ShinraE5]

Not to nitpick, but it isn't free when it comes along with a paid service...

[DudeJets]

Never bought dlc so no

[Neo Nugget]

Funny enough, I can't remember the last piece of DLC I bought.

[Hufandpuf]

Maybe that Fallout 3 DLC? :)

[rulakir]

They are milking the people. I believe that when people spend money on a game then the full finished version of the game should be there. In the past when we bought games we had access to the whole game unlocking certain things in the games required you to either punch in a password, a specific button sequence, defeat a secret boss, do a specific task, etc... None of this crap about if you want a new gun you have to pay, or a new outfit, or a new level. What people get now are unfinished versions of games, and people are stupid enough to support that.

[R_aVe_N]

I for one rarely buy any DLC I really don't if it comes out within days of the release. It has to be pretty dang special for my to spend more money on a game than I have to. You can complain all you want really as long as people are paying for it they will continue to do it so people have nobody to blame but themselves. To me they are just cutting out parts of the game and making you pay more to have it complete seems kinda stupid if you ask me. I do however understand budgets, and time constraints that are placed on games. After all most of the game dev's are just doing what they are told.

[Mad_Mack]

Unfortunately as gamers we are the ones to blame. We justify the game company antics by making them profitable.

[ShinraE5]

Exactly. I don't blame a business for selling products people will buy regardless of the ethics. If gamers stopped buying bs DLC/passes, they would have to stop. We don't, so they don't...

[Mad_Mack]

But when the pile in compelling content into day 1 DLC or season passes, what is the general gamer public going to do. Face it, there are far more general gamers than there are activists that will take a stand.

[Zweihanders]

When people don't buy DLC we'll just see things get blamed on piracy, money spent on forms of DRM, and studios closing because these people really don't know what they're doing.

[ginsunuva]

Stupid people are bleeding themselves dry.

[blackblades]

Agreed with you guys it's not bleeding me dry cause I don't buy dlc, if it's 100% worthy yes which haven't happen yet, only stupid people buy the one's that paid to unlock which already in the game, the one's buy colors for a 2D fighting game and other unnecessary dlc.
FREE DLC ONLY

[Kratoscar2008]

saying that just for being a business is "Justified" is just being blind to all that is wrong in this generation:

1. Like just you said putting content in the game after you spend 60 USD in the game and then they charge you just to access to it is just cheap, EA cant justifie this because they have a LOT of money and theyre titles sells really good and Mass Effect is a good selling franchise so i dont swallow that crap.

2. FPS epidemy, there are a lot of FPS in this generation for my like, they are just a excuse for developers to not take much effort and do an easy cash in. In mass effect and Bioshock they took the fpg genre to another level (altough mass effect is more RPG) and is a shame most games dont try to do different things with the genre and we see the uber-totall-milking of CoD.

3. DLC: this is the reason this generation is totally wrong, the developers uses DLC for everything:
A game have bugs and glitchs and the developers dont fix them and launch an incomplete product and people just suck it up because a patch will come, that just show how we became part of the problem.
A game is incomplete and they launch it at the full 60 USD price and then charge us more just to get the complete package that was meant to be at the beggining.

People still will be the desicive factor for this things to change and we must make our voice known.

[PersonMan]

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss

[NYC_Gamer]

Its pure greed and gamers shouldn't deal with it

[numonex360]

DLC making us pay more and more for features that should be included in the $60 new game price tag.
I refuse to buy DLC out of principle. Why pay more to play a game that you have already paid a lot of hard earned money for?
Seriously?!

[miamicanesruleall]

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Obviously people ARE buying it, because companies continue to do it. If it didn't make them a profit, the practice would cease. We as consumers have the power to vote with our wallets. The sad fact is too few of us do. I own a PS3 and 360 and have bought a crapload of games for these systems over the years. The only dlc I have bought for either system is for the Mass Effect series on my 360 because I love that series and it doesn't matter I need that dlc...I have never bought a map pack for Call of Duty, or Uncharted, GTA IV, or Gears, etc. I skipped MW3 because of the greed and whole concept of elite pissed me off. I think I will be back on board for Black Ops II though. I'm looking forward to Halo 4 and what really impressed me is the developer is offering a season of free weekly episodic single/co-op gameplay. The last of us will be a definite for me, as will watch dogs (if that's next gen so be it), splinter cell blacklist, GTA V, God of War Ascension, etc. etc. DLC has to really blow me away for me to get on board and thus far only Mass Effect 1,2,and 3 have excited me about DLC. GTA IV came close, but by the time DLC had come out for that game, I had moved on.

[solar]

i refuse to buy dlc because i believe it should be a reward to those who have bought a developers game. why should i pay $15 bucks for a map pack when before this console generation it was free? if someone wants to buy dlc, go ahead, it's your money. but just know you are fueling the fire that is hurting gamers.

[Tzunoy]

Your own actions bleed you dry. No one is forcing you to buy DLC. I won't spend a cent on DLC.

[sonicsidewinder]

Theme of on disc dlc:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Well, all of us except me.