Evolve, day 1 DLC, and the entitlement of gamers

Original Gamer: "Evolve hasn’t been out for 72 hours yet and gamers have already decided to make it public enemy number 1. This is thanks to the umbrella claim of “2K charging full price for an incomplete game, as well as for DLC that should have been included with the original purchase.” After hearing this, and knowing my pre-order was still sitting at Gamestop, I decided to do some research before picking it up and paying off the game."

[crazychris4124]

The problem with the Evolve DLC is they released so much of it on Day 1. It gives us the impression they could have included it in the base game as rewards for completing certain tasks. If they released these periodically over a year or two very few people would be complaining and there wouldnt be any controversy. Im just gonna wait for the complete edition to go on sale next year.

[christian hour]

Yup, no doubt there'll be some GOTY edition (does anyone else miss when they were called GOLD editions?) out eventually that will come with all the goods.

And on sale at some point too.

Or free with Plus?

Who knows, either way I'm no longer in any rush to buy a game that charges me 60 euro to see the ankles and then 40 quid for a glimpse of nipple.

[TomShoe]

Evolve doesn't respect my time, nor my money. It's basically telling me to pay upfront for this bare-bones framework, then pay some more to actually flesh it out with content. They're just asking too much.

Pass.

[Ozmoses]

you mean ultimate or complete edition...

Evolve ain't winning Game of the Year

[BongSmack]

Now I want to play Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold Edition.

[USA007]

@Ozmoses

There have been many games that got GOTY editions, but didn't actually get GOTY

[TheJacksonRGN]

Yeah they released so many cosmetic DLC that adds nothing to the experience.

Had they released extra hunters or Monsters day 1 and charged for it, then I can see the real issue.

Who in their right mind would want every single skin for the characters, especially the ones they don't like. Most of the people complain about this would not even use most of them even if they were free.

[christian hour]

"Who in their right mind would want every single skin for the characters"

Exactly? And apparently people do. I remember when you bought a game, you could unlock all the skins by playing the game or using cheat codes.

Now, cheat codes are all but nonexistent in videogames, you either have to pre-order from stores that don't even exist outside of the US (target, best buy etc) if you want some of the cool skins (arkham city anyone?) or you pay extra for them.

Damn shame :(

I remember having this spiderman game on ps1 that had at least 10 different costumes you could find/unlock.

EA set the standard for this new practice back in 2005 when X360 first launched (selling 128kb unlock keys for comsmetic content ON THE DISC) and sadly all the other big publishers followed suit.

Xbox's vision of a digital console marketplace had so much potential back in 2004 when we first heard of it but sadly got taken advantage of in a big way before the 360 was even out the door. I pictured a platform similar to what PC gamers had back in the day, expansion packs that add hours of fun and new ways to enjoy your game at reasonable prices. We're lucky to even get one of those two things these days.

[awi5951]

Games have been gold for months when these dlc are created most of the time. Because they have to make their ship date. They just develop these dlc in the meantime while they wait for the game to ship.

[admiralvic]

This is quite true, but at the same time I can't help but feel the author is grasping at straws or basically wants to make excuses for Evolve. Like I don't know anyone else, but I get sick of the "let me cherry pick some examples that prove my point." Especially since so much of this is in theory.

I mean, how can you say the Evolve season pass / additional Hunters and Monster are a good deal when we know practically nothing about anything listed here? Sure I know I will get XYZ characters and the Behemoth monster, but just because they're being added doesn't mean I or the community will like any of them or that they will end up being worthwhile on any real metric besides "in theory it adds such and such content." Reminds me a lot of the new exotic weapons and to a lesser extent armor in Destiny that TDB added. Sure some are good, but there are very few people who think Dragon's Breathe (probably the best / decent in some situations), No Land Beyond, Necro or the Fourth Horseman are great weapons.

In the end i think this is a classic "it's a matter of principal" problem. Evolve launches and there is a LOT of day 1 content restricted to DLC. Regardless of how good or bad that content is, it's understandable that some people are less than thrilled that the game launched with 10+ skin packs with a season pass holding another skin pack and preorder bonus holding yet another skin with more DLC to come.

[AKissFromDaddy]

@CrazyChriss4124

Microsoft's and Epic Games' Gears of War 3 launched with $45 worth of weapons skins on its release date. No outcry in 2011. In 2014, Sony's and NaughtyDog's The Last of Us Remastered had $131 worth of cosmetic dlc, weapons dlc, and ability dlc available a day before The Last of Us Remastered launch and a total of $151 worth of DLC seven days after it. No outcry in 2014 and that was a re-release.

WB's and Rocksteady's Batman Arkham Knight has a PS4 console exclusive Scarecrow Nightmare Pack DLC, a GameStop exclusive Red Hood Story Pack DLC, and Pre-Order Harley Quinn DLC. No outcry about that and that's what's announced already. There will be costume DLC like there is in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. To get the full Batman Arkham Knight video game, it must be pre-purchased for PS4 and from Gamestop.

Mortal Kombat X has Goro as Pre-Order DLC and I bet you my bottom dollar there will be Costume DLC on it's release date and the critics will be silent.

EA's and Bioware's Mass Effect 3 launched a Promethean Character paid-DLC on its launch day. Capcom's and CyberConnect 2's Asura's Wrath had its "True Ending" as DLC. Microsoft's and 343i's Halo 4 has a ton of spartan armor DLC and weapon skin DLC as pre-orders at varies retailers, that was later sold as paid DLC.

All of Evolve's Hunter DLC and Monster DLC will be playable against or alongside people without any of the DLC. They're selling skins as DLC, which have no impact on the experience at all.

If this still bothers vocal minority, I want to see articles where Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Battlefield Hardline are getting criticized for their DLC, which isn't skin and impacts the game.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

Mortal Kombat X has been getting beat up over stuff, where you been? I read about it on here

[Palitera]

The game would still have very limited content. Again, with Destiny, we told what we want. Barebones games and a rain of "expansions".

Time to harvest now.

[slappy508]

I see lots of good valid arguments by people on this thread. not bad going for entitled gamers!

[BongSmack]

It kind of sounds like they're just being upfront about it, as opposed to having all the content available on day one but waiting a month or a few to release any dlc, to make it look like it wasn't ready when the game launched.
I think the article said the game was originally suppose to have 4 playable hunters and one playable monster. The article also said the final game comes with 12 playable hunters and 3 playable monsters. Quite a bit more than promised.
Charging extra for the extra content may seem greedy, but remember that neither Turtle Rock nor 2K Game are charities. They need to make money to survive, and lots of money to thrive.

[XiMasterChief]

It's not entitlement when you have more than 10 pieces of DLC launch date.

[AKissFromDaddy]

The Last of Us Remastered had 80 pieces of DLC before launch, then 100 pieces seven days afterwards.

[JackBNimble]

Why are you defending this so hard? Sounds like you're on a crusade. And if I , the consumer , decide to pay the $70 cnd for the game, then shouldn't I feel entitled for a product that I just bought and paid for?

Just playing devil's advocate ... now go children ... go play nice.

[Ozmoses]

The Last of Us Remastered was also released 1 year after the game originally came out on PS3..

you can't use this as an example because the game had been out and those that purchased the SEASON PASS with the initial PS3 release received the DLC for the PS4 release without paying anything extra...

of course they came out with more DLC that was separate... but then again TLOU had an actual single player campaign and is one of the greatest games of the last 10 years...

yeah... you just can't compare Evolve to TLOU... even if you're trying to make some connection between games/companies and the way they approach DLC content...

it just doesn't work so stop trying so hard.

but like always DLC is a choice... you don't have to buy it if you don't want to...

[AKissFromDaddy]

@Ozmoses

This is my last bubble and but I can't let misinformation, that's easy to look up, go uncorrected.

"you can't use this as an example because the game had been out and those that purchased the SEASON PASS with the initial PS3 release received the DLC for the PS4 release without paying anything extra"

No they did not. The Season Pass holders got screwed because it was free in the Remastered version. I never bought the Season Pass because I knew it would be free on the PS4's inevitably re-release. The Season Pass content is bundled into the Remastered version.

The Last of Us Season Pass for PS3 included:
ABANDONED TERRITORIES MAP PACK

THE LAST OF US: LEFT BEHIND

GROUNDED MODE & MP DLC, which contains the Reclaimed Territories Map Pack, Survivalist Weapons Bundle, Situational Survival Skills Bundle, Professional Survival Skills Bundle, and the single player Grounded Mode Difficulty.
Source: http://www.thelastofus.play...

Sony and NaughtyDog don't sell the PS3 version's Season Pass anymore because it's free on the Remastered version.

Even on Amazon's website of the Last of Us Remastered displays that the DLC content included is $30 worth of value, which is the Season Pass' content purchased separately.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-L...

Sony and NaughtyDag sold a difficulty mode in their Season Pass. A difficulty mode as DLC, lol.

This is DLC, which is way more than cosmetic, that the Last of Us Remastered released before and seven days its launch.
Link: https://store.sonyentertain...

To this day, the PS3 and PS4 version have an Ultimate Head Item Pack for $30.
Source: https://store.sonyentertain...

That's half the cost of the game, lol. No criticism yet.

I just want the same consistency in criticism for all AAA games, if not more for the Last of Us which sold over 8 million copies (7M on PS3 + 1M on PS4) and still released a ridiculous amount of DLC on it's PS4 launch date.
Source: http://www.playstationlifes...

@JackBNimble
"Why are you defending this so hard? Sounds like you're on a crusade."

Pointing out the truth isn't defense. At least it shouldn't be. If one publisher and developer receives criticism for DLC, pointing out the lack of criticism towards other publishers and developers in comparison to Evolve's isn't Defense.

My intention is consistency. If a publisher's and developer's get criticized, I want all the publishers and developers who do the exact same thing to receive that same consistency. I want to see opinion piece after opinion piece flooding this site about the DLC of Batman Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Battlefield Hardline, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD which locks Final Fantasy XV Demo behind a pre-order lmfao, Halo 5's guaranteed Day 1 DLC, Uncharted 4's guaranteed Day 1 DLC, and Lara Croft's guaranteed Day 1 DLC.

Consistency, that's it.

[1nsomniac]

I'm getting sick of this "self-entitled gamer" tag line & attitude. We're paying more for games, are we getting more content? No we're getting less!

[Relientk77]

^ This

[christian hour]

"Self Entitled Gamer" has it's place in certain arguments, they do exist but this is not one of those cases.

Personally I was looking very forward to Evolve, but now that it's become a vending machine for microtransactions I am not touching the thing at all.

The game feels like it should be f2p, it's acting like a f2p game with a 60 euro entry fee. At least I have a true F2P game like Loadout to scratch that itch I'll be missing with evolve.

Ah well, leaves me with more money to buy the Order and ALL the dorritos next week.

[snookiegamer]

Self Entitled??? How dare this Writer act the judge & jury! Don't you dare speak on behalf of consumers. You're like a shill for these companies!

The full cost of Evolve/DLC/Season Pass is $216 if you want complete experience....it's a total farce! ...and if you're not getting paid for this propaganda, you're a new kind of Idiot!

#pariah

[jts1891]

'Complete Experience'

Yes. Because alternate skins and such that do absolutely nothing in terms of gameplay are totally necessary to get the 'full experience'.

[slappy508]

@jts1891 ANd there was a time where you'd unlock skins just by playing the game. And now cosmetic improvements are hidden behind a paywall. Gamers should be pissed, this is all the suits calling the shots

[00]

it's coming from self entitled journalist who don't have to pay for any of their games.

I would love to see how well the reviews would be if they had to actually pay out of their own pockets.

[coppermek]

I haven't been a full staff writer for OG for probably a year now. I just show up when quick news needs to be written, or I purchased a game that I feel strongly enough to write a review about. I paid out of pocket for Evolve.

[jts1891]

....What? You do realize when you adjust for inflation, you are paying the same amount of money for a game today that you were 20 years ago? 60$ today is equivalent to 40$ 20 years ago. Meanwhile, games cost more than ever to make.

[iceman06]

"Meanwhile, games cost more than ever to make." True. But, gaming as an industry has grown since 20 years ago. There is a larger consumer pool to draw from. So, there should be more profits for publishers. Yet, we still get nickled, dimed, and DLC'd to death. I'm not attacking Evolve about their cosmetic stuff, though I think that some of it should be attainable through gameplay. I'm just saying that Publishers will continue to pass the buck for their mismanagement and bad decision making to consumers if we don't stop falling for BS practices and the excuse that games cost more to make.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

We pay their bills so we do have say on what they should deliver......

[ChronoJoe]

I don't think the complaints would be as rampant if Evolve actually delivered enough content to begin with.

[DxTrixterz]

Day 1 DLC,pre-order bonuses,microtransactions. Man gaming sure got worse over the last 10 years. Wonder what else they are gonna come up with to squeeze last pennie out of our wallets? Sad thing is as 1nsomniac said we indeed are paying more for less nowadays. Anyone else remembers when we had complete games on discs without having content being cut out of them. I believe it was called 1st-6th console generation or whenever first game ever came out - late 2005. 7th console generation started whole trend with DLC in 2006 and since then it's gotten worse and worse.

[kevinsheeks]

I've played it and both the beta alpha and so on, it's fun but not 60+ fun. it's already dropped from 27000 users to 17000 on steam stats last I checked.

http://steamcommunity.com/a...

[AKissFromDaddy]

Evolve's peak for today is 19,701 and $10,900 people are play as of 10:31PM EST 2/15/15.

All 27,000 don't play at the same time.

Dying Light's highest peak was 45,770, but today's peak is 21,015 and 10,914 are playing right now.

Your comment really made no sense, in my opinion.

[kevinsheeks]

11/02 - 27k Players peak
12/02 - 23k Players peek
13/02 - 21k Players peek
14/02 - 19k Players peek
15/02 - 19k Players peek
16/02 - 19k Players peek
17/02 - 17k Players peek
18/02 - 13k Players peek
19/02 - 12k Players peek so far..

[AKissFromDaddy]

I just wanted to add even more to this stating Advanced Warfare on PC peaked at an all-time 12,649 on Steam.

Today's peak, 2/15/15, hit 1,291 and as of 11:28PM EST, less than 500 people are playing Advanced Warfare.

[caseh]

I think the stark realisation that the online mode for Advanced Warfare is absolute trash has finally dawned on people.

Despite giving it a good 6 weeks to draw me in, 5 prestige's later and I genuinely hate the game. It's on FeeBay as I type. :)

[monochromer]

This article is... just awful. It's just so awful.

[Revolver_X_]

Its hard to even get to the DLC argument when the game is fundamentally broken. Every monster player already knows the Wraith is OP. He has over a 75% win/loss ratio for a reason. When everyone is using the 'cheap' character, its hard to have fun playing it.

[WizzroSupreme]

Buy it or don't. The choice is always yours.

[CODallday]

The last of us REMASTERED has over 100$ worth of DLC and yet nobody complained that it wasn't on the disk. Everyone knows why that is ignored,because naughty dog did it.

[Lovable]

Cause they released a full pledge game worthy of its price? Yeah I bet that is the reason.

[XiMasterChief]

Doesn't matter, still has dlc.

[jts1891]

Depends on who you walk to me. On most online forums nowadays, if a game isn't 20+ hours long or more, it's 'not worth the money' to a lot of people. TLOU falls well short of that with it's campaign, considering most can finish it in around 10 hours or so.

[rainslacker]

It wasn't $100 worth of DLC. Your exaggeration aside, ND did get a lot of grief over it on the Sony forums where it may actually make a difference., and there were a couple articles on here complaining about it just like every other game that has day one DLC. ND wasn't terribly tactful in their reply. There wasn't much DLC available day of of the original version, with the exception of the special edition stuff which you could also buy for the regular version. Much of the complaint was that ND was trying to milk the DLC for the remaster though, because TLOU DLC was actually worth the money outside of the cosmetic crap.

[Kevlar009]

I don't see Witcher 3, SKyrim, Xenoblade X, or Smash Bros, or a multitude of content packed games having to split up content into DLC to make a profit. These are big, open world RPG's, fighting games, and more with a tons of characters, modes, and maps being sold for $60 with hundreds of hours of gameplay. Heck Call of Duty doesn't go that far into day one bonus' and early DLC, it costs $60, has several modes including single-player, over a dozen maps on disc, and is the most popular game franchise published by Activision (yes I know Destiny exists).

Evolve is another case of a toxic video game tactic. Like Microtransactions the Day one DLC/preorder separation only serves to line the Publisher's pockets while making choices tougher or more annoying for gamers.

[ghostrider32]

The journalist of this article need to be punched by Mike Tyson. It's over 80 dollars worth of intentionally held back content for crying out loud.

[coppermek]

All of which are cosmetic. I'm not going to get mad about it because it's optional and doesn't alter the experience at all. It's like getting mad at LoL for charging you $20 for a sona skin. Now, if they had said "Here's a 60 dollar game, and here's a $40 expansion pack that adds one monster, and only 4 hunters. Oh, and a game mode and an area. If you Don't buy this, you can't play online effective day of release", I'd be understandably mad. Charging for cosmetics that don't effect gameplay is not a crime.

Also, I've been punched by men much stronger than Mike Tyson is these days. Word of advice if you ever try MMA, don't fight people who are three weight classes above you. It doesn't end well.

[Sir_Simba]

I thaught if atleast you buy the season pass, you can unlock everything by playing without buying it. But apperently the season pass does not even cover that and also missing a monster or two.

Pathetic.

[fonduktoe]

Do any of you posters know what your complaining about? Evolve dlc is weapon and monster skins that doesn't effect gameplay at all. Never seen so much out of control ignorance in one place before.

[coppermek]

Ferguson.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

"although, I rarely see Steam gamers complaining when they have to pay for certain aesthetics in Team Fortress 2"

Probably because Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play game. Is it too much to expect these opinion pieces to not be written by people who don't understand the difference between free and $60?

[lionfumez619]

When he said that WE love to hate and that he thinks its funny to hate on AAA game developers is exactly whats wrong with the gaming community nowadays.Dont include ME in ur WE love to hate shit cuz I dont jump on any bandwagons cuz i can think for myself.I love video games and i have alot of respect for developers especially when they have to deal with people like u who will hate just cuz everyone else is.
Its really nice to hear someone finally saying that he hates just cuz its TRENDING at the time.I want any game developers who can see this to SOME OF US ARE GAMERS WHO CHERISH WHAT U CREATE FOR US !! Why hate on something that is supposed to bring us joy and the developer who invisions it so we can experience it.

[worldwidegaming]

For those who enjoy the game "more to do"
For those who think its just wrong "vote with your wallet."

[Xavior_Reigns]

So concerned gamers who see the bigger picture are now entitled? What about those who down right defend and support blindly this greed? Should they be labeled idiots?

DLC was a great idea (some devs still do it right) expanding one's favorite games, hell yes sounded good and for a time it was. Now its become far to obvious that developers & publishers are purposefully cutting chunks out of the core game - thus we pay more for less. It may be simple skins and what not now but do try to see the bigger picture. 99 cents per round please and no you have to buy magazines separately at $1.99. Want the basic scope? Please pay $4.99. We showed off 1080p footage but we're shipping 480i instead, you gotta pay an extra $20 for 1080p.

And save the tinfoil crap trolls unless you provide it for me since apparently you don't mind spending. Those of us who've been gaming before the 7th generation and weren't conditioned, see our favorite pass time being gutted. Simply the more this is supported the worse it will become, but nah we're just entitled jerks right? You should look in the mirrors to reveal the true jerk.

[VVgamer4lifeVV]

I think the gaming industry is turning into the movie industry, where 75% of movies are shiit