150°

It’s A Trap – Video Game DLC Transactions are getting worse

Karl 'Mase' Smart discusses the financial trap that has become Downloadable Content.

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theouterhaven.net
CaptainObvious8783535d ago (Edited 3535d ago )

"Stupid people of the world are the reason this continues."

I completely agree with the article and this sentence pretty much sums it up.

Publishers aren't the problem, it's the idiots that keep buying into all these extra transactions that are the problem. Thanks to these imbeciles, my beloved hobby is gradually withering away.

And before someone get's all upset, I still believe wholehearted that everyone has the right to buy whatever they want (legal goods) with their hard earned money, but I also have the right to my opinion, specially when your foolish, self indulgent spending habits indirectly affect me.

1383534d ago (Edited 3534d ago )

Problem is that gamers are generally sheepish betas, living their lives avoiding as much conflict as possible, terrified to question or rock the boat. That's why crap like this keeps getting worse. They might bitch and moan in public among like-minded fools, but their wallets do the talking at the end of the day.

Destiny is a perfect example of this behavior. It's a game that has been purposefully modified and managed in such a way that it has become completely abusive to the people who play it. They could easily tweak it to be the game it should be, but the fan base has proven over and over again that they are little more than abused spouses. They will keep paying with their asses and defend their abusers to any who question.

I feel like gaming less and less as the months go by. As the landscape becomes more scorched by passive imbeciles.

freshslicepizza3534d ago (Edited 3534d ago )

people want big games to show off their hardware and those big games can cost a lot of money. this is their way of trying to recoup those costs. i don't agree with these tactics but i fully understand why they would be pushing in this direction.

the first battlefront game cost 20% less retail than the new one to the consumer. it was $50 years ago new and this will be $60 for the normal edition, does anyone honestly think it cost only 20% more to make the new one including marketing?

Yui_Suzumiya3534d ago

As far the Destiny debate goes, I saw this coming a mile away after I played the beta which is why I decided early on to wait until a complete edition released. I plan on getting The Taken King (Legendary Edition) at some point.

Bahamut3534d ago

I recently started playing "my singing monsters" on my Vita, and that has the worst microtransactions I've ever seen. They want me to spend thousands of dollars, just to have little guys that stand there and sing songs... Everything is set up like this:

You COULD wait 3 weeks for that thing you're doing...
Or you COULD just spend 50 bucks, and get it right now.

Then, on top of that, they have "diamonds" that after a couple weeks, you can begin producing (maximum 6 per 24 hours). These are used for various things, like speeding up the production/breeding times for you monsters. (1 diamond per 1 hour of production time, some monsters taking 48 hours)...

But some monsters cost 700 - 1200 diamonds. Are you kidding me? That comes down to 4 - 7 months of diamond saving (for 1 monster) or you can just spend 50 - 100 dollars on it right now.

These people need to be skinned alive. I really don't mind small transactions for free-to-play games (most of Dota's are pretty reasonable, at anywhere between 2 cents - 12 dollars per piece of armor), but stuff like what I just mentioned is just plain awful, and should be illegal.

And yes, I know, My Singing Monsters is a stupidly terrible game, I don't know why I even installed it.

NarooN3534d ago

Angry Joe was spot-on when he talked about consumers being the reason this shit is even possible. He mentioned how he saw over 30 5-star votes on the PS Store for the $50 season pass of Battlefront. That is just mind-blowing in and of itself. That means 30+ people not only already bought the damned thing, but they rated it a 5/5. Just think about the countless other morons who DIDN'T even bother to vote who bought it. And they don't even know what the pass INCLUDES, they just bought it on a whim, as if they've been successfully programmed to buy every season pass for any video game they own/plan to own. "Oh, a season pass, lemme just buy that real quick..."

I foresaw all of this nonsense YEARS ago. Me and my friends used to discuss these practices and we knew it was gonna get out of hand. Won't be long before they have the gall to ask $60 for the season pass. We saw that Deus Ex tier-campaign get completely axed because enough people made enough noise about it. Wonder if EA will have the balls to do the same, though it's probably too late for all the people who already bought it.

Either way, it's a sad state of affairs. The vast majority of new games these days don't interest me in the slightest, regardless of how big of a circle jerk they receive from the press and fans alike. I rarely buy newer games these days. I've been enjoying older titles that were made back when games were made with substance, passion, caring, not with the express intent to see how little they could get away with releasing before deciding the release the other half of the game as DLC.

Omnisonne3534d ago (Edited 3534d ago )

I usually just stick to my rules for buying games: No pre-order, no season passes (buy DLC sperately once released) and most importantly.. Always gauge beforehand whether it has enough content for the price.

If publishers start charging more, or shelling out half-assed games for full price, im simply not buying it. There are more than enough games to choose from this age, including as you said, older titles from which the contents and value is well known.

robtion3534d ago

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Castlevania3534d ago (Edited 3534d ago )

I think history has proven that publishers will not stop milking customers dry if there is money to be made until they start losing money. That's how nearly every business decision is made: implement something that will make money regardless of whether it's anti-customer or not and only retract it if you start losing money.

Paid DLC and microtransactions will never stop until publishers see a significant drop in revenue, which will only happen when people get smarter. Gamers need to understand that every publisher in the world is entirely reliant on the people who buy their games, and the greatest power gamers will ever have is the ability to vote with their wallets.

-Foxtrot3534d ago

Stupid people are the ones who say shit like

"I'm enjoying it for what it is"

Friend said that about Battlefront recently despite knowing how it's lacking compared to the last installment from over 10 years ago. In the end he just shrugged and said "Still day one" and when I asked why he was like "I'm enjoying it for what it is".

Yet he'll probably go and buy the season pass aswell which just continues to fuel EAs shitty little practices.

Gamers are just as much to blame then the big companies who do it.

Take a stand, hold off, buy something else (plenty other games coming out), get it for cheap and in the end everyone wins except for the greedy company

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3534d ago
georeo3534d ago ShowReplies(1)
DiaperFace3534d ago

Eventually games will exceed DLC and MTs and just will be bare shells of empty content around which everything is sold to you and MTs are a necessity to make any meaningful progress with any fair difficulty in any moderate amount of time. It'll be a world of timers, and pay-to-win mechanics. We'll be begging for current mobile standards compared to the future of gaming. It's a slippery slope and the retards are dragging us down with them and the greedy publishers and developers are more than happy to oblige.

In Street Fighter 6 you'll be paying $60 just for a naked, voiceless Ryu who has one punch and you need tokens for online play and in-game currency you can buy for any clothes and voice, and gems to make that punch do more than one pixel of damage, and hadokens will cost Hatokens to fire, one for $1 or a hundred for $89.

Welcome to the future.

Mega243534d ago

The only DLC I've bought this year was Witcher 3's. Just 8 dollars for so much content, all the big publishers should be ashamed. I was so exited for Battlefront, got so disappointed after hearing that hefty season pass.

StormLegend3534d ago

Season passes are terrible

Paying $100 for one game is a big no!

I don't mind paying for a mini Story mode DLC months after the game has been released, but Day one DLC of maps and outfits? You gotta be kidding me.

Buying DLC characters for fighting games isn't great either

Gold editions, Limited editions, collectors editions all of that stuff is terrible.

Heyxyz3534d ago

The worst part is many devs now have entire teams dedicated to making DLC. I liked when DLC was a cheap extra made by the devs between games, but entire teams existing just to make DLC makes me sick.

_-EDMIX-_3534d ago

why? you don't need to buy DLC. To get mad that they have extras makes no sense.

Sounds like just entitlement to me.

The main team makes a full game, what do you care another teams making extra content? That is as honest as it gets with something like this, the main team makes a full game, focuses on a full game, but lets get mad that another team is making DLC?

I mean...why should they give that to you for free?

That is like expecting the sequel for free JUST because you bought the first game.

They BUDGETED for 1 FULL game and DLC, why should they make less money just because?

Sounds like a personal, emotional thing bud, not a real logical, legal claim.

Call it what it is, entitlement. You want it because it exist and its not for free.

Cry me a river. This is business bud.

NarooN3534d ago (Edited 3534d ago )

EDMIX

The point he was making (I presume) is the fact that the core game suffers as a result of this shoddy DLC model. Countless recent games of the past few years have had huge swaths of content blatantly missing from the game and slyly rebranded as "DLC". Remember the whole disc-locked content nonsense? When the actual game suffers as a result of other staff deliberately working on DLC, which just turns out to be content that was in turn deliberately withheld from the main game, that's a damned problem and a damned shame. Reminds me of Asura's Wrath where they sold the true ending as DLC. Holy shit.

So the claims of "entitlement" and whatnot is garbage. Just because they charge $60 for a game doesn't mean there's $60 worth of content there to justify it. Case in point with a very recent example: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Except not even DLC can save that game.

StormLegend3534d ago

lol @ the downvotes

This is why they keep making DLC and removing things

You guys like $70 Gold editions and DLC characters for fighting games?

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70°

CoPilot: Gaming Chat is an amazing revelation - A true gamer friend at your side

CG writes: In this video, we take Microsoft's Copilot for a spin and talk about gaming and AI influences, and the implications of that. We talked about a possible Metal Gear Solid V remaster, Deus Ex remaster, Hitman Blood-Money mission, and more. Imagine trying to talk gaming with non-gaming friends in real-life and after 5 seconds, they switch off and possibly yawn. Well, CoPilot isn't like that, instead it's like talking to a like-minded gaming fan who is totally on your level. The public version of CoPilot released in Feb 2023 and already it's become almost indistinguishable from a real person.

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cramgaming.com
210°

Metal Gear Solid 5, Nearly After A Decade, Is Still A Timeless Classic

The Metal Gear series, led by Kojima, pioneered the stealth genre, creating a masterclass in storytelling and gameplay.

SimpleSlave382d ago (Edited 382d ago )

No. But MGS5: Ground Zeroes might actually be one of the greatest Game Demo ever, if not the best.

xHeavYx382d ago

I know a lot of people didn't, but I actually liked that story twist at the end. The game was fun and all, but I wouldn't call it a timeless classic.

Cacabunga381d ago

Metal Gear legend stopped with number 4.
MGS5 needed a year or 2 more of development to be maybe among the classics.. it was clearly rushed, especially at the end. The story teaches us absolutely nothing new.

just_looken381d ago

A demo is free that was a $40 cry for help as later we would know konami did not want to fun hideo and his team anymore that is why we got the unfinished phantom pain.

-Foxtrot382d ago (Edited 382d ago )

Meh

Great stealth gameplay but the game was just average.

Bland open world that felt lifeless, the story felt shoehorned in, unfinished story etc. The whole thing was just average to me compared to the other main titled games.

I would have rather preferred it if they kept Ground Zeroes for the main game as the opening and the rest of the game turns into a Metal Gear 1 & 2 remake to bring things full circle.

just_looken381d ago

If you dig around they had old behind trhe scenes of phantom pain vids and books wrote around the time.

Before funding was puled the main idea was to keep peace walker coop it was in the games early builds and that end game were your building your base that was suppose to be metal gear one.

You as the fake big boss was going to make your own metal gear one map aka your base (outer heaven) then me as sold snake use the mode that is in the game invade/defeat the base even fight your current version of metal gear that was in the game but not finished.

So your idea was on the table bit got canned.

CrimsonWing69382d ago (Edited 382d ago )

Like hell it is. That was the first time I became aware of being sold an unfinished game and was blown away about blind fanboys saying it was some perfect game.

Yea, the first few chapters were great until they do that thing halfway and make you replay all the missions again. Then little things like capturing animals but only seeing a JPEG unlike 3 where everything was modeled out. Areas were massive, desolate, and boring to look at.

Game was a massive let down for me and the potential was so high for it. Honestly, this was one of the most disappointing games I ever played. What’s worse is it starts off brilliant. You literally play through until you get to the point where you could tell they just stopped developing and then quickly used glue and construction paper to “finish” it and then sold it. Quite frankly, that’s insulting to consumers and fans.

Inverno382d ago

People have selective memory. This game had huge drama attached to it, what Konami did to Kojima and this game was horrible. Now they praise Konami cause they revived Silent Hill, even though SH looks half arsed too.

CrimsonWing69382d ago

I dunno if they’re getting much praise after the Silent Hill 2 debacle. Makes me scared sh*tless for the MGS 3 Remake…

Michiel1989381d ago

I don't wanna defend konami, but Kojima had 7 years to make the game, it's not that weird for a publisher to expect a game to be finished in that amount of time.

Also no one is praising konami from what I've seen, they're just excited that a Silent Hill game is releasing

CrimsonWing69380d ago (Edited 380d ago )

@Michiel1989

You’re absolutely correct. Look, the dude is a visionary and has brought us some incredible games, but he constantly would go over budget and could never stick to a deadline. I don’t know if people remember the MGS 4 trailers but it became a joke when you’d see a release date and then they crossed it out in the next trailer to give another.

What a lot of people don’t know is there’s a certain amount of money given for development and marketing. When you go over the budget and add additional marketing over the deadline it isn’t cheap. MGS GZ and V were laughable to me for the amount of time he had to develop them and he spent even more time on the engine that wasn’t anything revolutionary to me. I mean, GZ was nothing more than a demo and they released that art like $40 I think, probably to further help fund V. He then spent money for Kiefer Sutherland who did nothing for the character, which I think Kojima just wanted because he’s a fan.

Konami just had enough and said this is the deadline and you’re done after this. It’s business, but fans took it personal. I mean look at this Overdose game he’s been doing.,, like when is that ever coming out?

Michiel1989380d ago

I kind of forgot about overdose but yeah exactly my thoughts. He has made some of the best games out there and definitely deserves time to create his new masterpiece, but it's not a bottomless well.

This is pure speculation but I imagine he got around 4 years to make the game excluding pre-production. If after those 4 years the game is nowhere near being done, the relationship will be strained between them one way or another.

about the konami being praised thing, if let's say blizzard announces world of warcraft 2 today I'll be excited as hell for the game, but that doesn't mean my opinion of blizzard changes only a tiny bit cause they're still trash.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 380d ago
Yui_Suzumiya380d ago

Yeah, it was the only MGS I didn't play and this is coming from someone who got back into gaming after skipping a generation due to MGS4 back in 2008. It just seems to be the complete opposite of the MGS I always knew and loved (1-4).

JEECE382d ago

Yes and no. In many ways in was a great game; there's a very strong argument that it has the best gameplay of any MGS game, and that it is one of the more interesting open world "playgrounds" we have gotten, in terms of how the world operates. But as an MGS narrative, it is pretty far down the list, for many reasons.

Storm23381d ago

I don't think there is any argument. The gameplay was incredible. But yeah...disappointed in the rest. Could have been incredible but...well...we all know what happened...

JEECE380d ago

I don't think there is much of one either but apparently some people found the world very boring compared to the more linear structures of other entries so I didn't make a definitive statement in order to acknowledge the outliers.

DarXyde381d ago

The thing about Metal Gear Solid is that the narrative is what determines which is your favorite because the gameplay had ALWAYS improved with every mainline entry. It's amazing.

If it was gameplay, we'd all say The Phantom Pain, but the story is what truly sets them apart.

For me, that's Snake Eater, which is also my favorite game of all time.

JEECE380d ago

That's my favorite too, particularly if we are talking about the subsistence version with camera control.

Fishy Fingers382d ago

For me, best gameplay, worst, everything else.

Storm23381d ago

Yeah...gameplay was so damn good.

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80°

15 Video Games With Realistic Injury Mechanics

Whether it's showcasing damage realistically or simulating fractures and conditions, these games are worth checking out.

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gamingbolt.com