Witcher Dev: "DLC Should Be Free"

[Kalah]

In an upcoming <a href="/http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/09/cd-proj ... >interview with VG24/7</a>, the developers of <i>Witcher 2</i> have stressed that downloadable contents should be viewed as a "post-sale service" included in the original price. This in contrast to most other developers, including Ubisoft, who defended their choice to charge €10 for the <i>Heroes VI</i> DLC in <a href="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/808"><b>this Q&A</b></a>.



CD Projekt's Konrad Tomaszkiewicz:

<i><center>"Back when retail games were dominant, we had expansion packs. These were really large chunks of content, which were worth their price. If today's DLCs offered the same amount of content, they would be worth paying for, but in most cases players think they are overcharged for what they receive. That's why we offer expansions to our game for free. This is also a way of saying "thank you" to the people who decided to buy our game instead of copying it from an unauthorised source."</center></i>



We agree with Tomaszkiewicz, not Ubisoft. The fact is that regardless of the amount of work put into it, the <i>"Pirates...</i> DLC contains too little to be priced as high as it was, or even priced at all. Setting aside the argument that the fans should be given the DLC as a way of saying "thank you for your support" (or in this case, "sorry for the way the game was launched in the first place"), placing such a price tag on such a small product does very little for the good of the business.



I think a better way of doing it is to release small DLC packs free of charge, possibly launching larger expansion packs later, charging money for those.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1344515968

[ThunderTitan]

But.. MONEY?!

[hellegennes]

@ΤΤ:

I don't understand your sentiment but I feel an urge to disagree with you.

[Torur]

I agree wholeheartedly on that one! Making people pay for parts of the game they already paid for, shameless I say.

[MoNoXiDeBlue]

Agreed, and I believe when people think of bullsh1t DLC, the biggest laugh is still the HORSE ARMOR! You KNOW what game I'm talking about

[Tress]

I think it's ok for DLC to be for money but they should include content as add-on or cost like couple dollars, even though I prefer normal addon policy.

Well fallout vegas for example had 4 dlc, and most of them had good amount of content. Well 10 euro was little much for but will let it slide considering they were decently directed and had pretty good amount of content.

Heroes on other had .... 1,5 maps for 10 euro. Hope Ubisoft will use it's profit to buy some shame, since at the moment there is severe lack of said thing. It should cost 2-4 dollars tops.

On same note - dlc vs addon is somewhat semantics after all. Full fledged addons for H4 was hardly any better than DLC's noways, and they sold it for near full price(some 30 $ at the time). Considering that content was few maps(with way less quality than base game. Not even close to ammount of text and scenario that was in originals) and 3/4 units then I guess current hero publishers had managed to fit into homm (marketing) traditions.

[Angelspit]

Those who complain the most about DLC are often the ones who buy games on Day 1 at full price. Most of the time I don't care much for DLC at all, I'd rather just move on to another game.

I don't mind paying for the DLC of a game I liked when I bought it on sale. It's my way of saying thanks to the developer for the enjoyment the main game has given me. For instance, paying $5 for Minerva's Den (Bioshock 2) sounds just fair. There are even better deals if you can wait for the GOTY / Gold editions.

[Kalah]

Btw. I said "business" when I meant "franchise". Tiny detail, but.

[MoNoXiDeBlue]

Horse Armor!

[GreatEmerald]

Yea, I also think that it should not be paid. Free DLC, just like free patches, should be the norm. Else, make an expansion pack. The most frustrating thing about paid DLC is that they are, well, paid DLC - they are not packaged with the game, you must connect to the net to get it, and it's distributed through the publishers' network - which means that you will never see a "DLC sale". So it just makes a game cost more than it says on the label. But yea, getting a game in its "gold" state is pretty much the best bet - if that happens to begin with.

That said, the idea of free DLC is not new at all, just that it is seldom called "DLC" in that case. For instance, Unreal Tournament 2004 has the Megapack, and Unreal Tournament 3 has the Titan Pack. Both have something like a quarter the contents of the whole retail game, and both are free. That's how you say "thanks" or "sorry" to the community!

[MoNoXiDeBlue]

That's not entirely true GreatEmerald as far as DLC's not having sales. Just back in July of this year, Steam had a sale of 75% off Fallout 3/ New Vegas DLC. And Grand Theft Auto 4 & Borderlands packaged DLC content into a DLC bundle that can be purchased in stores that was orginally "download only".

[Gaidal Cain]

I don't mind paying for DLC in principle. Compared to expansion packs of old, I get more freedom to chose what I want, and how much I am able to pay. The only negative is the lack of a second hand market.

This might be because I've been lucky with the games I've invested myself in more the last couple of years, But I don't think I have paid more for DLC than I would have for the same content in expansion packs either.

[jeff]

To pay for a DLC is really more about how much content you are getting. The WoW expansion for H-IV was over priced but it did give more content than what I read Pirates gave. WoW could have been a $10 DLC and most would have been happy with that. However internet connections at the time were a lot slower in most households making a DLC that big a challenge for many. Once you go with the CD and packaging it does add between $5-10 to the cost. So it was still overpriced. I bought it at the time and don't regret it. I might have bought Pirates if not for the other H-6 issues.

[CloudRiderX]

I guess I wouldn't mind paying $10 for a DLC, but it really has to be significant and complete.

The word campaign has a certain connotation (to both me and many fans) as being more than two maps, even if those two maps keep you busy. I would really rather have them add two more maps to the campaign in exchange for two less regular maps.

Additionally, the DLC really should really be bug-free. Like, seriously, there's no release date timetable here, the game is already out, why not just take that extra week to squeeze the bugs out?

[hellegennes]

@jeff:



The two H4 expansions lacked serious content for reasons we all know. The company was going bankrupt and they were trying to make as much money as possible with minimum costs. This is not the case for Ubisoft. They can afford be more reasonable. Plus, if the price was somewhere in the region of 4$, they could probably sell 4-5 times as many, because the thing with prices and content vs buying potential is not always a linear relationship. It's more like, "from the limit X, upwards, 90% of people won't bother, while from the limit Y, downwards, people will buy like crazy".



Consider a chocolate bar. For an average-sized bar that is priced around a dollar, people will buy. If you raise the price to 5 dollars, much less people will buy it. If you raise it to 200 dollars, no one will buy it unless it's made of gold. I feel as if the marketing staff at Ubisoft is using the relationship 1$ x 200 buyers = 200$ => 200$ x 1 buyer = 200$... or even worse: 200$ x 200 buyers = 40,000$.



The potential buyers are neither unaffected by price nor is their number proportional to it. The way you model it is not a straight line but a parabolic one.

[jeff]

@hellegennes

I have no arguement with you and think we are close to the same page.

[hellegennes]

Yes, I know. I just wanted to seize the opportunity to talk about it.

[Blake]

I think some people seem to forget that making games is a job and like any other job if they don't get paid there's no bread on the table for the family lol. They're not going to get paid anymore if the game doesn't make any money, and the game's not going to make any money if they give stuff away for free lol. It’s already sent one studio bankrupt recently (who judging by the sound of things spent many unpaid hours pulling all nighters trying & failing to make a game we’d love), so let’s not add another one to the graveyard with unrealistic requests, we just came pretty close to 2001 all over again but fortunately they haven't thrown in the towel.



Yes yet again a hugely buggy and imbalanced game was released and everyone wants to grab their pitchforks & torches and get some payback but demanding free stuff like spoilt brats is not going to get you anywhere. That 'we think you guys & your game are sh*t so gimme gimme' interview I read here the other day was atrocious, was like listening to school boy talking back to his maths teacher, no wonder their polite answers were amusingly 'translated' as FU FU and FU some more lol. They are required to patch the game up to a level it should have been at release for free (which they are doing) but no more.



I was under the impression most people on this board were around my age with jobs but I’m starting to wonder.. its friggin €10!! Most people’s dinners cost that much lol, Christ I had burger for lunch today that nearly cost that much, it took 5 mins to make and 5 mins to eat. The map makers here should know even just 1 levels takes weeks of design and testing, and for a studio those hours need to be paid with money from somewhere. I'm on what would be considered a low to mid range income and I don't see the problem, so if you can’t handle a measly €10 for a few extra missions & hours of gameplay either get a job or even better just don’t worry about the DLC as you've clearly got bigger $$ problems to stress about lol.
Edited on Wed, Aug 15 2012, 07:40 by Blake

[CloudRiderX]

Some people want more bread on their table than others do.

[jeff]

Some people want more bread on their table than others do.

As long as its whole wheat or multigran. I have got to watch my carbs.