Bethesda's Peter Hines: Day-One DLC Debate Stems from Consumers' Lack of Understanding the Development Process

April 10, 2013

Bethesda VP Pete Hines thinks that the debate about the acceptability of day-one DLC  comes from a misunderstanding from consumers on how the development process works. Speaking to OXM, Hines said that with most big budget games development of new content would stop a long time before the title’s actual release.

"I think there is [a misunderstanding], at least among a certain segment of the gaming audience," he said.

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GDC Talk Reveals Digital Distribution Growing at a Rate of 33 Percent a Year

April 1, 2013

During GDC last week in San Francisco research firms NPD, iResearch and Digi-Capital held a talk on digital games sales and revealed some interesting numbers on the space. According to data revealed during the event, digital game and downloadable content sales are growing at a rate of 33 percent year over year in the United States and Europe, while spending in China is expected to grow 10 percent annually for the next three years. Asia is going to be the most dominate region in the world when it comes to online and mobile games by 2016, according to the speakers.

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Toronto Woman Slams Microsoft, Praises EA Sports After FIFA 13 Charges

March 28, 2013

A mother in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) blames lax security at Microsoft after her 11-year-old son's Xbox Live account was hacked for $300 in fraudulent charges for in-game content. Jennifer Stubbs of Toronto said an unknown hacker charged the FIFA 13 Ultimate in-game buys to her credit card.

"I wasn't aware that these purchases were happening," she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "Someone had gone into our device remotely."

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Good Old Games Surveys Community on Downloadable Content

March 15, 2013

After a less-than-stellar launch of downloadable content for Omerta: City of Gangsters, Good Old Games has decided that it wants feedback from the community on whether it should continue to offer DLC and other content. As the company steps into offering newer games the reality is that a lot of these games use new models for content including multiplayer, offering early access to games, season passes for purchasing DLC content in bulk, and episodic content.

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DLC Keeps Skyrim Relevant, Profitable

March 12, 2013

While Bethesda Softworks' popular role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been out for over a year on various platforms (PC, Xbox 360, and PS3), the company says that it is far from done with the game and that downloadable content is helping the company keep the RPG relevant to this day and make some money in the process. Speaking to UK publication MCV, Bethesda European MD Sean Brennan is using retailers to help push the game’s DLC (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn) on Xbox 360.

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Activision Adds In-Game Purchases to Call of Duty: Black Ops II

March 12, 2013

Activision will add in-game purchases in its popular action game Call of Duty: Black Ops II tomorrow. The announcement was made by Activision community manager Dan Amrich on his OneofSwords blog. Amrich says that players will notice on March 13 new "Micro Items." The pre-order bonus map, Nuketown 2025 will also be made available for free tomorrow.

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Fox News Highlights 'The Tyranny of King Washington' AC III DLC, Mount Vernon Estate Curators 'Have No Problem' With It

February 20, 2013

A FoxNews.com report points out the release of the Assassin's Creed III DLC, The Tyranny of King Washington, a day after President's Day by a "French company" (thanks jccalhoun). The DLC released on Tuesday is an alternate storyline where General George Washington accepts the post of "King" and ultimately becomes a tyrant.

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Dead Space 3 Micro-Transactions Thwarted by Exploit

February 7, 2013

Update: A representative from Electronic Arts clarified with us that the resource-earning mechanic in our story is not some sort of glitch or exploit, and therefore they have no plans to issue a patch to fix "the problem." From the EA representative:

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Poll: Which Video Game Publisher/Developer Practice Do You Find the Most Irksome?

January 30, 2013

If you follow me on Twitter, you're probably aware that I can't stand Activision's Skylanders games or Disney's upcoming Disney Infinity.  Both games require you to buy a bunch of figurines to unlock stuff in the game you already paid full price for.  This is an extension of that "on-disc DLC" stuff that many have been

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Gazillion Boss Defends Pricy Content Pack for Marvel Heroes

January 21, 2013

Dave Brevik of Gazillion, the developer behind the upcoming Marvel Heroes free-to-play MMO action game, is defending a pricey content pack for the game that costs well over $100. The pack, the Marvel Heroes Ultimate Pack, gives players every hero and costume the game, as well as in-game currency and early access prior to the game's launch. Being that this is a free-to-play title some have scoffed at the huge price tag for the package, but Brevik doesn't think it's that big of a deal.

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Microsoft Investigating Issue with Halo 4 Season Pass Holders and the Crimson Map Pack

December 10, 2012

Microsoft has indicated to the Xbox 360 community that it is aware of problems with Halo 4 season pass holders not being able to download the Crimson Map Pack that was released today. The company says that it is investigating the cause of this and working on a solution. Instead of being able to simply download the Crimson Map Pack, season pass holders are being asked to pay 800 MS Points prior to download. The season pass costs a flat fee enabling purchasers to grab all the downloadable content upon release for free.

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Capcom: DLC Found on Retail Resident Evil 6 Disc is Free

October 11, 2012

Looking to clarify some stories that have been written by the media about on-disc DLC found within Resident Evil 6's retail disc, Capcom has taken to the Capcom Unity blog to clear the air.

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Report: Borderlands 2 Players Face Stats Erasing Bugs Again

October 9, 2012

Some players are claiming the newest Borderlands 2's character, Gaige is erasing their "Badass stats." The download, which also requires a patch to play seems to be affecting players on Xbox 360 and PC. The problem seems to be a repeat of an earlier issue some fans had with the game wiping out their progress.

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Capcom Takes Heat for Resident Evil 6 On-Disc DLC

October 8, 2012

A YouTube user named Fluffyquack has released a series of Resident Evil 6 videos that show locked content hidden on-disc, unlocked by modding the game. In one video he demonstrates a new "No Hope" difficulty mode, as well as locked melee attacks, and taunts and costumes for Resident Evil 6's multiplayer.

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George Washington will be the Villain of Note in Assassin’s Creed III DLC

October 3, 2012

IGN points out that Ubisoft's upcoming DLC for Assassin’s Creed III will have a very unique villain: George Washington. The founding father of our country and the first U.S. president was basically offered a position similar to "king' or "emperor" of America. Washington declined that offer and instead became the first president of the country, according to every history book I have ever read.

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Battlefield 3 Premium Subscribers on PS3 Get Armored Kill First

August 27, 2012

Usually it's Xbox 360 players who get premium content first for Battlefield 3, but Premium subscribers that bought a subscription on PlayStation 3 will be delighted to hear that they will get to play the latest expansion, Armored Kill, before anyone else on September 4. Xbox 360 and PC owners will have to wait until September 11, while those who don't have a Premium subscription will have to wait until September 18.

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EA Addresses FIFA DLC Hack Issues

August 20, 2012

According to this Joystiq report, EA has made a ton of money off of FIFA 12's Ultimate Team DLC last year, but this year it wants to avoid the headaches associated with the "FIFA hack." The company reportedly made over $39 million in just three months off the DLC, a 69 percent increase from the same period the year before. But it also created a lot of headaches for consumers who found their security on Xbox Live compromised.

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BioWare Director Defends Day-One DLC

August 13, 2012

BioWare Edmonton director of online development Fernando Melo tells Polygon that day-one DLC makes sense. He thinks that it is all a matter of simple math for game developers because development budgets for post-launch downloadable content incorporate attach rates against the total sales of the game, and attach rates decrease a few weeks after a game's launch.

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CD Projekt RED: DLC Should be Free

August 9, 2012

Teasing an upcoming interview, VG247 reports CD Projekt RED's Konrad Tomaszkiewicz's thoughts on downloadable content: he thinks it should be free. Tomaszkiewicz says gamers shouldn’t be paying for post-release digital content, given their bite-sized nature and sometimes hefty price tags.

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Katsuhiro Harada: I Might Quit Before Agreeing to Paid DLC in Tekken

July 10, 2012

Katsuhiro Harada, the man in charge of Namco Bandai’s Tekken series, says that he would quit working for the company if he was put under pressure to introduce character downloads as DLC.

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THQ Australia to Honor GAME Australia Darksiders II Pre-Order Bonus

July 6, 2012

THQ Australia confirmed that it will honor all Darksiders II pre-order DLC bonuses purchased through retailer GAME Australia. The retailer announced this morning that it would close its 15 remaining stores on July 8.

GAME Australia had offered Australian customers who pre-ordered THQ's upcoming game the Deadly Despair DLC pack, but then it went into liquidation. Obviously if the retailer is no longer in business it won't be able to fulfill those promised pre-order bonuses.

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Webcomic Imagines BioWare’s Reaction to Angry Gamer

March 21, 2012

For the past two weeks, fan complaints over Mass Effect 3’s DLC and ending have been loud and plentiful (if not always rational or polite).  Much to the chagrin of the more passionate and impatient of us gamers, BioWare didn’t immediately kowtow to various fan demands, perhaps leading some to wonder if the company simply didn’t give a toss now that it has their money.

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THQ’s Farrell Sees Game Prices Dropping

September 24, 2010

While THQ CEO Brian Farrell believes that the future could bring lower costs for console games, that seemingly bright prospect contains a bit of a catch for consumers.

Speaking at a recent Goldman Sachs conference, Farrell, as reported by CVG, sees console games eventually selling for between $29 to $39 at retail, but those would be basic or stripped down versions of games, with—of course—extra content available from paid downloadable content.

THQ will experiment with just this kind of concept on its upcoming MX vs ATV title. As Farrell noted, “In the past, we've seen that we bring the game out at $59.99 and it does reasonably well - around one million, or one million-and-a-half units.”

He continued, “When we lower the price to a mass market price the thing really jumps... So what we're doing this time is we're coming out initially with a smaller game at a lower price point - the $29 to $39 range.”

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Namco Bandai VP: Games Too Expensive

May 20, 2010

Namco Bandai Partners Vice President Olivier Comte has called for a worldwide summit of game companies in order to address the price of games and to explore new business models.

Speaking to MCV, Comte noted that other types of media have more than one way to procure income; music has physical media sales and live events, while movies are similar, with disc-based offerings in addition to the cinema. Games, meanwhile, “… just have one model, the sale of the product either as a box or a digital download. So we need to think about how we can develop a secondary business model.”

Comte continued:

I am convinced that in the future we must change the price of video games – they’re too expensive for the audience. With the cost of development and the retail margins, £40 (approximately $58.00 U.S.) is a fair price [to us], but for the consumer it is too much.

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UK Retailer Takes Step to Warn About Used Game DLC

April 13, 2010

In response to a consumer suing retailer GameStop over the code for free downloadable content from a used game already being used (by the original purchaser), UK retailer GAME has taken a proactive step to avoid sharing a similar fate with its U.S.-based counterpart.

According to MCV, GAME has fashioned warning stickers that will warn potential purchasers to check with a store’s staff for more information on the availability of a used game’s downloadable content.

This solution, a GAME spokesperson told MCV, would allow the staff to “explain clearly the difference so that our customers understand the benefits of buying both pre-owned and mint [new].”

GAME started using the stickers in its stores last week.


Thanks Andrew!

6 comments

Ubisoft Rewards AC2 Users with Free DLC

March 26, 2010

Since its launch, Assassin's Creed 2 for the PC has been beset by server issues and outages so severe that Ubisoft is trying to make it up to their "patient" fans.

According to a story on Gameindustry.biz, users have gotten emails from Ubisoft offering free DLC for the game. If players bought the collector's edition, which already had the DLC, they are being offered a free downloadable game from the list of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, Heroes over Europe, Tom Clancy's EndWar and Prince of Persia.

The server problems apparently have been caused by hackers upset with Ubisoft's new DRM policy. According to the story:

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Spawn of the Acronyms: DLC May Breed PDLC

March 22, 2010

If downloadable content released on a game’s launch day gets under your skin, what would you say to paid DLC issued before a boxed game hits the market place.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter was the recipient of some inside news from Visceral Games (an Electronic Arts studio) Senior VP and Group General Manager Nick Earl, and he spilled to GamesIndustry.biz about the plans, which would involve the monetization of “very long game demos,” like EA's 2009 release Battlefield 1943. The $10 or $15 “long demo” would then be followed at some point by the full packaged game.

Pachter offered a further explanation:

Think about Battlefield 1943 as the prototype, so a full (but short) game experience for a reasonable price. At the same time, an expanded version of the game will be under development for release as a packaged product.

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Analysis: DLC Pays off for World at War Franchise

October 21, 2009

Poking, prodding and massaging NPD U.S. videogame sales data, Gamasutra has arrived at the conclusion that the average owner of a console version of Call of Duty: World at War spent $9 on downloadable content.

DLC packs were released in March, June and August of this year with a price of $10 apiece. 6.5 million packs had been sold as of August, with the author rounding up to 7.0 million in order to make sales current. Based on estimates of an analyst, it was estimated that 65% of the 7.0 million DLC sales were within the U.S., meaning an approximate $45.0 million in additional revenue for Activision Blizzard stateside.

The average price paid for World at War was $56.00, adding in the total spent on DLC brings the total average price spent to $65.00, increasing revenue per software unit by 15% (with reduced overhead), ensuring that DLC is not going away anytime soon:

With Modern Warfare 2 expected to best World at War's 11 million units in sales, it seems certain that consumers will again be tempted with paid DLC throughout 2010 as Activision Blizzard attempts to maximize its revenue per sale.

9 comments

Stimulus Money Convinces New York to Nix Digital Download Tax

March 11, 2009

Gamers who live in the state of New York are already experiencing a benefit from President Obama's recently-passed stimulus package.

CNN reports that New York has scrapped a plan to tax digital downloads such as iTunes music and video game DLC.

Instead, Gov. David Paterson and New York legislators will utilize $1.3 billion in stimulus money to help balance the state budget.

15 comments

Cheese Head Gamers Weep: Wisconsin Tax Adds 5% to Cost of DLC, Game Downloads

February 26, 2009

If you live in Wisconsin, that Xbox 360 DLC you've got your eye on is about to get 5% pricier. Ditto for that PC game you're considering downloading from Steam.

The Spectator reports that Gov. Jim Doyle (D, left) has signed into law a measure that will impose a 5% sales tax on digital goods. In addition to game content, things such as music, movies, digital books and ringtones will be affected.

State Rep. Scott Suder, a Republican, was among those who opposed the new tax:

It's basically taxing students to fill in the Doyle budget shortfall, and I think that's unfair.

Wisconsin officials estimate that the levy will raise approximately $10.9 million between 2009 and 2011.

 

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Cecil475@PHX Corp - The dude's a moron who wouldn't know crap if it came up and kicked him.05/19/2013 - 6:36am
PHX Corphttp://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am
E. Zachary KnightIf the videos are of sufficient quality that people subscribe and watch regularly, then those let's players are providing a service that people want. That is the heart of capitalism. That is not something that should be shamed.05/17/2013 - 8:06am
E. Zachary KnightI have no idea who either of those people are. However, I still don't see why making a business out of creating let's play videos is somehow evil or wrong.05/17/2013 - 8:04am
MaskedPixelanteIt sure is if you're just doing it for the money. See Tobuscus and/or Pewdiepie for what happens when people get into it just for the money.05/17/2013 - 7:30am
E. Zachary KnightWhy is it wrong to make money doing LPs? Why should that be something that should be shamed?05/17/2013 - 6:20am
MaskedPixelantehttps://twitter.com/PsychedelicSA/status/335183893214924801 Now here's an interesting, glass half full thought about the Nintendo LP thing. It outs the people who are just doing LPs to make money.05/17/2013 - 5:56am
E. Zachary KnightI responded in writing to all this "let's play" stuff Nintendo Started. No need for my permission, I won't give it. It's not mine to give. http://divineknightgaming.com/?p=29205/16/2013 - 2:21pm
E. Zachary KnightLars Doucet of Levelup Labs has a Reddit going on game companies that allow monetization of Let's Play videos. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1egayn/lets_build_a_list_of_game_studios_that_allow/05/16/2013 - 1:04pm
Sleaker@Imautobot - yah I wouldn't use an emulator as a good first run test of how stable the console is, haha.05/16/2013 - 11:47am
E. Zachary KnightThe 50th person to jump off a bridge is just as dumb if not dumber than the 1st.05/16/2013 - 10:03am
MaskedPixelanteYeah, let's all jump on Nintendo for doing this, even though they're hardly the first company to do this...05/16/2013 - 9:47am
E. Zachary KnightWow Nintendo, this is wrong. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-forcing-ads-on-some-youtube-lets-play-video-50709238305/16/2013 - 8:44am
Imautobot@Sleaker, further gameplay has revealed that the controller button do stick under the faceplate. Also, The NES emulator (Emuya)keeps crashing on me, though I think a bad ROM is causing it.05/16/2013 - 7:10am
Papa MidnightAE: I wonder if any other publishers will follow suit.05/15/2013 - 8:12pm
Andrew EisenEA is ditching Online Pass. http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/05/15/2013 - 7:20pm
Avalongod@Zach and quicnkold...I've read the bill and the intent of it is to fear-monger. It's not a balanced message. I don't recall the ESRB being mentioned at all. It's more "keeps your kids away from these movies/games or they'll become violent"05/15/2013 - 4:35pm
E. Zachary Knightquiknkold, The big problem with that legislation is the amount of misinformation out there. Who is going to ensure that the information in the pamphlet is accurate?05/15/2013 - 3:25pm
quiknkoldREBeardogg : I'm on the fence about this. on one side, I want parents to be aware of the ESRB, and even Movie Ratings. On the other hand, I feel this will be used for nothing but Propaganda. The ESRB does a good job.05/15/2013 - 3:07pm
IanCFrostbite is coming out on iOS devices. Yet the Wii U cant handle it? *coughbullshitcough*05/15/2013 - 2:31pm
 

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