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What Do You Think: Should DLC Be Free |
Listed in: News, Opinions & Analysis Tags: cd projekt red, dlc, piracy
Despite the fact that a developer has the potential to make a ton of money off DLC alone, Tomaszkiewicz believes in selling it for the grand price of free. How can a developer take a stand against earning some extra cash?
According to Konrad's statement cited by IGN, he largely believes that DLC is an ongoing example of the purchase agreement between developer and customer. He believes it should be a developers job to continue to improve their products, therefore a gamer shouldn't be charged any more than they have already paid. Not to mention with game piracy running rampant these days, he believes a developer should be thankful for those that do go out and purchase the game instead of getting it from an illegal source. The best way to thank your fans then, would be to give them free downloadable content. One final musing revolves around his thoughts that DLC isn't as meaty as the PC expansion packs of the old days, so a user shouldn't be expected to pay nearly the same amount to get two new maps.
While developers may not agree, I have to say I applaud Tomaszkiewicz for taking such a firm stand on this, and as an end user I can't help but agree. It is absolutely true that illegal action is starting to take a much bigger chunk of profit from the industry, so why not give something back to those that keep the scene alive. As someone that tends to find most DLC too expensive to invest in I have to say I love how the man thinks. Still, one does have to wonder how much money a developer loses when making free content. Maybe it's not a matter of making it free as much as it is a price reduction. I'm no expert on industry funds, but I think just by charging two dollars instead of fourteen you would still be able to profit. What do you think? Is DLC too expensive? Should it be given as a free gift to gamers?
| 100% of voters think this story ROCKS! |
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Comments
Like an extra character or alternate costumes in a fighting game should be free, but actual expansions that add several hours worth of play time are worth being paid for.
But in my opinion, DLC should either be made into full fledged expansions, or be free
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Even so, I think that the devs should be able to decide whether or not to make it free or to charge money for it(reasonably of course)
However, fixes, and things that should have already been in the game from the beginning, should be free and not part of paid DLCs(*cough*Dra gonbone weapons and merchant sold/craftable arrows in Skyrim's Dawnguard expansion*cough **cough*)
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Just price DLC (or make it free) based on what you are offering. Or package stuff together - pay X for all the DLC and save 20% of the combined retail price.
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A few skins, a finished cut chapter, a new map.
NO
But an new chapter, 10 maps and 20 skins.
Yes
And it goes even further than that.
These days you have to pay for everything.
A new car? that’s 2€ please, An extra Character? 2€ Please.
What’s next? Out of ammo in Battlefield? Buy more ammo!?!
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Which is all fixes/reworks of things the game didn't do so well and added story and scenes where it felt lacking.
So basically, they make good games, and later on polish them into awesome games through free dlc. And as a customer, I'm happy they're that devoted to their games. (so far)
If they want to really add a whole new storyline to the game, instead of fix/improve what needs it, they'll charge money, and I'll happily buy it.
Or I won't, but then at least I'm sure I didn't miss an integral part of the story/game, as that is what they're perfecting with their free dlc.
I really don't want to pay for asura's wrath's ending and final fantasy XIII-2's extra story scenes, but as a fan of those stories, I need to pay some more than full price to see the full story as it was intended. I should vote with my money and not buy those, but I'll probably cave anyways...
So in short: I agree with CD project red completely :)
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When its on disc DLC (made when the game was made), thats a different story. Buying DLC unlock codes is absolute bullshit. I wouldn't care as much if they had the same DLC as Day 1 just so long as it wasn't actually on disc (as being on disc kinda implies you already purchased the data).
Also, DLC pricing should change with the market. If a game drops in MSRP, so should the DLC; at least after the same length of time it took for the base game to drop. It's even easier to manage DLC price changes, so there isn't much of an excuse. In terms of sales, I think DLC is pretty good at that in the current sense.
Finally, once a game is declared dead (servers have confirmed shutdown date, support is gone, or publisher/developer goes under or is disbanded) then a game's DLC should become free regardless of anything.
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