203 réponses à ce sujet

[terdferguson123]

I can nearly gaurantee that this been discussed to death, but EA/Bioware's DLC pricing has really hit my last nerve. I have always felt that the DLC price was a little bit over the top from a mathematical perspective, but I dealt with it hoping that the quality and length of those DLC's would eventually equal out the price and Mota from DA2 and Shadow Broker from ME2 had me feeling good about that theory. Now I see that the DLC has instead increased in price without increasing in quality or length. I am thoroughly confused about the price increase for this DLC. The DLC is roughly 3 hours long which for me is fairly similar to other DLC lengths from Bioware. Some will go a little shorter some will go a little longer than this. But with simple math we can show that this price increase is ridiculous and this pricing strategy desperately needs to change.

Mass Effect 3 took me 45 hours to complete, with no DLC. Some would say this is a long time, but that is because I generally take my time. Omega took 3 hours to complete, so in theory shouldn't the price of the DLC take this into account?

If a DLC is $15, and a normal game is $60, the DLC should be roughly: 15/60 = 25% of the base games length.

So, if we use this length of content theory, and ME3 base game took me 45 hours to complete, then this DLC should theoretically be close to: .25 x 45 = 11.25 hours.

Now I realize that this won't ever happen, and while that is a saddening point, I do understand it from a business perspective (Accountant irl). So what is supposed to make up this massive difference in length vs price comparison? Quality.

Let's look some more at the math.

Strictly by looking at a price vs length comparison, we are missing 8.25 hours worth of content. (11.25hrs(est.) - 3hrs(actual)), or 73.33% of the content (8.25/11.25) which is representing missing value. So, as I stated this difference needs to be made up by the quality of the DLC. That 73.33% of value that is missing needs to be made up by the DLC's quality.

So far, Bioware has released two DLC where the quality of it made up the difference between the price vs length comparison (Mota from DA2 and Shadow Broker from ME2), and these were both $10 dlc. With that said, this $5 price increase seems even harder to justify because the Omega DLC is frankly not up to the quality of either of these DLC's and it's price vs length comparison difference is even more obvious.

I am not posting this because I want to complain about DLC pricing, I am posting this because I love Bioware games and I think they are making some terrible business strategies that are going to cost them fans and potential revenues in the future. This is one of those poor business practices. I want to hear what other fans think, and if any Bioware reps are able to post in a thread such as this, please give some insight into what you were thinking with this inane price increase.

[Mr. Parker]

I find it intriguing that Bioware seem to drop the ball regularly with DLC. On the whole they have an excellent track record with putting out good games, but when it comes to DLC (with the exception of LoTSB) they just seem to phone it in. I think they can get away with that when the price is cheaper, but when they start charging £10 for three hours of shooting more stuff they start to stand on shaky ground. Maybe it's the nature of DLC. Voice acting is probably expensive and time consuming to coordinate, so they're forced into creating stand alone content. But stand alone content doesn't work very well with the nature of their games.

Maybe they need to reevaluate their approach, I don't know, and that's if they're even concerned about it. Perhaps the DLC is shifting enough copies regardless of concerns that they don't need to worry or change track. I can count the amount of Bioware DLC I've bought on one finger, because the rest of it has seemed boring, underwhelming or inconsequential alongside the main game.

I'll be fair here, though, and say that a lot of other companies do even worse with DLC. 90% of the time it's filler content designed to squeeze a few more pennies out of the game. Bethesda have been the only ones to get it right in terms of single player DLC with the stuff they put out for Fallout 3.

[Red5392]

I think the price of this DLC is about the demand there was for it at first. When people first met Aria on the citadel and found out that the Illusive Man took Omega from her, they wanted to help her take Omega back. At least I know I did.

[thepiebaker]

im assuming the tl;dr version is in the title in which i say: who gives a fat F*CK?

[BlacJAC74]

thepiebaker wrote...

im assuming the tl;dr version is in the title in which i say: who gives a fat F*CK?

Obviously you give one as you wouldn't have posted otherwise.  Alternatively, the OP gives one, as he wouldn't have posted it, so your question makes no sense.

[Zuzu Mumu]

will you stop complaining and enjoy? if you complain so much will you ever have time to actually enjoy this wonderful world? i say explore more , and bish about it less

[13Dannyboy13]

It's the nature of the industry these days sadly, it's all about the money now, the prices will keep rising as long as people will rush to buy the dlc as soon as it comes out. I do agree with the OP that most dlc is lacking the necessary quality to justify the prices we see, but as long as people will keep buying on day one, the companies will keep raising the prices.

[LilLino]

13Dannyboy13 wrote...

It's the nature of the industry these days sadly, it's all about the money now, the prices will keep rising as long as people will rush to buy the dlc as soon as it comes out. I do agree with the OP that most dlc is lacking the necessary quality to justify the prices we see, but as long as people will keep buying on day one, the companies will keep raising the prices.

[xerox2k2]

my guess is Carrie Anne Moss (voice of Aria) probably charged a higher fee since she's a big movie star compared to the other voice actors which are relatively unknown in hollywood.so bioware passed the higher cost onto the consumers.prior to this Aria had maybe 1/2 page of dialog so it was like a cameo in movie terms

though I wonder if the cost is lower in other regions where Aria is voiced by someone else in a different language.

I'd say Felecia Day practically volunteered to be in dragon age mark of the assassin,they probably only had to pay the minimum union fee for her maybe a bit more for her celebrity endorsement on her blog.

Modifié par xerox2k2, 27 novembre 2012 - 06:57 .

[Reever]

Zuzu Mumu wrote...

will you stop complaining and enjoy? if you complain so much will you ever have time to actually enjoy this wonderful world? i say explore more , and bish about it less

And that´s the kind of attitude that will never let big companies take a step back and rethink their concepts. I mean, come on, people.

[blueboykc]

BlueDemonX wrote...

Zuzu Mumu wrote...

will you stop complaining and enjoy? if you complain so much will you ever have time to actually enjoy this wonderful world? i say explore more , and bish about it less

And that´s the kind of attitude that will never let big companies take a step back and rethink their concepts. I mean, come on, people.

EXACTLY!! thank you..

[Zuzu Mumu]

BlueDemonX wrote...

Zuzu Mumu wrote...

will you stop complaining and enjoy? if you complain so much will you ever have time to actually enjoy this wonderful world? i say explore more , and bish about it less

And that´s the kind of attitude that will never let big companies take a step back and rethink their concepts. I mean, come on, people.

Just because they rethinked an entire game ending for they;re fanbase doesn't give you any right to constantly nag and continue with this negative attitude at eveything they do ok? the company does not need to take a step back and they do not need to rethink anything for you. Or have you forgotten how it is to play a game and have fun doing it? I think mass effect gave you so much freedom of choice in game that you somehow think that you have the right or you are entitled to have a say in what Bioware does. Well you are dead wrong about it. You do not have any say in what's going on and you might as well stop nagging.
I agree ME3 ending wasnt what i expected or what i would have wanted in any of the 9 hells. BUT it is not my choice or my position to go constanly open my mouth about the game as if i would be in any way shape or form related to the game or creating any of it. That being said  ,you are just a fanbase , not the creators of ME , your thoughts as well as mine mean little to nothing.

[Rosstoration]

I blame all the morons who bought horse armour.

"Oblivion's infamous horse armor can now be downloaded and imported into your game. Why infamous, you ask? Because it's not free. To be clear, you won't be splurging from your ], no, you'll be using Microsoft (XBLM) Points (a.k.a. real money). Sure, no one's gonna be taking out a loan to cover the $2.50 expense (200 points), but you have to wonder why we're being charged for a measly game item, when in the past, a similar charge would have granted us access to an entire game map." (Joystiq, 2006)

Oh how times change.

Modifié par Rosstoration, 27 novembre 2012 - 07:12 .

[Candidate 88766]

Its £10. Its not that big of an issue. Cinema tickets usually cost £6 or £7. Hell, pints in my area are £3. £10 for a few extra replayable hours of Mass Effect really isn't that bad. The value isn't as good as the main game - £50 (well, about £35 at release, at least here in the UK) for 30 hours-ish per playthrough - but that doesn't make it necessarily bad value. Given that games like Battlefield 3 get away with 6-7 hour campaigns, ME3 is phenomenal value (both have multiplayer, but ME3 has a vastly longer campaign), so if they want to charge a bit more for the extra stuff then thats fine by me. We got so much content for our initial purchase that I don't really see a problem with paying comparatively more for DLC. If £35 for 30 hours is a phenomenal deal, then £45 for 33-34 hours is still pretty good overall when compared to so many other games.

Modifié par Candidate 88766, 27 novembre 2012 - 07:15 .

[steamcamel]

Agreed. But until people stop buying into this dlc-ripoff, nothing will change. And why shouldn't they do this? Omega is gonna sell big, sending a message that people are willing to be overcharged for inferior products.

Cash-cow goes 'moo'.

[13Dannyboy13]

If people are unhappy with the dlc they have bought they can express their opinion here, isn't that what the forum is for? Just because someone's opinion isn't good about the dlc, it doesn't make it any less valid than someone else's opinion who liked it. Spending my money on the game gives me the right to voice my opinion, whether it's good or bad, and if our thoughts and opinions mean nothing to these companies, then they will have no one to blame but themselves when we stop spending our money on their games. Simply spending money on dlc, which many may feel is overpriced, and then saying "oh well" only encourages the inflated prices and lack of real depth or quality.

[Emzamination]

*exasperated moan* These kind of threads are just embarrassing, especially when there are other legitimate means to fund your Dlc besides your purse.

[Kel Riever]

If people want to fork over cash and won't stop buying it...then make it $30.

Yes, sure, if you are talking fair pricing. But if demand is there, you can bet it will be priced to.

Personally, I don't think the demand is there, but I don't do BioWare's books. And if the fan base decreases, but the people who still buy the DLC no matter what increase what they pay, you can still be the price will go up.

Maybe they'll get down to two customers, who each pay $450,000 for DLC or something like that. I would call that a failed business from the perspective of getting your product out there to the world. But I wouldn't call it failed profit if it makes them money.

[AdmiralCheez]

Gonna do some simple math to see if I can "justify" the price hike from a business perspective (aka bottom line profits). Excluding production costs, let's say Bioware sells $10 DLC to 15 people, thus making $150. If they sold $15 DLC to only 10 people, they'd still make $150. This means that they can make the same profit even if one in three of the original audience are turned off by the price hike. They suffer a loss if more than one in three people don't buy it, but stand to make an even greater profit if more than two thirds of the original consumer base buys the DLC. Ultimately, the $5 increase is a gamble, and they're banking on the audience's willingness to shell out the extra money.

This is really over-simplified, but seriously I think the only reason for the price hike is the possibility of greater profit. They're testing the waters, and we'll probably see cheaper DLC next time around if Omega doesn't sell well.

Then again, they might hike the price of the next DLC to make up for Omega's losses...

You know what, OP? You're right. This is a dumb business move.

[known_hero]

Zuzu Mumu wrote...

BlueDemonX wrote...

Zuzu Mumu wrote...

will you stop complaining and enjoy? if you complain so much will you ever have time to actually enjoy this wonderful world? i say explore more , and bish about it less

And that´s the kind of attitude that will never let big companies take a step back and rethink their concepts. I mean, come on, people.

Just because they rethinked an entire game ending for they;re fanbase doesn't give you any right to constantly nag and continue with this negative attitude at eveything they do ok? the company does not need to take a step back and they do not need to rethink anything for you. Or have you forgotten how it is to play a game and have fun doing it? I think mass effect gave you so much freedom of choice in game that you somehow think that you have the right or you are entitled to have a say in what Bioware does. Well you are dead wrong about it. You do not have any say in what's going on and you might as well stop nagging.
I agree ME3 ending wasnt what i expected or what i would have wanted in any of the 9 hells. BUT it is not my choice or my position to go constanly open my mouth about the game as if i would be in any way shape or form related to the game or creating any of it. That being said  ,you are just a fanbase , not the creators of ME , your thoughts as well as mine mean little to nothing.

So, we're "nagging" because we question this dlc's price hike?

[BlacJAC74]

Candidate 88766 wrote...

Its £10. Its not that big of an issue. Cinema tickets usually cost £6 or £7. Hell, pints in my area are £3. £10 for a few extra replayable hours of Mass Effect really isn't that bad. The value isn't as good as the main game - £50 (well, about £35 at release, at least here in the UK) for 30 hours-ish per playthrough - but that doesn't make it necessarily bad value. Given that games like Battlefield 3 get away with 6-7 hour campaigns, ME3 is phenomenal value (both have multiplayer, but ME3 has a vastly longer campaign), so if they want to charge a bit more for the extra stuff then thats fine by me. We got so much content for our initial purchase that I don't really see a problem with paying comparatively more for DLC. If £35 for 30 hours is a phenomenal deal, then £45 for 33-34 hours is still pretty good overall when compared to so many other games.

It's like comparing a car to a tractor. Both can be driven, both have wheels and so on, but both are inherently different.

The majority of people go to the cinema or go out for pints for the social element.  It's how we choose to spend time with others, it's how we build relationships and how we continue to function in a social capacity. If you were to stop those things, amongst other things, you'd soon lose friends, your family life would eventually come away at the seams and whatever else you care to think up.  If we all went to the cinema on a daily basis, as an alternative to watching our tvs on a daily basis, you'd have a point. 

The only thing dlc is good for is bonding with your console or pc. 

Modifié par BlacJAC74, 27 novembre 2012 - 07:35 .

[ObserverStatus]

IDK, maybe they figured that the ending has already weeded out all but the most devoted fans and they can charge those who remain anything they want? Or maybe the market for this DLC has shrunk so drastically that they neede to charge an outrageous price to cover their expenses?

Modifié par bobobo878, 27 novembre 2012 - 07:38 .

[AdmiralCheez]

bobobo878 wrote...

IDK, maybe they figured that the ending has already weeded out all but the most devoted fans and they figured that they can charge those who remain anything they want.

You know what?  This.

[jsamlaw]

You pay $15 (probably more with food) for a 2 hour movie. At least you can replay this DLC across multiple characters.

Or, if you prefer, don't buy it at all.

[C9316]

bobobo878 wrote...

IDK, maybe they figured that the ending has already weeded out all but the most devoted fans and they figured that they can charge those who remain anything they want? Or maybe the market for this DLC has shrunk so drastically that they neede to charge an outrageous price to cover their expenses?

Very likely..