Constant DLC makes gaming ever more expensive
- By Thomas Meyer, Staff Writer
A new trend from the video game industry in 2011 was to sell a “season pass” of downloadable content (DLC) alongside a newly released game.
Instead of buying all the DLC for a game separately as each piece is released, the season pass is a collection of all or most of the game’s DLC for one pre-paid price. The value of a season pass is that the total cost could yield a savings of 15 to 33 percent, in comparison to individually purchasing the add-ons.
This DLC may be anything from additional detective cases in L.A. Noire, extra characters for Mortal Kombat or new cars and racetracks in Forza Motorsport 4.
Although DLC has become prominent in the last few years, this type of content is not new. It is the way that this content is being sold unseen with season passes that is somewhat alarming.
For example, when Epic Games announced their season pass for Gears of War 3 before the game was released in Sept. 2011, the only details at the time were that the $30 pass would cover the first four installments of downloadable content into the next year, with the first releasing in November.
The season pass is essentially paying for a promise until more exact details on each installment are revealed.
It is understandable that this deal may only apply to diehard fans who do not mind the price despite lack of details after already paying $60 to $150, dependent on the edition bought — but is the price worth the admission when the value cannot be determined at the time of purchase?
Television shows sold through iTunes also use the season pass format, but the value is clearer. The current season of Glee is being sold on the service for $50 in HD quality, and will have 22 episodes by the end of the season. At around 45 minutes an episode, that is a guaranteed 16.5 hours of entertainment and even more after multiple replays.
It is unfair to compare the awkward trappings of a high school singing club to space marines slaughtering dudes in the face with a chainsaw-bayoneted gun — the season pass can only do so much for video games. The purchase is completely subjective to the player if either map packs or extended playing time of a game at a discount are worth the cost.
Meanwhile, developers and publishers continue to receive money up front instead of diminishing returns with each new piece of DLC.
Activision’s Call of Duty series rolled out its season pass for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as a service called Call of Duty Elite at an annual fee of $50 yearly. The service promises DLC every month along with extensive stat tracking and community features.
More of a subscription than a season pass, with over 23 million copies of the game sold and over one million gamers already signed up for the service, the possibility of more games becoming giant services means that we may see less Super Mario Brothers and more World of Warcraft.
When it comes to downloadable content, the experience is never “complete,” and may kill your wallet faster than the 12-year-old with the exclusive shotgun camping in the corner of your spawn area.
