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The great DLC swindle: Developers should have more respect for their customers

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Monday, April 16, 2012
EDITOR'S NOTEfrom Rob Savillo

Do you own what you've already paid for? On-disc DLC rubs many the wrong way precisely because people feel that the $60 asking price is inclusive of every bit of code on the physical product. But publishers are increasingly selling you locked content that requires another subsequent purchase to use.

In a week that saw Electronic Arts receive an award for being the Worst Company in America -- no doubt due partly to the mega-publisher's downloadable content (DLC) policies, Capcom too weathered flak for its own handling of DLC. Irked gamers lodged complaints with the Better Business Bureau in a bid to stem the tide of on-disc DLC released at a premium post-launch.

Ever the clowns, Capcom formulated a response (i.e., they dusted off their stock answer to these matters), and it's indicative of a growing attitude among publishers.

 

At Capcom, we value our customers...

Hold on. It's all a bit rich already. This from the company that sells 108kb character costume packs for £10 [editor's note: approximately $15], that farms out its core franchises to developers who go on to create things like Operation Raccoon City, that pushed out HD remakes of such venerable games as Resident Evil 4 and puts zero effort into doing so, and that attempts to manipulate its fans into ratting out those who deviate around paying for those £10 costume packs. 

...and make every effort to resolve customer complaints. We are sorry to hear that [redacted] was so disappointed with the Street Fighter X Tekken game ('SFXT'), and would like to respond to his complaints.

SFXT has an enormous amount of content fully developed and available for play and enjoyment immediately on-disc. Given the 38 characters available for full play as well as multiple play modes, SFXT provides great value for all players from day one. While Capcom is sorry that some of its fans are not happy about the chosen method of delivery for the DLC, we believe that this method will provide more flexible and efficient gameplay throughout the game's lifecycle.

This is PR guff and insulting PR guff at that. How locking content on the disc and selling it two months down the line "will provide more flexible and efficient gameplay" is beyond my reckoning. Does having costume packs pre-loaded on the disc decrease online latency? Of course not. That Capcom are willing to tout this drivel is a stinging testament to the respect it has for the people paying for its products. 

There is effectively no distinction between the DLC being ''locked'' behind the disc and available for unlocking at a later date or being available through a full download at a later date other than delivery mechanism.

It's sad to see a developer bearing such disrespect for its fans. Not only have Capcom tackled the original point with all the finesse of a vertigo patient playing pin the tail on the donkey, they've managed to demean anybody who takes genuine umbrage with their DLC practices in the process.
 
Clearly, the point is not that the content is on the disc. The point is that it's on the disc because it has been deliberately hacked from the main game to sell in the future. It's a fleecing act -- one that is gradually becoming more prevalent in the industry and one at which Capcom are arguably the gurus.

It bears repeating: If the additional content is available as a full download at a later date, the implication is that content has been developed after the core game, not removed from it (The Ballad of Gay Tony certainly wasn't gutted from GTAIV).

There's no good reason why developers who work on downloadable content post-launch or during the certification process shouldn't be rewarded for their additional work. The argument that all DLC should be free is folly. DLC should not be free in the same way that dessert should not be free because you bought a main course and a 7-Up. What should be free is costume packs, cheat codes, characters, or whatever else that has been created in tandem with the game, that is on-disc, and that has been locked as part of a deliberate swindle. 

BioWare took this to the next level with its launch-day DLC for Mass Effect 3. Touted as content “completed while the main game was in certification and not available on the disc,” hackers promptly found that to be an outright lie. EA and its church of developers have been particularly offhand with DLC, and when the publishing powerhouse responded to news that it had been voted Worst Company in America, rather than taking the opportunity to reflect on why so many of its customers were willing to vote it a worse company than the Bank of America, it emerged with hauteur:

We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.

What's particularly disheartening about EA's response and the From Ashes DLC for ME3 is just how cynical they both are. Players invested in the Mass Effect universe are absolutely going to pay for the Prothean team member Javik included as part of From Ashes. EA and BioWare know this. It's why James Vega isn't the DLC character. It's why From Ashes is launch-day DLC. The Prothean story-branch is too enticing for anyone with a modicum of passion for the Mass Effect yarn to spurn.  

Capcom are right in claiming there's no difference between accessing content on-disc through an unlock code or releasing it later as actual downloadable content. It's the notion of content being removed from the core game to be sold at a later date that is the problem, not the delivery mechanism.

Of course, the counter-argument in some respects is nobody is forcing you to buy anything, and I wholeheartedly agree with that as long as the content isn't integral to the game. Capcom has every right to sell costume packs for £10, and if people choose to buy those packs, who am I to stop them?

But developers shouldn't cower beneath a fortress made of bullshit and bile. If you're going to fleece your customers for every penny, don't insult them by pretending that there's no difference between creating new content after development of the main game has been wrapped up and removing content from the main game to sell at a later date. Don't lie about the practice. Companies exist to make profit, and they're responsible to shareholders who give zero fucks about the people who are making them rich. Fine. But have the scrap of respect required to not treat your paying customers like morons.

The blatant disrespect for customers and their intelligence is equally as unsettling as Capcom's tacky policy of selling costume packs for £10 or EA's increasingly shoddy and gutted DLC.

 
Tags: Resident Evil 4, Mass Effect 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
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Bryan Harper
April 16, 2012

If 38 characters aren't $60 worth of fighter for you (and being a moderate fighting fan myself, if I ignore the fact that this looks like SF4:AE with Tekken characters in it, I might be inclined to think it was) the answer isn't to huff and puff and be angry at Capcom for locking things behind a money gate: The answer is to not buy the game.  This is THE ONLY WAY Capcom will EVER listen to what you want to say, as 1.6 bajillion people buy their game regardless of what's going on in the forums; what they assume, regardless of what they read, is that the majority of the gamers playing their product are satisfied with what they've gotten, and what they will later get.

 

Personally, I don't find enough different with this game to justify buying it so shortly after picking up another SF game, but if we ignored that this looks like a character pack/tag-team add-on DLC to begin with, the game as a $60 package doesn't really seem to be lacking in value, when you stack it up to other $60 fighting game releases.  The only REAL question should be: Is this game somehow incomplete without whatever they're making me pay for?  And this is the question that should be asked for EVERY DLC YOU BUY, unless you've poured hundreds of hours into the game already and distinctly feel that you will get $15 worth of enjoyment out of this stuff.  See, I think the REAL problem that people have with DLC on the disc is that, should they chose to NOT buy the DLC, it is literally still inches away from their fingertips, but they can't get to it unless they give Capcom more money.  If Capcom would have kept it off the disc and brought it in three months down the road as a download, even though the stuff was already finished post-production, nobody would have been the wiser.

 

If we take a look at Capcom's history of tweaking speeds and adding two characters and then re-releasing it as a new, full-priced installment when it is at heart the exact same game that came before it, they've come leaps and bounds from where they were.  Hell, they deserve an Attaboy medal.

 

In its simplest terms, this isn't an argument of DLC practices.  It's an question of entitlement, linked to perceived value.  You're paying sixty dollars for this game and YOU feel ENTITLED to everything that's on the disc, because you paid $60, and it's on the disc.  I get that sense of entitlement.  What I don't get is why people are buying the game if they think it's such a shitty deal in the first place.  That's insanity.

 

If it's not worth $75 to get access to everything on the game, DO NOT BUY.  Problem solved!  Capcom makes garbage for money on the game, and have to justify to their shareholders why.  'Course, knowing Capcom, they'd blame it on waning genre interest or piracy anyways.  But regardless of what they say to the public or the market, they know.  And regardless of what you think you know, or what you think you understand about the game's setup, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHEN THESE CHARACTERS WERE MADE.  You have NO IDEA who made them, how they were integrated into the disc or what the actual intentions of the dev team were.  You have no idea because it wasn't YOU.  If this was developed outside the core development team in any way shape or form at any point during production, your argument falls apart and you look like the world's greatest collection of self-entitled whiners.  Capcom is correct: There is no distinction between DLC on the disc and dlc downloaded, other than PERCEPTION.  No matter what, they WERE going to charge you for this content down the road.  Don't fool yourselves.

 

Just pay attention.

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Jonathan Oyama
April 16, 2012

I thought about all this dlc and I thought that this knee-jerk reaction was crazy. I also thought about all the consumers who bought into this paywall-style system. We hear all sorts of whining from the people who bought the game, but the game still stands by itself as a solid piece of work.

I bought Blazblue: Continuum Shift and I didn't feel like it was any less of a game because it didn't have the badass half-fox Makoto. I did feel that Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition was a bit disappointing, but I didn't even buy dlc for that one.

I really think the backlash will simmer down eventually, once people educate themselves about dlc. On one hand, developers should act more considerate. On the other hand, consumers should try to understand that no one has to buy it if they don't think its right.

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Bryan Harper
April 16, 2012

Let's see.  What games have I actually paid money for DLC... Mmm. I paid for a couple characters in Mass Effect 2 (characters had no impact on game's ending, but their side missions were fairly entertaining).  I paid for the Witch Hunt expansion for Dragon Age and a character in Dragon Age 2.

 

...And that's about it.  I remember picking up some DLC for Fallout 3, maybe?  I just generally don't value most of the DLC offered as cheap or important enough to warrant a purchase.  All the games I buy are a complete experience without them, and I'm fine with that.

 

I tend to side with you on this one: If the game cannot stand on its own without the DLC, we have a problem... but they can.  What I see is people with entitlement issues, because they are throwing absolute fits that these practices are going on, to the extent that I am led to believe that they think the game is garbage and without worth if they don't get the DLC on the disc.

 

It's clearly not.  Saying otherwise seems mildly retarded to me.

 

[edit: Whoops!  Forgot to mention that I bought all the DLC available for Mega Man 9.  On three systems. On two of those systems, twice.  I enjoyed the DLC that much.  I enjoyed the game without them, but you spend so much time playing a game that you feel the need to throw the devs some bones from time to time.  To time.  to time. ;p]

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Sam Brougher
April 16, 2012

"BioWare took this to the next level with its launch-day DLC for Mass Effect 3. Touted as content “completed while the main game was in certification and not available on the disc,” hackers promptly found that to be an outright lie."

Incorrect, for a number of reasons.

First, what hackers found wasn't even the From Ashes DLC; they found a small file that basically hooked the character models into the main campaign. This is time saving for the programmers and makes the game more stable.

Secondly, even if the full DLC was on the disc:

Link: http://a.asset.soup.io/asset/2966/7162_694c_960.png

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Bryan Harper
April 16, 2012

You should have an external link to this image, because it's important and it's cut in the comments.  And it's also completely true.

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Sam Brougher
April 16, 2012

Yeah, I hadn't commented with an image before, so I played with the edits until I looked okay. I also put the link above the image, since it's a bit small now.

Robsavillo
Rob Savillo
April 16, 2012

Link: http://a.asset.soup.io/asset/2966/7162_694c_960.png

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Bryan Harper
April 16, 2012

Thanks, Rob. :D

Robsavillo
Rob Savillo
April 16, 2012

You're welcome!

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Steven Kilpatrick
April 16, 2012

I'm glad you posted this Sam.

When I read this column I was immediatly frustrated by the misinformation. I was also frustrated that there were no external citations to help find the rabbit trail where the bad information came from.

People wonder why EA (and not banks) won worst company in America.

Articles like this one, more than ever, make me feel like it's a lack of perspective and a lack of solid information.

Too many gamers get their "news" from talkback forums at sites like Kotaku. To rely on rabid fans of a site that isn't actually built on good journalism is a lazy habit.

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Dammy Onafowokan
April 16, 2012

I bank with a credit union so I'm happy with my service :) Also, while I'm okay with the concept of paid DLC to extend the life of a game I love and have completed, or even content created after the main games completion can we all agree that the point of making a Prothean a paid DLC character was a scummy move on EA/Biowares part. At the very least, it was a calucated move done for the express move miking every last possible dime from long time fans. I'm all for a company making money, but they should not act surprised when the poop hits the fan.

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Steven Kilpatrick
April 16, 2012

"We can all agree" is a relatively clumsy argument.

I don't agree.

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Dammy Onafowokan
April 16, 2012
It's a good thing I'm not arguing with you then. I said "can we all" not "we can all". I disagree with your opinion and you disagree with mine. And I'm okay with that. I stand by my comment that the Prothean DLC was a money grab, nothing more nothing less.

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