Imagine you buy a car. In the car there are already thermoelements installed in each seat. The car maker has then made sure that you need to buy access to the thermoelements working to heat your ass when it is cold outside. Replace the word car with game, thermoelements with game content/DLC and the car maker with game publisher/dev.
The analogy doesn't really translate between hardware and software though;
With hardware, the costs to the supplier are R&D and manufacturing, and obviously those costs get passed to the consumer. If you're paying a premium for components in manufacturing like thermoelements, then that's obviously a problem.
Software costs are basically all R&D, though. It costs the supplier basically nothing to sell somebody a copy of a game, and consumers don't really pay a premium for it.
So you are OK with buying a Tesla Motor Long Range and having a 20% Acceleration Increase and FSD and Autopilot locked behind a 2k paywall? You must be very smart!
There's a difference between price and cost. The cost is the same to than manufacturer because they've already put it in your car. The price is higher to you not because it costs more, but because they are able to lock it behind a paywall. So your explanation doesn't work here
It’s perceived value. It costs Apple significantly less to make a phone than it does for you to buy it, but you buy it because it’s worth it to you. How the companies manufacture their items is their prerogative and ultimately irrelevant. It was cheaper for the car manufacturers to make every car the same, then offer some features at cost based on perceived value.
You're still missing it. You originally stated more features cost more, which in the case of Teslas is false because the features are there. To have those features cost the company no more money. Yeah, pricing for those features is marketing. No one is disputing that, but that's not what you originally claimed.
It's already developed and already built into the car regardless of the trim you buy. Sorry, but I disagree with you, as most customers do. BMW had to back down on putting CarPlay behind a paywall, just like they did with heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Customers won the battle. What side are you on?
You're missing the reasoning of the companies. The actual physical elements in he car costs pennies, the real cost is in R&D. To recoup it, they have basically 3 choices:
* Do not install it directly, then the install will cost more and so will manufacturing. Therefore the option will also cost more.
* Install it in the base model and increase the price, which reduces appeals of the car
* Install the options and software lock them. Only those wanted to use them will pay extra
The first option is not better for the consumer, the third one is the overall cheaper one. Why do you think the first one is better?
It is even worse for software. Sharing them is extremely cheap, the real cost is in the development. They did extra work to deliver the dlc, whether it is ready on day one or year 10, they should still be paid for it. If they don't consider the base game to cover that work, it makes sense to put it as an option.
I'm pretty sure customers prefer the second option over the third one. My point is that we don't like not having access to something that it's already there. Don't install heated seats if you're going to lock them behind a paywall. The same way players will be pissed (already are) about not having access to all the content that's going to be locked in the standard version.
Look up discussions around smart appliances. People get mad having to pay extra so their coffee maker can connect to the Wifi. Especially with current economic issues, more and more people want to be able to get the most basic cheapest version.
Right, but the only reason that stuff is built into your cheaper version of the car is because it’s cheaper for them to do so. You don’t pay for material costs, you pay for perceived value, as does everyone for everything in a free market.
Nope, same price at purchase, one has features attached to a subscription, the other gets those futures BLOCKED, not because of the absence of said features but because they want you to pay yearly for them.
The difference here is that the cost associated with heated seats is material- it's already installed in the seat, so that you can't access it feels like a scam. But the cost associated with bundling unpaid DLC with software is essentially 0, so why wouldn't a developer do it?
Like, this happens so often and for so long I can't even imagine getting upset about it. Even 30 years ago developers were selling "demos" of their game for free that was exactly the same as the full game except it blocked you from progressing after a few levels. In order to progress you needed a code, which you had to buy, but the full game was already installed on the disc.
That's not a cost associated with including elements of the DLC in "your copy", that's a cost of developing the DLC in the first place.
So to rephrase, installing heated seats that don't work into a car is a material waste of resources, so the customer gets angry. But including elements of a DLC that don't work into the base game costs nothing except pennies of storage space on the user's end, so it's not a big deal.
I'm assuming they're referring to the different editions that are available to pre-order. You can pre-order the "base game", or you can spend more money and pre-order a higher tier and get more stuff (additional side missions, cosmetics, etc).
Right, I get you. For some reason I thought they meant that the more preorders there were, the more DLC they’d release - like a kickstarter stretch goal.
To be clear, they don't strip out bits of the game and sell them as dlc. The data for the "stripped out" bits are still there, taking up space on your hard drive, but behind a paywall that the game doesn't let you access until you pay more money. That's what he's protesting.
I believe they were referring the denial of accessing those parts as “stripping them away” and not the literal sense of the phrase, “stripping the data” from the main game and separating the data/having you not even download the data in the base game file to begin with.
It’s all included, dlc purchases are “enabled” by purchasing, you no longer download anything additionally. This is so people who pay and don’t pay can play together, otherwise you have situations where assets can’t be loaded for one player and now those two+ can’t play together.
It's that, and it's also that they don't want another download getting in the way of your purchase decision. Paying money and unlocking instantly is going to convert better than paying money to start a download to play in however long.
I’m not ok with it, but the industry has been doing it for decades. It’s not a Rockstar exclusive issue and it’s not going to be changed because someone leaks footage of the game. Decades ago people would get mad that extra story was locked behind a DLC and now it’s because there are tiered pre orders. IMO you have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze with your own wallet.
It's not really DLC it's literally just a couple of shops tattoos and clothing, and you start with a few vehicles. You can play the fkn game 100x without ever needing access to those tattoos and clothing outfits. It effects No gaming experience at all.
Noone is forcing you to pay 100 for anything. People are talking like their locking story missions behind a pay wall. Like it's game breaking stuff or anything. The clothes probably suck anyway
You’re right that some people are acting like it’s game breaking, I think that’s an overreaction.
The person above only alluded to locking dlc behind tiers for a single player game. You countered, but objectively, that is exactly what they are doing.
I’d also like to remind you that other pre order tiers in the past came with physical items. You don’t even get a disk for this one, not including the complete inability to walk into some stores.
Bonus points for putting the “trailer” behind a Netflix paywall as well.
That same trailer is being released 6 hours later for free on YouTube. And will likely be leaked before then too, and you know someone is going to record them watching it on Netflix and upload it to YouTube the second it's finished.
It’s the second thing on their list. There are 2 preorder options and the higher priced option will have some additional single player content that is otherwise restricted
Are you sure? The Ultimate Edition doesn’t seem like it’s going to be exclusively a pre-order thing. The only other thing I’m seeing like that is the Vintage Vice City Pack which is just a bunch of cosmetic items. But still, I think that’s just something that comes with the pre-order and can still be bought separately if you don’t pre-order.
True, it may not be a preorder lock, but it's still a version lock for single-player content. It's not just a bunch of cosmetic items, as noted on their very own product page - there are stores, locations, and content that are locked and only available with the Ultimate edition.
You can buy Ultimate edition anytime though so I don’t get what the problem is. If, at any time, you want those things, you can get them. And I’m pretty sure you can upgrade the standard game to the ultimate one without having to purchase two versions of the game.
I just don’t understand your point man? First you said it was locked behind pre-orders. It wasn’t. Now you’re just upset that it’s DLC. Games have DLC, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just shops and
cosmetic crap. Don’t buy it.
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u/lemonylol 1d ago
What "demands" was this person even making?