iRate: DLC Exclusivity and Me… A Hate/Hate relationship
Ah the joy of gaming… You finally sit down with the latest multiplatform release and let the gaming goodness wash over you, fully enjoying everything there is on offer. But hang on a second…There are bits missing aren’t there? It’s seems you can’t enjoy the same game as your rival console owners, not because of shoddy porting issues (we’ll save that for another iRate article), but because the developer has decided to sell off their reputation to the highest bidder and screw over around half of us gamers in the process. Oh well, at least they make a bit of extra cash…
The epic war of the consoles between Sony and Microsoft (the Wii isn’t made for gamers; see ‘iRate: Wii never play it really’) seems to have descended into a tit-for-tat squabble; each company sinking to new lows by securing the exclusivity of relatively minute amounts of individual titles. Sure, the Joker maps from Batman: Arkham Asylum are only available to PS3 customers, but does Sony really think that this pathetic half-step is going to incense XBox owners into purchasing the rival console?
The PS3 exclusive Joker Maps are no laughing matter for XBox owners
Don’t get me wrong, I use Sony only as an example here; Microsoft is by far the worst offender. Since launch there have been a number of DLC exclusivity deals struck by Microsoft, but here are perhaps the two biggest: Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3.
What makes this worse is the overall quality of this exclusive content. The DLC for Fallout 3 in particular has been met with some mixed reactions. It’s difficult to argue that Mothership Zeta and Operation: Anchorage achieve anything other than detracting from the overall quality of the Fallout experience. Also, our very own Luke ‘Mightyles’ Mears didn’t think much of The Ballad of Gay Tony.
The Ballad of Gay Tony? More like the Ballad of Gypped PS3 Owners!
The word “exclusive” is also something of a misnomer in this context. With the exception of the Joker maps for Batman: Arkham Asylum (although time will tell on that one), almost every piece of exclusive DLC has been a timed exclusive. So after a period of time the DLC is launched on the rival console anyway, usually to the complete disinterest of gamers everywhere. Only the most hardcore fans of Fallout 3, for example, are going to shell out an extra £30 to get their hands on the five packs of new content. The majority will leave it on the shop shelf where it belongs.
Bad DLC in itself isn’t a massive issue, but when the companies we rely on to produce quality products that are worth our time and money begin to shell out large amounts to secure bad content, you know that something is awry. The global gaming industry has become so concerned with rivalry and getting one up (intentional cheeky Mario reference) on each other that it has completely forgotten the people in the middle, the people that really matter, us bloody gamers! And exclusive DLC is living proof of this.
A prime example of timed exclusive DLC not worth the wait
Games developers should be committed to producing titles that deliver the complete experience for anyone that digs into their wallets to purchase a game. It doesn’t matter what format, gamers should be afforded the courtesy of this complete experience.
DLC exclusivity is a corruption of this. Not only are developers selling off parts of the “experience” to the highest bidder, but by doing so they are segregating their audience, causing increasing disillusionment with the developer. We shouldn’t be punished for choosing one console over another. The only kind of exclusivity The Newb Review can endorse is for a full title. Furthermore, by selling off the rights to portions of games through DLC, developers are not only showing a lack of backbone, they are also telling the world that they are driven solely by profit and that they don’t respect the very people to which their products are aimed.
Developers aren’t the only ones at fault though. The tit-for-tat rivalry between Sony and Microsoft, expressed through DLC, is nothing short of childish, playground bullsh*t. If they weren’t so willing to throw away cash carelessly, just to ensure exclusivity rights on the latest and greatest game ad-ons, the thought of exclusive DLC for consoles wouldn’t be so imprinted on the minds of developers, and perhaps us gamers would be treated a little less like mindless sheep.
This is a call to arms: gamers of the world unite. We need to tell the corporations to cease this petty battle for DLC exclusivity. From now on it’s full exclusivity for a title or nothing at all. No more of these petty half-steps to nudge people towards choosing your console.
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Hell yeah. Fuck Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Burn them to the ground!
@Tom. Dude to be honest the Wii is really picking up again this year but it’s not fighting a battle with Sony or Microsoft, it does seem to be in a category of it’s own. It’s just Wii.
It’s a paradigm shift, didn’t you know? Wii makes us smile… (I wish I could put the joker face here)
At the end of the day, if one is going to do it, the other is going to have to follow at some point otherwise they lose out and become… well, Sony.
Sony are really behind on exclusives but I think they’ll only be fighting harder in the future for them, not giving up. It’s Microsoft that are pushing this. They are an agressive company, it’s what they do.
Timed exclusives are the worst, take for example the GTAIV DLC, I bet there are some people who had PS3s who went a bought a 360 to get that DLC. But then last week Rockstar announced that the DLC is coming to PS3 and PC on the 30th March meaning that those people wasted their money buying a new console.
It won’t be a waste so long as they pick up some of the decent 360 exclusive titles. You know what I’m talking about… Viva piñata!
Also I’m flattered to be included in the argument about naff exclusive dlc. “luke didn’t like gay tony, so it must be shit!” right on!
Theres no way that DLC in itself is at a point where it makes a significant amount of people buy a second console. And I don’t want to hear that it does for you because anecdotal evidence from a section of the only market that it does affect doesn’t make for a strong case.
The monopolising of DLC, that Microsoft is doing does however have an effect on the public perception of the state of a console’s position in the market and therefore possibly increase sales to people choosing between the PS3 and XBOX. As downloadable content in general gets more popular exclusive DLC will start becoming more important to sales but it’s still early days.
Its all leading towards a future with only downloadable games and its a bleak prospect to me.
i freakin hate alone in the dark, it was probley the biggest let down ive had.