STOP THE PRESSES!
Kotaku announced the upcoming patch last Thursday, then apparently the forums went nuts. Capcom responded to the backlash, then responded a second time by calling the accusations "BS". No joke.
Now there's downloadable content readily available for purchase for countless games on both the 360 and the PS3, so what makes this different? This patch doesn't add new characters or vehicles, it just "unlocks" a new multiplayer mode. This has led people to believe that the content is on the disc, it's just not accessible without paying for it.
Normally speaking, I'd side with the consumers here, because it always seems companies are out to gouge people, but I really just don't get this. It really doesn't matter whether the content is on the disc or not. Let's look at it like this:
- It only costs $5.00. Even I can afford that, and I live on a tight budget.
- There's literally TONS of content on the disc. Nobody was saying "There needs to be more content" before this was announced.
- This is NO DIFFERENT than any other piece of downloadable content out there. Nobody complained when Bungie released map packs for Halo 3 that you had to pay for.
One of the other major complaints from people is that the release of this PDLC (paid downloadable content) is too soon after the release of the game. I'd like to shoo this answer away. It would seem that there is no winning here for game companies. If they release it too soon, then people say they should've just included it in the game. If they release it too late, people say they're not living up to the expectation for downloadable content (see: Mass Effect). This is early, so what? I'd rather have the content sooner than later, so once again, I fail to see an issue here.
The simple fact of the matter here is that if you don't want to pay for the content, don't buy it.
On a tangent, I would like to say that it looks really bad to respond to feedback as was done by Capcom's VP of Business Development, Christian Svensson (second response link above), who said
Calling your customers' feedback "BS" is not the way to develop or maintain a healthy customer/corporation relationship. Period."I'm sorry guys, but this is the part where I have to call 'BS'. RE5 is well worth every penny of $60. A huge game, with tons of replay value, loads of unlockables, new weapons, co-op, mercenaries mode, etc. If any game warrants its price point, it's RE5.
"Prior to the announcement of the Versus mode, no one complained they weren't getting their money's worth with the initial release because it packs TONS of value because it is an amazing game. So if people were already satisfied with what the package had, when we offer MORE, why is it people feel they've been somehow cheated? If you don't find value in our secondary offerings, the choice is simple, don't purchase it. If you do find it valuable (and we hope you do) please do buy it and enjoy it.
"Secondly, whenever we do PDLC, that content exists with its own budgets, it's own profit and loss analysis with its own forecasts. If it didn't, that extra content wouldn't have been put into production, because it did not fit within the production budget of the base product.
"The content that is shipping in the full game exists within its own budget. The content shipping afterward (regardless of how close to release it is... because the goal IS to have it release relatively closely to the base product's release) exists within its own budget.
"To try and have it release in a timeframe that is relatively close to the initial release, development starts well before the base product is on the shelves. There's no other way to keep it within 3 to 6 weeks of the initial release (which is the goal).
"And again, for those people looking at this anew, the DLC in question is not an unlock on the disc."
That being said, I agree with him in the principle of his argument. The heat being generated by fans is FAR in excess of what this announcement deserves. It is ridiculous.
Resident Evil 5 is a great game (attested to by the 400 million units shipped, 4 million+ downloads of the demo, and the fact that RE5 had the biggest launch day of any previous RE game, including the much-vaunted RE4) with a ton of content already included. It's more than most games offer for the same price tag. People need to be happy with what they are given and stop bitching about little things like this.
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