EA has sunk it's teeth into Bioware.

[mwmorph]

Mass Effect's Bring Down the Sky was sold on XBL because MS requires a fee for non demos IIRC. The PC Download was free though. Now Pinnacle Station was released yesterday and it's available at the EA store for $5.
http://eastore.ea.com/store/ea...00/productID.152041300

Goodbye Bioware, please welcome essentially EA Alberta, Canada.

 

[TheVrolok]

Given that EA bought them, what, a year and a half ago, I'm surprised it took this long. Honestly, though, like I said in the thread on this topic in the console forum, I would gladly give BioWare my $5, even if it does end up in EA's pocket. I've never had a problem with an EA game, and BioWare has been nothing but gold so far.. hopefully both of those things keep up.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Bioware has been charging for "premium modules" for a while now. Long before the EA buyout (see NeverWinter Nights' Pirates of the Sword Coast, King Maker, etc., all PC exclusives). Normally there is no need to purchase this "DLC" due to the massive amounts of player made content, but AFAIK there is no public toolkit for Mass Effect.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Is your complaint that you don't think it's worth $5? If it is worth $5 to you, then this seems like the definition of a win-win scenario. They win for being able to make a bit more money on a follow up, and you win because you give them $5 for something you prefer over the $5.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
I've never had a problem with an EA game

Battlefield 2 just to name one.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
I've never had a problem with an EA game

Battlefield 2 just to name one.

Never played it. So I'm going to have to stand by my statement.

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: TheVrolok
I've never had a problem with an EA game

Battlefield 2 just to name one.

Never played it. So I'm going to have to stand by my statement.

I'll tell you this. Go pick up the game for like $8 on Amazon. It's a HELL of a game!

 

[Zenoth]

I don't see a problem charging money for Pinnacle Station, but from what I read it's not even worth its price, it seems to be even less interesting than Operation Anchorage was to Fallout 3, they both even have similar game-play concepts. I won't buy it simply because I was sorely disappointed by Bring Down the Sky, and that one was free, if there's something that BioWare failed at, which is something they rarely do, was to bring quality extra content to Mass Effect, not to mention to fix bugs and change the inventory interface (which is a pure mess up, even on the 360 version), it took them a year for 1.02 and that's unacceptable when you look at the company name again, it's freakin' BioWare, but fortunately the game itself is good. They could have charged me money for two, three or more DLCs if they wanted, and I would have bought them if the general consensus would have been good about them, but as I mentioned even though BDtS was free it wasn't fun, and painfully short.

I hope they do a better DLC-related job for Mass Effect 2, if they do intend to make one or more for it.

 

[Dumac]

I hate DLC like this. I absolutely loathe it.

Rather than paying $5 for a few hours of lousy entertainment, I would rather hack over $20 or $30 for a hundred more hours, as in the good old days...

Cheap DLC expansions regularly have little to no substantial content, as with must DLC in general.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

This isn't necessarily due to EA, and besides it's $5. Either buy it or don't, but don't whine about the price. If you can't bring yourself to spend $5 to support one of the top video game production houses in the world then I have no sympathy. Content isn't free to create. Yes, it's awesome when we get content for free, but we're not entitled to it.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Dumac
I hate DLC like this. I absolutely loathe it.

Then don't buy it.

 

[Kalmah]

I'm going to quote myself from the mass effect thread.

I dunnu... as much as I hate EA.. when did we get to the point as gamers to expect stuff for free?
Console gamers pay for it, pc gamers complain about it.
Chances are, yes Bioware was probably planning on it being free. So it most likely is EAs fault.. but do we really need to be this stingy?
A 3 hour expansion is probably more than worth $5. Consider the devs payroll. With EA probably leaching extra amounts of cash from Bioware they probably need it to keep the good employees around.

On a side note, Bioware released several mini-adventures for NWN1 for money as well before EA was in the picture. But Bioware isn't gay about it.. (horse armor anyone?????? oblivi......)

By the way, I bought this expansion and it's abosolutely worth it. It has a 'combat simulator' where you can fight endless battles in 4 different game modes. You get to choose the location and game type.

Capture the flag
survival
hunt
I forgot the 4th

 

[mwmorph]

If you really want ot know why this is a bad thing, here goes.

NWN had premium modules, but they were significantly longer. They were literally mini expansions. For $5 you got 6-8 hours of gameplay. for $9 you got 8-12 hours and for $10-$11 you got 18-20+. This is also not just some battles thrown together, but also a good amount of story and a rich world. The price paid for what you got was much better. Here you get minimal story and a combat simulator with 2-3 hours of game play that you have to go back into Mass Effect just to get to.

I would not mind paying $7-$8 per DLC if they added more than 2 hours of gameplay. If they released a DLC every 3-4 months with 6 hours of gameplay each so after ~ a year we had what was essentially an expansion, I would do it. The NWN modules were excellent examples of this. It took them 2 years, but the premium modules added together to about 65-70 extra hours of gameplay, that's a legitimate 2 expansions or so.

The problem with DLC now is it directly impacts the game experience, especially in a game as story based as Mass Effect. It's like getting a book and reading chapters 1-5, 7-12 and 14-20, coming back every 6 months to read chapters 6 and 13 over the next 12 months. It's not a worthwhile endeavor, for something like 2 hours of gameplay and story, it actually detracts from the gameplay experience because you know that a) you have to go back and beat it again to get the full story (so something like 24 hours of gameplay just to get 3 more hours of plot) or you're missing out on something. Neither is an attractive prospect for someone that had beaten this game like 10 different times already.

I have bought every Bioware game/expansion(and the Obsidian follow-ups) and premium module since NWN(except Sonic Chronicles for the DS and Mass Effect Galaxy for the Iphone) and I will probably buy Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, etc.

In fact I will probably buy this DLC too but I won't be happy about it. I have to buy it Mass Effect is my favorite game and I need to know the rest of the story no matter how small, but I think the idea of long delayed DLC is flawed and charging for small DLCs, doubly so.

Expansions >> DLCs and 2-3 hours of DLC that you have to pay for. It's really just nickel and diming you without them having to put the appropriate amount of work in. $20 or $30 buys you an expansion with 30 hours of gameplay and story. $20 or $30 at this rate would buy you 8-12 hours of disjointed gameplay and minimal story.

 

[skace]

Bring Down the Sky was a real nice addition to Mass Effect, but only from the standpoint that I played it at the same time I played the actual game. If I had purchased it after the fact it would have felt extremely weak. Likewise, Pinnacle Station probably feels the same. You have to come up with something substantial for these updates, even at $5.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
This isn't necessarily due to EA, and besides it's $5. Either buy it or don't, but don't whine about the price. If you can't bring yourself to spend $5 to support one of the top video game production houses in the world then I have no sympathy. Content isn't free to create. Yes, it's awesome when we get content for free, but we're not entitled to it.

Since when did EA earn this title? Seems like "the banes of computer gamers' existences" or "the bringer of doom to beloved old PC franchises" would be more appropriate.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I think he's talking about Bioware.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
I think he's talking about Bioware.

Well even if he is, how long will bioware last? Westwood and bullfrog didnt last long, and i dont mean as companies i mean the quality of their games, the former westwood franchises all suck now and the bullfrog ones are non existant. Maxis as well, simcity socieites and spore? Horrible games! How long will it be before bioware crumbles and stops putting out quality stuff... Its under the EA banner now, wont be long.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Dumac
Rather than paying $5 for a few hours of lousy entertainment, I would rather hack over $20 or $30 for a hundred more hours, as in the good old days...

Those good old days never existed. A hundred hours? Most expansion packs were trashy and small.

 

[Zensal]

Originally posted by: skace
Bring Down the Sky was a real nice addition to Mass Effect, but only from the standpoint that I played it at the same time I played the actual game. If I had purchased it after the fact it would have felt extremely weak. Likewise, Pinnacle Station probably feels the same. You have to come up with something substantial for these updates, even at $5.

It did feel weak. I couldn't even play it because I had already finished the game. Had to spend 4 hours getting to the point where I could even play it.

 

[jonks]

Dead Space was in my top 3 gaming experiences last year.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Dumac
Rather than paying $5 for a few hours of lousy entertainment, I would rather hack over $20 or $30 for a hundred more hours, as in the good old days...

Those good old days never existed. A hundred hours? Most expansion packs were trashy and small.

Content creation has also only gotten more expensive on top of it.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
This isn't necessarily due to EA, and besides it's $5. Either buy it or don't, but don't whine about the price. If you can't bring yourself to spend $5 to support one of the top video game production houses in the world then I have no sympathy. Content isn't free to create. Yes, it's awesome when we get content for free, but we're not entitled to it.

Since when did EA earn this title? Seems like "the banes of computer gamers' existences" or "the bringer of doom to beloved old PC franchises" would be more appropriate.

I was talking about Bioware.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Maximilian

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
I think he's talking about Bioware.

Well even if he is, how long will bioware last? Westwood and bullfrog didnt last long, and i dont mean as companies i mean the quality of their games, the former westwood franchises all suck now and the bullfrog ones are non existant. Maxis as well, simcity socieites and spore? Horrible games! How long will it be before bioware crumbles and stops putting out quality stuff... Its under the EA banner now, wont be long.

Wow, are you really going to go and blame EA for Spore's failure? REALLY? Because if you read any of Will Wright's interviews late in the development phase or after release you'll know that he intentionally dumbed down the game by his own choice to try to make it more popular. As far as I can tell he had complete creative freedom for that title. Sim City 4 was released under EA and with the Rush Hour expansion pack it is easily the best Sim City game ever.

As for the Westwood titles, Red Alert 2 has an average rating of 86% and C&C3 has 85% and numerous awards.

I was talking about Bioware in my post above but since you brought it up, no, I don't think an EA partnership is necessarily a death knell.

 

[JoshGuru7]

I can certainly sympathize if your complaint is the price level. What I incorrectly drew from your original post was that your problem was with their being a price at all and you expected them to put out content for free. After all, Collector's Edition versions of games often don't even include any real in-game content and can sell for $10-$20 more, so $5 for DLC sounds entirely reasonable to me from a price point depending on the DLC of course.

Of course the nice thing about prices in a free market is that they exist to inform and we don't need to make an objective statement about them. If the people who feel that Pinnacle Station is worth $5 are in the distinct minority then I expect you'll see a price drop in the future, whereas if it sells well then I imagine the next Bioware DLC will cost $5 (or more) as well.

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7
Of course the nice thing about prices in a free market is that they exist to inform and we don't need to make an objective statement about them. If the people who feel that Pinnacle Station is worth $5 are in the distinct minority then I expect you'll see a price drop in the future, whereas if it sells well then I imagine the next Bioware DLC will cost $5 (or more) as well.

I get the impression many of these attempts at premium DLC are really just experiments to gauge public reaction. I don't see them making back their production costs from sales of Pinnacle Station. They probably had planned to release it for free like BDTS and then some marketing schlub came up with the brilliant idea to slap on a price tag, just for the heck it. "Hey, who knows, maybe it'll actually sell..."

They could have easily eaten the development costs and written it off as a promotional expense for ME2, keeping up interest in the franchise.

Personally, I'm going to hold off and save my money for ME2 and DAO and other games. I waited more than year for the PC release of Mass Effect anyway and then picked it cheap. I can wait a while and see if they eventually give away Pinnacle Station when the ME2 hype machine starts ramping up for the release. If it's not free, it's no big loss to me.

I don't regret skipping Horse Armor either.

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Normally there is no need to purchase this "DLC" due to the massive amounts of player made content, but AFAIK there is no public toolkit for Mass Effect.

I've read all the requests and reasons why there isn't a toolkit on the BioWare forums, but I really wish they would have released one. Maybe they'll open it up after ME3 and the trilogy is complete.