Risen 2 - Pre-Order DLC Bonus - "Treasure Island"

[mindcycle]

Deep Silver sent us a press release announcing a pre-order bonus DLC for Risen 2 titled Treasure Island. Those who pre-order from "selected territories at participating retailers" before the April release will get Treasure Island for free, otherwise worth 800 points / equivalent in real money:

Story DLC “Treasure Isle” exclusive pre-order bonus for Risen 2TM: Dark Waters
Ahoy, mates! Free booty for all pirates! Experience an exciting new story in the pursuit of Captain Steelbeard’s treasure in the pre-order bonus for pirate RPG by developer Piranha Bytes
31st January 2012 - Hampshire, UK/... Deep Silver today announced a special pre-order bonus that will be available for free for everyone who buys the engrossing pirate RPG Risen 2: Dark Waters before its release at the end of April.

The DLC with the fitting name “Treasure Isle” offers exclusive additional content for the intrepid adventurer. The player will embark on an extra story questline to uncover Captain Steelbeard's legendary treasure – a quest that will continue a plot element from the first Risen game and finally bring it to an exciting conclusion.

The story of the DLC revolves around Harlok, a cook on Steelbeard’s ship Elenor, who stole the secret clues that lead to the pirate captain’s hidden treasure. However it is only with the help of the player that Harlok is able to find it.

This quest will take the hero and Patty, Steelbeard’s daughter, to an unknown island that offers new environments to explore with many puzzles to solve, treasures to loot and mysteries to unravel. The player will discover a legendary item (only available in this DLC) - offering his character a permanent stat boost.

This exclusive pre-order bonus DLC with a value of £8.00 / 800 Microsoft Points, will be made available in selected territories at participating retailers.

via: http://www.rpgwatch.com/#18889

I was actually thinking about pre-ordering the game but i'm not sure how I feel about this tactic. Are they trying to raise the pre-order count, milk money from gamers for pulled content, or both? Why not just include a digital artbook, a discount, or something else not quest related as a pre-order bonus? Instead they pull content and then try and convince us that's somehow a good thing for us..? What about people who plan on buying this week one after a few reviews are out? They pay full price for a gimped game. Sense no make..

 

[KaOTiK]

I'll wait for a $10 Steam sale

 

[ImpulsE69]

It's called milking. If you give in and preorder be prepared to see this as the norm. I am very much against this trend and will not be getting this.

 

[Via]

This is still made by the original Gothic guys, right?

If so I might pre-order, but only to support them.

 

[mindcycle]

This is still made by the original Gothic guys, right?

If so I might pre-order, but only to support them.

Yeah, it's developed by Piranha Bytes, the original Gothic developers. This day one DLC nonsense is probably the publishers idea i'm sure but it's still going to be hard for me to want to support this.

 

[Via]

Let's see.....

I bought Gothic very cheap off of Amazon (around $15), and that's probably the game that has given me the most hours of fun of any game I've ever bought. I've replayed it many times.

I actually bought Gothic 2 before Gothic at Gamestop for $39.99 (remember when they had as many PC as console games?). I decided to hold off on playing it after reading online that you should play them in order, and I'm really glad I did. I'm sure it's given me almost as many good hours as Gothic.

I bought Gothic 3 on release day for $39.99 as well, and it was initally disappointing. But over the years the community (which I'm sure include some PB guys working for free) has made it into a great, open-world game. It's probably the last great PC-only RPG ever released.

I ordered Risen as soon as it came out, and the only playthrough I completed was great fun. I haven't been able to advance very far in subsequent attempts, but I'm still anxious to see what they improve ont the second game.

All in all - PB has served me well, and until they go down the crapper as a developer they deserve my support.

 

[Rhezuss]

Risen was awesome, a nice change compared to what was available this time around. Quite refreshing and unique "Gothic" style that I love.

@ Via: You're right, Gothic was so much fun back then and it's sad that we can't get anything like that nowadays.

 

[Mem]

I normally pre-order anyway for games I'm interested in so not an issue for me,I did like the first Risen so will be pre-ordering Risen 2 for sure,end of the day its your choice and decision on when you buy or not, so really not a problem.

 

[motsm]

It's called milking. If you give in and preorder be prepared to see this as the norm. I am very much against this trend and will not be getting this.

It already is the norm, and gamers as a whole have shown nothing but support for such tactics. Then they of course come to forums to bitch about it afterwords. :\

 

[thespyder]

via: http://www.rpgwatch.com/#18889

I was actually thinking about pre-ordering the game but i'm not sure how I feel about this tactic. Are they trying to raise the pre-order count, milk money from gamers for pulled content, or both? Why not just include a digital artbook, a discount, or something else not quest related as a pre-order bonus? Instead they pull content and then try and convince us that's somehow a good thing for us..? What about people who plan on buying this week one after a few reviews are out? They pay full price for a gimped game. Sense no make..

It's called marketing. And yes, the intent is to increase initial sale. Which, provided it is a good game, where is the harm? In actuality, the "Extra Content" will invariably become available to the general public in due time. so you aren't actually "Missing" anything.

And no one is saying they are trying to convince consumers that it is "Good for them". Just that they are trying to entice a more immediate return on investment.

Understand that production and development houses shell out all of their money up front. they pay for design and development before they see a penny (unless someone finances it in which case the financier ponys up the money beforehand). So the sooner they can get that money recouped, the better. The more they are able to pay their staff. The better they are able to put food on the table. And the more likely they are to get investments for future ventures. So the sooner after launch that they can get cash (or even before launch) the better off for them. And if you want to take it there, the better off for the consumer because they can stay in business and produce additional product.

if this kind of behavior surprises you, you must be very young indeed. It has been going on, and not just in video gaming, for almost as long as marketing has been around. Haven't you ever heard "And a free XXX for the first five hundred customers?"

 

[JSt0rm]

Risen is a good game however I barely touched the surface of it as I have no time and games with derp trails are easier. Shameful. Hopefully this summer slows down a bit and I will have some time to play video games seriously again.

 

[mindcycle]

And no one is saying they are trying to convince consumers that it is "Good for them". Just that they are trying to entice a more immediate return on investment.

Hmm.. I fail to see how including pulled content for pre-orders is not an attempt to convince consumers that pre-ordering is "good for them". Sure, it's also there to recoup costs faster, but it's also a tactic to entice more people to pre-order the game, so how again is that statement incorrect..?

if this kind of behavior surprises you, you must be very young indeed. It has been going on, and not just in video gaming, for almost as long as marketing has been around. Haven't you ever heard "And a free XXX for the first five hundred customers?"

Trust me, I get your point and understand marketing incentives and wanting to recoup costs. What I don't agree with is deliberately removing content from a game in order to attract more pre-orders as well as making additional money from DLC sales of said pulled content. Seems shady. If that makes me seem "young" in your eyes then so be it. If you agree with this practice then go right ahead and support it, i'm not stopping you. I just posed the question.

 

[ImpulsE69]

That's the part I find wrong with this. It's like saying: Pre-order this book and get chapter 5 free! In the context of the item, it just sounds like a sham. You don't feel you are getting an extra incentive to buy, it's the opposite.

Obviously the "part" is already there and it is a money grab attempt. It is not the same as offering somethign completely separate as a bonus.

And yet again...what is all this "software ppl gotta make money" mentality with software? EVERYTHING has money spent up front to produce...wtf this is getting old. They are NOT any different than anyone else. Get over it.

It may be a good game, but I find that not to be relevant here. Just wait, soon EVERY game will be episodic. You'll get less and less for your $4.99.

 

[thespyder]

Hmm.. I fail to see how including pulled content for pre-orders is not an attempt to convince consumers that pre-ordering is "good for them". Sure, it's also there to recoup costs faster, but it's also a tactic to entice more people to pre-order the game, so how again is that statement incorrect..?

So I can't help what you personally infer from the statement. but nothing like that is implied. Other than 'More' equals better and there is very little to disprove this.

Trust me, I get your point and understand marketing incentives and wanting to recoup costs. What I don't agree with is deliberately removing content from a game in order to attract more pre-orders as well as making additional money from DLC sales of said pulled content. Seems shady. If that makes me seem "young" in your eyes then so be it. If you agree with this practice then go right ahead and support it, i'm not stopping you. I just posed the question.

My suggestion is you re-read the quotes you include. This isn't integral to the plot line content. it is clearly stated as "Extra". Removing it or not including it in the initial product in no way breaks the game or prevents any advancement towards completion. In that it is analogus to any DLC you find for Fallout 3 or Skyrim or just about any other game out there. You can look at it as content "Removed" (primarily because that supports your umbrage) but it is more akin to "additional content" added to the already complete game.

And my "Young" comment was not meant to be insulting. Merely that marketers from all areas of consumerism have been doing this for decades. So to "Suddenly" find issue with it in this particular instance would seem to suggest that you were not aware of how prevelant it is. And as for "Fighting" it, You go Don Quixote. Tilt at them wind mills.

 

[mindcycle]

It may be a good game, but I find that not to be relevant here. Just wait, soon EVERY game will be episodic. You'll get less and less for your $4.99.

This is exactly why I have a hard time supporting tactics like this.

 

[mindcycle]

So I can't help what you personally infer from the statement. but nothing like that is implied. Other than 'More' equals better and there is very little to disprove this.

I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make here, so i'm just going to assume that we aren't on the same page concerning this. We may very well be talking about the same thing..

My suggestion is you re-read the quotes you include. This isn't integral to the plot line content. it is clearly stated as "Extra". Removing it or not including it in the initial product in no way breaks the game or prevents any advancement towards completion. In that it is analogus to any DLC you find for Fallout 3 or Skyrim or just about any other game out there. You can look at it as content "Removed" (primarily because that supports your umbrage) but it is more akin to "additional content" added to the already complete game.

Extra content is fine, but this was obviously either pulled from the game deliberately, or developed to push pre-orders and DLC purchases. Why? Because the game hasn't even gone gold yet, thus, the game code has no been finalized. They could just as easily stick this into the main game instead of restricting it or trying to milk DLC sales out of it. Just because it's not needed to advance the game doesn't make it any less shady to me.

And my "Young" comment was not meant to be insulting. Merely that marketers from all areas of consumerism have been doing this for decades. So to "Suddenly" find issue with it in this particular instance would seem to suggest that you were not aware of how prevelant it is. And as for "Fighting" it, You go Don Quixote. Tilt at them wind mills.

Ah, the path of least resistance.. The old "bend over and take it" approach. You do still have a voice no matter how jaded you are or how ineffective you may think your voice actually is. I guess i'm just a little bit more optimistic than you. This isn't the only trend that I disagree with in the gaming industry, so to think I "suddenly" have issues with only "one" particular shady practice is pretty short sighted of you, I must say. If my comments caused at least one person to question this tactic before blinding making a purchase based on PR speak, then writing what I did was worth it to me.

 

[NoSoup4You]

3 months after release it'll be on a Steam sale for $25 and the DLC will be half price. Discerning gamers will wait for this, especially considering this is a single player game afterall.

Unless of course you just can't wait, in which case you're at the mercy of the publisher but you already knew that...

 

[thespyder]

So I have to ask. Did you ever play Baldur's Gate 2? There is extra content in the form of a castle that is, for all intents and purposes, it's own dungeon. it has no ties to anything else in the game. This is what I consider "Extra content". When it was developed is immaterial. The same thing for the DLC for Dragon Age: Origins or Fallout 3. regardless of when it was created, it is still extraneous to the original intended deliverable product. It is above and beyond what the publisher intended to release.

Part of this is because, when scoping work, a certain amount of time and resources go into it. And that time and those resources are used to calculate profit. Cost per unit of sales. The Extra content is calculated outside of that amount as it is, as intended, a separate comodity. Which is what we are talking about.

And as for how optimistic you are over what I am, could be. But someone who expects to sit in first class even though he only has paid for a coach ticket is also optimistic.

Absolutely, use your voice. Raise arms against tyrany. Rage against the dying of the light. But your initial post could be boiled down to "Doesn't this seem odd?" And the true and realistic answer to this is No. It is business as usual and has been going on for a very long time. And taking a stance against this instance is not going to be the pebble that starts the avalanch. If you really want to go against "This type of activity", i would target gaming in general rather than one specific game. Or stores that offer a bonus gift to the first 100 customers in the store. Or the public psyche that responds to feeling extra special because they get rewarded for a given action.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah I'll just wait. Risen wasn't that great and I have a crap load of games to play anyway. Plus places like Greenmangaming will probably sell it 10% cheaper than steam which will offset the cost of the DLC.