Get ready to pay for more content that you already bought.
Pay for me again, you will!In a move that surprises no one, Namco Bandai announced this morning that Darth Vader and Yoda would be available as downloadable characters in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, respectively, of Soulcalibur IV for $5 a pop. I'm a pretty big proponent for the positive powers of downloadable content, but it's hard to defend against accusations that publishers are using DLC as a way to charge extra for content that should've been a part of the core package when they pull some very plainly orchestrated shit like this. It has long since been figured out that the actual data for both Vader and Yoda is already on the disc, yet Namco Bandai insists on maintaining the charade that this is a reaction to "overwhelming fan response" and not a cynically calculated plan to squeeze an extra $5 out of you.
I probably shouldn't be quite so devisive, but I find such practices fairly unethical, and the only way you're going to stop publishers like Namco Bandai from playing dirty pool like this is to not help make it profitable, no matter how much you love Star Wars.
Face it guys ... this will be the normal thing for Namco and many other publishers from now on.
You really thing people did not buy the full game because it didn't have both characters in it? You paid for the game already. Even if only 1 person buys this DLC & $5 etc ... thats $5 more they have if they didn't bother doing it.
Its a WIN WIN WIN situation for them and many other game publishers will jump onboard this revenue stream very soon. :(
That's freaking pathetic. They already had everything completely done and finished and could have given everyone both those characters on both the 360 and PS3, but of course they'd rather charge more money for them. What a shameful move.
That's pretty shitty of them, especially considering Soul Calibur 4 wasn't even worth $60 in the first place. The story was barebones and the whole package felt right at home at $40. That's how I see it at least. $65 for the complete experience though? That's outrageous!
I will eventually play this game when I get it from Gamefly. If I owned the game I would not purchase the downloadable content. These are things that should have been in the game from day 1.
Downloadable songs for music games = good. Downloadable extras for Burnout= Awesome. Downloadable content for Warhaw= Sweet. Downloadable characters for any game = BS.
Nothing new. I was stupid enough to pay for new clothes in Virtua Figher 5 on 360 that was already in the game. The internet enabled generation of consoles does do a lot of good but also a lot of bad. In the old days that content would be unlocked already since it's ON THE DISC and the "release it now, patch it later" mentality doesn't help. There are also some people who can't access the internet and they have to play broken games since they can't download the patch.
I still say that it beats buying all three versions of Soul Calibur II and never getting to have the exclusive characters fight each other. Maybe I'm just a big, stupid, fat, bloated idiot..
1up.com is reporting that the "download" size is only 148kb? Whatever happened to the days of unlockable characters and items? Yeah fuck this Namco Bandai!
Go fuck yourself. Seriously - take your $5 unlock key and shove it straight up your ass. Not only will I not buy this, but I urge others to not buy ANY Namco DLC for any game EVER until they learn that when we pay $60 for a disc, we expect access every last bit burned on that disc.
I agree with all of you. I mean how stupid can you get? The marketing dept. (which I'm sure had a hand in this disgrace) need to realize that they can't just shove shit down our throats and expect us to swallow it. Unethical to the point of blackmail and extortion. Of course, this is business and businesses are here to make a profit, even in the gaming industry, but this is going too far. I hope a lot of people are as smart as we are here and say NO to this.
Yeah, I'm with you, Ryan. I'd dl Vader for free, but I'm not paying extra. It's more about principle for me than just getting an extra character. Horseshit. By the way, people, check my blog. I've got insider information from EA about a hugely important announcement that will be made next week!
That's like buying a hamburger only to find that your pickles have been locked up inside little tiny briefcases and you're not allowed to eat them unless you go back up to the counter and pay an extra 25 cents for the combination to the locks... or something like that.
Whoever didn't see this comming either doesn't care about this game, or was too disturbed at Ivy's hampster smuggling to notice, but Ryan's divisiveness is completely valid and just. It's been a sickening precedent that Namco Bandai has set charging extra to unlock content that the developer ALREADY made, and is ALREADY on the final retail product that one ALREADY paid full price for, and can't unlock otherwise be it natural gameplay progression etc. so they don't have to pay their developers (internal or not) for the extra time and extra work it would take to make more content. But where this reaches a critical mass is the 5 dollars. 5 fucking bucks for a key to unlock one character!?!?!? For 5 more bucks one could buy the full-featured Soul Calibur 1 on XBLA. It won't be long before they start locking out gameplay modes. I think Jeff said it best on one of the bombcasts, "Scamco Bandai!!"
has namco bandai ever put out any "real" DLC? This whole unlock code thing is getting rediculous. I dont know of a single game that they have released where they really had DLC, not dlkeys.
I dont understand why DLC costs so damn much. Seems if they charged half of what they do, or 1/5 in this case it would sell 10x more. 5$ fucking dollars is REDICULAS for a poor or broken char. I really hope they dont make much money on this.
112 Comments