Worst Deals/Trends of 2012

With the new consoles just over the horizon, consumers need to get a little thrifty when it comes to spending money on games this year more than ever. Here's a look back on some raw deals that console gamers the world over had to endure to get through to the new year.

$20 XBLA Games - An argument can be made for the content provided by Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition but it was being sold for much less money on PCs long before the game was properly released. The real stinker is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD ver. which I enjoyed playing multiplayer quite a bit. However considering the work and polish that went into something like Street Fighter 3: Online Edition it's a damn shame Capcom released such a low sodium version of a classic fighting game.

Season Passes - It's clear that a lot of people intended to buy either Halo 4 or Black Ops 2 as their end all be all game for the year. The problem comes with exploiting the rabid fan base's desire for more content such as maps and modes. Buying a season pass would bring the total of either games to a whopping $110, perhaps even more in other countries. We need a summit meeting to determine the true value of maps in this day and age.

The Hand-Held of Tomorrow, Today! - The mobile gaming market is seeing huge swing towards smart phones and less to the hand held consoles crafted by Nintendo and Sony. The 3DS seems to be finding it's footing very slowly while the Vita is hitting a really rough start. Considering both systems release games at $40 its a wonder we keep coming back for more. Case in point Call of Duty: Declassified is $40 at this moment for crying out loud. There is no justice.

Happily Ever After - A game as niche` as Asura's Wrath should be happy that anyone paid $60 during it's launch window, but apparently that's not enough. If you want the ending that needs to be seen you need to dole out some extra cash or you can settle for the bull crap of the original end. Similarly the Levia-thong DLC for Mass Effect 3 makes both the ending and the entire universe into a much richer experience overall. The notion that someone needs to play it if they like Mass Effect is both completely true and utterly ludicrous.

Toys! Toys! Toys! - Arguably the biggest money sink this year is giant. Skylanders: Giants that is. With dozens of statuettes to buy and collect this is the most questionable value proposition this year. It felt like a fairly novel idea last year but if they need to put out a whole new line with each subsequent game then they need to check themselves before they riggity-wreck themselves.

Locking crucial story content behind DLC/Pre-order bonuses is the worst.

Other shitty trends? Awful half-assed PC ports of games primarily created for the console that end up not looking much better than the console, having locked framerates for no reason, or -- at best -- requiring you to go through hoops to download additional texture packs on the PC to play with PC quality content on a PC copy of a PC game that you bought to play on the PC, because I guess they figure you might not want to enjoy PC quality textures on your PC game by default.

Also, instead of this Season Pass bullshit, just tell me you want me to give you $90 for the game and stop this nickel-and-diming bullshit. It's the same bullshit you get with taxes. "I only paid x% in taxes, this year!". Oh, really? Did you count your sales taxes? Propery tax? Car registration tax? The fees added to the fuel you buy, the telephone service you buy, the internet service you buy, and everything else?

I'd at least be willing to have game prices go up to $70 honestly than pay for this additional content (usually only at a discount if you do it ahead of time), when you have no idea what that content actually will be. For all the people that bitch about the uncertainty of Kickstarter projects, I wonder how many pay $30-$50 up-front for a "season" of DLC that they don't even remotely know about?

Also, shitty payola/influenced journalism -- but I guess everything else on this list and in this thread is more likely to change than this.

ok, I'm gonna take the bullet. "Gamers are sexist", don't think I need to say more. Oh, and Kickstarter.

Still don't understand the hate for season passes, it just seems that gamers have to hate everything.

Season passes--no need for a summit. People will pay what they want to pay. If devs ask too much, they won't sell and the price will come down. If anything, it seems that developers have long underestimated the value gamers place on extra content, hence the higher prices. Of course, that means that devs will give more resources to creating maps, therefore more maps. Which, if you like maps, is a fantastic thing. If you don't like them--don't buy them.

Skylanders is definitely up there at the top, and I fell for it myself. I was just going to order a starter kit and fill up so I had atleast one of all elements. Worked great for about two days, then the next paycheck came and suddenly I ordered some more little useless plastic toys for $150... and that's just to get the complete set of Spyro's Adventure figures. I got Giants left... *shudder*

I blame Jeff for this miniature madness.

I would have to say season passes. If every piece of content put out for a season pass ends up being good, then it' can be a worthwhile purchase that saves you a little cash in the long run, but since you have no real way of knowing ahead of time, you're taking a big gamble paying a larger sum of money in advance for that content. It's precisely what the developers/publishers are betting on. There's no way in hell I would've bought the Saints Row 3 pass if had known how underwhelming its DLC was going to be. However, the Borderlands 2 season pass has been well worth it up to this point. The season pass concept has both its pros and cons but I would feel a lot better if it didn't exist at all.

For me, it definitely comes down to "Happily Ever After" (good name) and "The Precursor All-Story." The former is a trend that needs to stop here, though I really genuinely disagree that Leviathan is part of that problem in the same way as Asura's Wrath; they wrote something new, and it's huge, but it's like all the stuff going on with the necromancer in the book of The Hobbit. Yeah, it's happening at the same time, and it explains why there are trolls between The Shire and Rivendell, or giant spiders in Mirkwood, but it's absolutely ancillary to Bilbo's tale, and it sounds like Leviathan is the same. But the fact that it happened once is enough.

The Precursor All-Story is more of a "chiggity-check yourself before you wriggity-wreck yourself" trend, but we are indeed all very tired of that particular one after four runs through it this year. Not that it wasn't deserved in almost every case; Assassin's Creed has been that way since ACII, Mass Effect probably executed it better than any of the others, Prometheus was nothing if not fascinating and a good idea, and Halo 4 has had the Forerunners lying in the shadows for a trilogy. But it's all a bit much!

Want to know what's actually the worst trend? People who complain loudly about how awful something is, and then buy it anyways. "I hate how Resident Evil is all actionized now... Better go give them 60 dollars!" "They shouldn't sell me things I want in the DLC! DLC should be things I don't want! Now I have to buy the DLC!" "Season Passes! You never get a good value out of them, I hate that I have to buy them all and never play the content!"

It's not exactly what you're asking for, but for me, it's people calling other people entitled. It's a complete joke that somehow everyone decided that complaining about a product you've paid for is 'entitlement.'

@OneKillWonder_: I kind of get this, but nothing's stopping you from buying a season pass after the content's all out. It usually goes on sale by that time, too, at least on XBL.

@Ramone said:

Locking crucial story content behind DLC/Pre-order bonuses is the worst.

This. The Mass Effect 3 and Asura's Wrath situation are terrible. Locking content that everyone should have behind a pay wall.

@zombie2011 said:

Still don't understand the hate for season passes, it just seems that gamers have to hate everything.

Yeah, you get a discount on content you were going to buy anyway and people who just want some of it/wait and see if it is worth it can still purchase it separately for the amount it was going to cost anyway.

It's not exactly what you're asking for, but for me, it's people calling other people entitled. It's a complete joke that somehow everyone decided that complaining about a product you've paid for is 'entitlement.'

season passes. it's like giving them money to not knowing what is coming out.

bad ports to PC, bad making of the game. optimize that game instead of half assing the game. grand theft auto 4 comes to mind. people complained about how their great computer couldn't even play the game.

DLC in general. i don't like it too much. i try not to buy it.

@Brodehouse said:

Want to know what's actually the worst trend? People who complain loudly about how awful something is, and then buy it anyways. "I hate how Resident Evil is all actionized now... Better go give them 60 dollars!" "They shouldn't sell me things I want in the DLC! DLC should be things I don't want! Now I have to buy the DLC!" "Season Passes! You never get a good value out of them, I hate that I have to buy them all and never play the content!"

sad but true.

the reason all this useless DLC keeps getting released isn't because game companies are evil and will do anything for your money. ITS BECAUSE PEOPLE KEEP FUCKING BUYING IT.

@Ramone said:

Locking crucial story content behind DLC/Pre-order bonuses is the worst.

@JacDG said:

@zombie2011 said:

Still don't understand the hate for season passes, it just seems that gamers have to hate everything.

Yeah, you get a discount on content you were going to buy anyway and people who just want some of it/wait and see if it is worth it can still purchase it separately for the amount it was going to cost anyway.

No, you get a (maybe) discount on content that you may or may not buy anyways. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't buy the Saints Row: The Third pass, because a lot of the content sort of sucked. You are getting a discount on a completely unknown quantity. It's like giving Soupy Sales $20 for what's behind Door Number 3.

Important story elements locked behind DLC that could have otherwise improved the original release of the game and instead just tarnishes the developers and the game. Mass Effect 3's From Ashes DLC should have been included within the main game but instead was day one DLC and the price they were asking was ludicrous and even though I haven't played Asura's Wrath locking a proper ending behind DLC feels like highway robbery for people who pay full price. I remember Prince of Persia 2008 also did this with their ending which was a shame because that game was really good that ended poorly as a result of the DLC.

Perhaps I should clarify my current situation on the topic of questionable deals so as not to sound too remorseful. I haven't played Halo 4 or Black Ops 2 but they're currently in my 1 game Gamefly subscription. I only brought it up as a general discussion on trends in the market. I don't own a 3DS or a Vita but I have a phone, my DS is around. I just don't see the appeal in having these crazy expensive devices in my current day to day life. Nothing's really catching my attention on either at the moment but I go to a pretty awesome website that does quick looks of such games.

I rented Asura's Wrath from gamefly and bought the ending before sending the game back. I'll probably pick up a copy since the price has been reduced. Still weird that I ended up paying for an ending regardless. I bought Mass Effect 3 at launch but only went back to play Levia-thong recently and had my mind blown. How could they leave such good stuff out? And I don't anything Skylander. It just seems like the definition of insanity. Speaking of which I bought Far Cry 3 from Wal-Mart and it has a super lame logo painted on the box art. The only difference is a couple animals are different color and you start with a silenced sniper rifle. Shady stuff.

I'm going to say it. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD ver. was a bum deal. Twenty bucks for a super cool fighting with an utter lack of features like other Capcom digital releases. Street Fighter 3: Online Edition was crazy good. It had a slick tutorial and those cool challenge bars and everything. While I enjoyed my time with the game the best I can say is that it had a decent replay system. I played online matches too much to enjoy the bizarre story mode. Yes I can feel it. Remorse, "Oh woe is me I think I spent a little too much damn money." Well what's done is done but it's healthy for consumers to look back on mistakes and learn from them. I start this thread not to bring tears but to spread wisdom and generate discussion.

Like other people said. I don't really blame companies but consumers. You say the game looks like shit yet you buy the damn thing full price! You wish they would stop making DLC yet you get it the second the digital marketplaces are updated! People are idiots. That is all.

@Mezmero said:

I bought Far Cry 3 from Wal-Mart and it has a super lame logo painted on the box art.

Also, very much this. Having retailers stamp their ugly ass logos on video game boxes? Really? REALLY??? I'm happy none of my games have this on it. I think it's more of a Ubisoft thing right now though since I've only seen it on AC3 and you say it's on Far Cry 3. For shame Ubisoft.

@Mezmero said:

Sony. The 3DS seems to be finding it's footing very slowly

I think you may be underestimating the popularity of the 3DS. It has already surpassed the all-time sales of the PS3 in Japan. Whether there are good games to justify a purchase is debatable, but there's no denying that in terms of raw sale, the numbers are good.

@Mezmero said:

Similarly the Levia-thong DLC for Mass Effect 3 makes both the ending and the entire universe into a much richer experience overall. The notion that someone needs to play it if they like Mass Effect is both completely true and utterly ludicrous.

True that. There's some serious rectoning/ending addressing going on in that. I don't hold with the idea that it existed all along and was 'cut content' more that it's something that shouldn't be required in order to better understand the main story Vs simply extra missions. LoTSB added to ME2, but it wasn't essential information. Where as Leviathan is a massive reveal to the reaper background that puts the entire ending in context. Assholes...

@iam3green said:

season passes. it's like giving them money to not knowing what is coming out.

It's kind of like pre-ordering a game, but with a discount as well. I don't see the problem with that.

Sure, the DLC could suck, but hey, if you pre-order a game, that GAME could suck as well.

Season passes. Total gamble, and they end up going on sale in a few months - infuriating for those who shelled out in the first place.

$20 XBLA games is more overdue really. A lot of the best games i've played this year were basically under-priced in retrospect. Walking Dead for $25 total is fair. It's a 14-15 hour game. I was ready to pay $15 for Fez, was surprised it was $10, and in the end would have been happy paying $60 for it.

Downloadables have caught up in such a major way that there needs to be a more reasonable avenue pricing-wise. Perhaps this can be the place where "AA" games can exist now. The Bomb crew has talked a lot about how the mid-tier game seems to exist less and less... maybe it's just moving?

@MURDERSMASH said:

@iam3green said:

season passes. it's like giving them money to not knowing what is coming out.

It's kind of like pre-ordering a game, but with a discount as well. I don't see the problem with that.

Sure, the DLC could suck, but hey, if you pre-order a game, that GAME could suck as well.

I don't think i've seen a single case where the season pass didn't go on sale before the DLC was done being released. That is outrageous IMHO.

Like other people said. I don't really blame companies but consumers. You say the game looks like shit yet you buy the damn thing full price! You wish they would stop making DLC yet you get it the second the digital marketplaces are updated! People are idiots. That is all.

@Mezmero said:

I bought Far Cry 3 from Wal-Mart and it has a super lame logo painted on the box art.

Also, very much this. Having retailers stamp their ugly ass logos on video game boxes? Really? REALLY??? I'm happy none of my games have this on it. I think it's more of a Ubisoft thing right now though since I've only seen it on AC3 and you say it's on Far Cry 3. For shame Ubisoft.

I don't get the hate for Season passes... if you know that you are the kind of person who is going to buy every little stupid thing for a game you might as well save some money. If not then buy the stuff you want piece meal. I don't see what the anger is about it seems really like an either or scenario here to me.

@awesomeusername said:

Like other people said. I don't really blame companies but consumers. You say the game looks like shit yet you buy the damn thing full price! You wish they would stop making DLC yet you get it the second the digital marketplaces are updated! People are idiots. That is all.

@Mezmero said:

I bought Far Cry 3 from Wal-Mart and it has a super lame logo painted on the box art.

Also, very much this. Having retailers stamp their ugly ass logos on video game boxes? Really? REALLY??? I'm happy none of my games have this on it. I think it's more of a Ubisoft thing right now though since I've only seen it on AC3 and you say it's on Far Cry 3. For shame Ubisoft.

The Far Cry and AC Wal-mart boxes are FAR less obtrusive than the Sleeping Dogs and Tekken Tag 2 and Hitman boxes as they had HUGE dead center logos printed on the artwork. At least the Far Cry and AC ones are thin blue bars at the top which is tolerable.

@Demoskinos said:

The Far Cry and AC Wal-mart boxes are FAR less obtrusive than the Sleeping Dogs and Tekken Tag 2 and Hitman boxes as they had HUGE dead center logos printed on the artwork. At least the Far Cry and AC ones are thin blue bars at the top which is tolerable.

I'm tempted to Google it, but I'd probably vomit. But I think we can all agree that all logos on game covers are terrible.

^^This is too much also. It's like a knife scratching my butt bones from the inside of my butt.

Also, I see what you almost did there.

The Far Cry and AC Wal-mart boxes are FAR less obtrusive

I really like the trend of the season pass being included with the collector's edition like with Halo 4.

Not a fan of multiplayer maps being recycled for single player content like Black Ops 2 and Mass Effect 3.

I got minecraft for free, One of my most played games this year. Now it looks stupid.

@Ramone said:

Locking crucial story content behind DLC/Pre-order bonuses is the worst.

@Demoskinos said:

I don't get the hate for Season passes... if you know that you are the kind of person who is going to buy every little stupid thing for a game you might as well save some money. If not then buy the stuff you want piece meal. I don't see what the anger is about it seems really like an either or scenario here to me.

Problems arise when the relative quality of the DLC content is not worth the asking-price of the season pass. Saints Row 3 is a perfect example where people clearly expected the DLC to be quality content based off the quality of the base game but the content itself turned out to be utter garbage.

I would go so far as to say that only Borderlands has succeeded in offering content that one might consider to be worth the price of a season pass so far - not that I'm particularly interested in Borderlands, but I can see the appeal.

Online passes and logging into accounts in the game itself are still the worst things in my book, not necessarily new, but more prominent this year.

The inflexible pricing on retail is off putting. Some titles really are worth $80 or so to their audience, but on the retail release side their is a conscious effort to pretend that every game is worth exactly $60 at release (aside from Sega maybe, points to them). It would be nice if the asking price was a assessment of the product (and not in terms of whether it was good - I still want the game to make the best title possible in the context of their scope) rather than being picked out of habit. E.g. If important single or multiplayer elements are being parted out because you really want more than $60, I would just want the company to increase the base price or make it clear that the $60 dollar price point is less than all of the important points in the full thing.

Usually this has also lead to the games that were really not worth it dropping in price very quickly. But my concern is that companies are making less money overall (and not giving cheaper to produce franchises a chance to grow) because the period that should get the most retail sales (initial month or so) ends up being at a horribly unattractive price point. And then dropping the price to the 30 to 20 dollar range is irritating to the people that payed more, and leaves money on the table that a higher (but still not 60) price would have gotten.

Speaking of season passes did anyone notice the one for The Lord of the Rings MOBA? Isn't it like $20 to get future content for this $15 downloadable?

Season Pass for COD makes sense to me.

Except MW3. That game was icky.

Making scenes or endings bleak/bad/fucked up just because they think it will improve the story on its own.

The MMO Crash: Bioware. Funcom and of course 38 Studios took massive financial losses, if not outright closed due to the ever shrinking market. I wouldn't be shocked after the tepid response to The Secret World, that Funcom might end up closing it's doors. From somebody who adored The Longest Journey, that's a depressing thought.

Bad DLC: Hiding primary story content behind pay walls is fucking gross. Plain and simple. I'm looking at you, Mass Effect 3.

Pay To Win Multiplayer in AAA games: Mass Effect 3 wins again! Take a bow Bioware! I love being at a disadvantage in multiplayer unless I shill out money toward weapons and items!

Lazy Plots in First Person Shooters: Block Ops 2 actually improved plot wise, but EA's borefest Medal of Honor: Warfighter was just another vanilla, jingoistic wankfest where the player is tasked to kill slews of brown people. With games like Spec Ops: The Line and Far Cry 3 to an extent leading the way in fantastic game plots, there's no excuse.

The very reason I haven't bought Mass Effect 3. EA have always been terrible with their DLC prices and Mass Effect is no exception, in essence they've lost themselves money from me in the long term as now I'm not buying the game period. I just wish this happened enough to be noticeable and make them re-evaluate their business model.

I think the season pass thing is OK. I mean no one is forcing you to buy the thing and you get a discount on the stuff as a bundle. I can understand if you didn't think the pass was worth it in the end but that's not the seasons pass' fault. The integral story stuff behind a pay wall is pretty atrocious though.

I definitely think being sold a true/better ending is THE WORST THING.

PS3 REGION LOCKING, GODDAMNIT!

@JCGamer said:

I think the season pass thing is OK. I mean no one is forcing you to buy the thing and you get a discount on the stuff as a bundle. I can understand if you didn't think the pass was worth it in the end but that's not the seasons pass' fault. The integral story stuff behind a pay wall is pretty atrocious though.

That's unacceptable. Period. I now have serious reservations about purchasing a Bioware product again because of this alone. This is betraying your fans, plain and simple. Then again, after the Old Republic became a financial nightmare, Bioware needed to keep the lights turned on in their offices. That can make you do some rather silly things.

I'm still bummed about this MMO albatross that's KILLING studios dead. There is a fantastic game in The Secret World that's honestly screaming to get out that's just bogged down in janky MMO combat and a withering community. Some of the goddamn smartest puzzles I've seen in a game and the coolest premise ever. And who doesn't want to work for the New World Order/Illuminati and be a badass elementalist like something out of Hellblazer?

They basically went free to play after five months. That's a bad sign.

Publishers pushing unfinished product out the door. I know it has happened in the past but it seems like this year is pretty bad for it. Depending on day 1 patches is not a good thing. Some examples I think of are AC3 and Warfighter. At least they attempted to fix it though unlike TWD. Lets not forget Fez as well. It sucks that this is becoming more frequent.

The worst trend of 2012 is people complaining about the smallest things.

@Crysack said:

Problems arise when the relative quality of the DLC content is not worth the asking-price of the season pass. Saints Row 3 is a perfect example where people clearly expected the DLC to be quality content based off the quality of the base game but the content itself turned out to be utter garbage.

But in that case, your problem is with bad DLC. That doesn't mean the season pass itself is a bad thing.