Purchasable Skin Packs in Retail Games
Skins for characters or weapons in games is nothing new. At the very least, they’re always good for a laugh or a few “oh, that’s cool” moments before switching back to the default. But then there are situations like what Evolve is doing. The various monster and class skin packs that you see above, when priced together, add up to $60.89, aka the entire damn game before tax.
No other industry does this; imagine if movie theaters started charging an extra $5 during Marvel movies for you to watch the post-credits epilogue, and then another $5 to watch the end credits scene. And keep in mind that this is just for the game as it’s out on day one. With this starting point, DLC in the future will charge you to download it and then another charge to actually play it. On that note…
Talking About DLC Before the Game is Even Out
This one isn’t just weird, it’s poorly timed. You’d think that the PR person for the game company would teach them certain things not to say, and this would be in the top. The moment a developer mentions that they’re already working on DLC and the game isn’t within a week of release, people are going to be wondering why this isn’t just on the disc. Or, if you’re Capcom, the data is technically on the disc, it just needs to be unlocked. With your credit card, natch. It’s got the authentication key.
Retail-Specific Pre-Order Bonuses
For some reason, this trend has slowly evolved into more of a plague over the past few years. People are always going to want physical copies of their games, there’s no doubt about that. In an act that comes from either petty revenge or one drunk night at the office, publishers decide to split up their various DLC bits like weapons and armor and give one pack each to a different retailer. So if you want that super ultra powerful gun or those armor sets and they’re not at the same retailer, you’re going to have to play Russian Roulette.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that it’ll be bundled together available to buy on a digital marketplace later. But, and hear me out on this, wouldn’t it just be easier to have everything be the same no matter where you get the game from? If the retailers are demanding that this happen, just let them solve this argument the same way game developers do: bare knuckle, anything goes cage matches at 3 AM.
Bundling Games with Other Games
When Crackdown came out in 2007, it was bundled with the beta for Halo 3. While that definitely boosted the game’s sales, it also doesn’t really make much sense. Aside from being Microsoft IPs, there’s not much that links the two of them together. It should at least make sense, because otherwise it comes off like the publishers don’t really have a lot of faith in the game–see both Infamous games having the multiplayer betas for Uncharted 2 and 3, respectively, packaged with them. It’s even more weird when the games bundled are basically the exact same thing, like the PC version of Evolve being bundled with the original Left 4 Dead.
Static Game Pricing
Before THQ went under, they talked about putting out retail games at $40. It was something that never really came to fruition, but it would be a nice change of pace from the standard 60 bones. Plus, let’s face it, not every game deserves to cost that much; not because of quality, but more by content. Titanfall, for instance, isn’t really worthy of being full price. There isn’t really enough content there to justify it, not to mention that it’s hobbled by not having single player and has to stand up on its multiplayer alone. Considering that the digital games have prices that range from $5-20, it’s weird that retail doesn’t experiment more.
Announcing a Game Years Away
This one is really weird. In fact, it may as well be a highlight reel of Blizzard and Valve games. Those two announce things years before they actually come out to the point where you wonder if they even have the thing in development for the first year after they’ve announced it. Now yes, game development is a long process that changes and changes, but why bother announcing something that isn’t due out for another two years? That’s like telling your significant other that you’re planning your wedding, and you’ve only been together for six weeks.
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