Are you one of those independently-minded dudes (or dudettes) who went ahead and bought the new Prince of Persia despite my constant lamentations that it looked boringly derivative of Ico? Well, good for you. No one should ever avoid buying a game just because I made some baseless comparison or another after a few minutes of passive observation. But I hope you didn’t buy it on PC! Because if you did, well, sorry, you only bought a partial version of the game. Turns out only the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will be receiving post-script closure for the story via downloadable content.
Of course, you’d have had no way of knowing that before this news was announced a few days ago. It’s not like the PC box said, “Not as fully-featured as other versions of the game.”
Congratulations and welcome to the new generation of gaming, where development costs, backroom dealing and the folly of “platform-exclusive” content has transformed buying video games into a crap shoot. Once upon a time, all that info came up front. You knew the relative strengths and weaknesses of a given game before ever touching it. But now we have situations like, say, me picking up Fallout 3 for PlayStation 3 out of some misguided sense that I should be using my PS3 for something other than watching Futurama DVDs while I work out, only to discover that all of Fallout 3′s extra post-game content designed to shore up the most common complaints about the game is exclusive to PC and Xbox 360. Yeah. Awesome.
And finally, Street Fighter IV will be using DLC as a way to make you pay for all the bonus character costumes that used to be free unlockables in the normal course of completing the game. That’s especially annoying, because, uh…
Wait.
One of the alternates is Sakura dressed as Ryu, with the homage extending all the way to a pair of red sneakers redolent of his appearance in the original Street Fighter? Y-you bastards. And Zangief can dress as Mike Haggar?
Fine, take my money. I didn’t need to pay rent this month anyway.
P-parish! If you’re going to get these awesome things instead of paying rent, you (and your awesome things) can totally crash here for like. Time. Just bring those toys.
The lack of PS3 DLC for Fallout 3 was announced well before the game’s release. from http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168723 :
“Not much we didn’t already know, but Microsoft promised “substantial” downloadable content” that’ll be exclusive to the 360 and Games for Windows version of the game.”
Still, how is Joe Consumer supposed to know this? There’s no giant sticker on the PS3 case that says ‘Now with 30% less content!’
It’s actually getting to “infuriating” levels that people keep assuming DLC is part of the game. Yes, it’s fair enough when a PS3 game has less content than a 360 game or whatever. That is worth being upset over. But DLC is *not* part of the game, it is a semi-sequel thing on the side, and if people stopped assuming it is, companies wouldn’t be taking us for a ride nearly so much.
I predict that Sakura dressed as Ryu is going to create a tomboy cross-dressing fetish the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Peach dressed in Luigi’s overalls.
“But DLC is *not* part of the game, it is a semi-sequel thing on the side”
Semantics. Whatever you want to call it, it’s still a case of a publisher putting out a game on multiple platforms and then following up only on one.
With the advent of (hopefully solid) online play, Street Fighter IV might be the first one I actually have a chance to be decent at. Which will make that DLC doubly tempting, since Sakura is my go-to character in Capcom vs. SNK2.
Dear Capcom, I know Arika will probably make it difficult, but bring me Skullomania, dammit! That is all…
“Whatever you want to call it, it’s still a case of a publisher putting out a game on multiple platforms and then following up only on one.”
How different is it to, say, Ubisoft announcing that Assassin’s Creed 2 will only be on the 360? I doubt there’d be the same kvetching, and this is what I’m getting at. DLC should be thought of as an entirely separate game.
And, conversely, the existence of DLC that “completes the story” does not mean that Prince of Persia no longer has a terrible ending, any more than Assassin’s Creed 2 won’t mean that Assassin’s Creed 1′s ending was bullshit. It sounds like you’re calling out Ubisoft for not releasing PC DLC, when really we should be calling out Ubisoft for charging $5 for what’s essentially fixing something that was broken in the original. We’d be furious if bugfixes were charged for, and that’s pretty much what this is.
Jeez, Street Fighter IV looks like shit! That art style has to go. Oh well, it’s too late now. The game is already done. Damn!
why doesn’t the industry just cut the shit right now and force customers to purchase the final boss and ending thru d/l content instead stupiding working at it with initially botched endings like bunch of shady creeps?
I’m a PC guy, and I was really looking forward to this game. Now I’m just going to wait a couple of years until I get around to picking up a 360 and I’ll get it used then.
I requested this ages ago: Cammy, as Julia from Power Stone 2, in Power Costume, WITH inflatable birdie toy, or there’s hell to pay.
Plus the fact that the DLC for SFIV will cost more on the 360 than the PS3, but I will still pay to get Zangief as Haggar and Boxer with the Apollo Creed threads.
Plus the fact that the DLC for SFIV will cost more on the 360 than the PS3, but I will still pay to get Zangief as Haggar and Boxer with the Apollo Creed threads.
By a penny, yes, but that’s the same of all cross-platform DLC. Its 320 points on XBL ($4) and $3.99 on PSN.
why doesn’t the industry just cut the shit right now and force customers to purchase the final boss and ending thru d/l content instead stupiding working at it with initially botched endings like bunch of shady creeps?
It’s actually been proposed, I think by someone from Epic. The idea being that if you buy the game new, then you get the ending/last boss/whatever with your purchase. But if you buy it used, then you have to drop money (for some reason, $20 keeps popping into my mind, but don’t quote me on that) to get that last part.
Which is a stupid, regressive concept that shows how backward the industry has become. We used to have the ability to try games and pay for the privilege of completing them. It was called “shareware,” and the trial period cost nothing instead of $40 or whatever.
One of the alternates is Sakura dressed as Ryu
But judging from the gallery on Capcom Unity, when she swiped Ryu’s jacket, she forgot to wear pants
Yeah, and considering the idea is to activate the final boss/ending online, if you don’t have your console connected to the internet, you’d be straight boned whether you bought new OR used. I realize most gamers’ consoles are in fact connected, but people are always left behind – look at all the anxiety over the DTV transition.
“I predict that Sakura dressed as Ryu is going to create a tomboy cross-dressing fetish the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Peach dressed in Luigi’s overalls.”
Nadia, I’m just hoping that Luigi in Peach’s dress (one of the M&L games, forget which) doesn’t become popular…
DLC should be thought of as an entirely separate game.
We’d be furious if bugfixes were charged for, and that’s pretty much what this is.
You do realize you’re contradicting yourself here, right? Or do you think a bugfix should always be considered an entirely separate game?
Wow, Sakura’s Ryu costume is pretty rad.
I like the way it says “Crazy Buffalo” on the back of Balrog’s coat.
How different is it to, say, Ubisoft announcing that Assassin’s Creed 2 will only be on the 360? I doubt there’d be the same kvetching, and this is what I’m getting at. DLC should be thought of as an entirely separate game.
Most obviously it’s different because if you own a 360 and a PS3, you could still buy AC2 even if you had AC1 on the PS3.
Thought that was Makoto at first.
The difference is that Makoto never smiles.
I’ll be pretty ticked if those costume packs are 108kb and I have to pay an extra $20 after shelling out $80 already for the CE… only to download unlock keys to costumes already on my disc. Namco sucks the life out of DLC… don’t follow suit Capcom!
Sakura makes an adorable Ryu.
But yeah, totally should’ve been an unlockable.
“I’m a PC guy, and I was really looking forward to this game.”
Good think it’s also coming to PCs later this year, then!
Wow, this really takes the cake. I’d been eying downloadable content for years, and now it’s come to pass. A downloadable ending for a $59.99 game. That’s absurd. If this is what the industry is moving towards, not only can I not afford to be a part of it, I -won’t- be party to it. This is nothing but milking the gamers, and should not be stood for. Frankly, my copy of PoP is going to Gamestop where it will be resold to some another hapless bloke at a reduced price. Keep a few dollars out of the hands of Ubisoft, if nothing else.
In this day and age I can’t see myself paying $60 for a fighting game regardless of quality but strangely enough I can see myself purchasing the DLC. Go fig.
Yeah, actually, despite my “rent” crack, I won’t be picking up SFIV until the price comes down.
djSyndrome> I thought the whole thing that kicked off this post was that the DLC isn’t going to be on PC?
I was responding to ajr82′s comment, which gave the impression that he didn’t know it was also being released for PC.
Oh, and as far as the DLC goes, Capcom can lick my sweaty balls. Besides, I’m too busy buying pieces of Beautiful Katamari.
Has it been confirmed that the costumes cannot be unlocked through normal gameplay for SFIV?
I agree that exclusive DLC is extremely silly. The best strategy seems to be to wait until a company abandons a game before you figure out which system you should buy it.
Does anyone remember when the console versions of PoP were pricedropped to 40 but not the PC version?
All I can say is: I’m glad the PC version was arbitrarily priced more highly after all.
Tomb Raider Underworld also had this problem, with a whole level (or two) being cut from the game to later be released as downloadable content… but apparently only on the 360. I don’t remember the details, but I think it was something like how the TR retards signed a deal with microsoft to only release the DLC on there since they were sure that’s where they’d sell the most copies of the game? Only they didn’t? And it was a stupid, cynical idea to begin with?
Blegh.
Am I the only one who wants Rival Schools 3 on the SF4 engine? Most likely. The art style is a little weird for a Japanese game, but it makes up for it by being about as expressive as the old 2-d games.
Paying to unlock alternate costumes is by far the biggest crime I’ve seen all gen. Come to think of it, does SFIV give the player any incentive to play alone? What does beating SP get you?
EDIT: how much does each one cost.
“But yeah, totally should’ve been an unlockable.”
Unlockable. It should’ve been her default outfit to begin with, considering the game’s setting. Ah well.