A few days back we had a post outlining DLC that would be coming to Resident Evil in the form of online verses mode. Many of you were quite upset and thought that this material should have been originally included on the disk. Well over on the Capcom forums Sven, the Corporate Officer and Vice-president of Strategic Planning & Business Development, has responded to your complaints.
I’m sorry guys, but this is the part where I have to call “BS”. RE5 is well worth every penny of $60. A huge game, with tons of replay value, loads of unlockables, new weapons, co-op, mercenaries mode, etc. If any game warrants its price point, it’s RE5.
Prior to the announcement of the Versus mode, no one complained they weren’t getting their money’s worth with the initial release because it packs TONS of value because it is an amazing game. So if people were already satisfied with what the package had, when we offer MORE, why is it people feel they’ve been somehow cheated? If you don’t find value in our secondary offerings, the choice is simple, don’t purchase it. If you do find it valuable (and we hope you do) please do buy it and enjoy it.
Secondly, whenever we do PDLC, that content exists with its own budgets, it’s own profit and loss analysis with its own forecasts. If it didn’t, that extra content wouldn’t have been put into production, because it did not fit within the production budget of the base product.
The content that is shipping in the full game exists within its own budget. The content shipping afterward (regardless of how close to release it is… because the goal IS to have it release relatively closely to the base product’s release) exists within its own budget. To try and have it release in a timeframe that is relatively close to the initial release, development starts well before the base product is on the shelves. There’s no other way to keep it within 3 to 6 weeks of the initial release (which is the goal).
And again, for those people looking at this anew, the DLC in question is not an unlock on the disc.
Now honestly I am torn about DLC some games like Burnout Paradise have done a wonderful job at adding new info to their game without causing much stir in the gaming community, but then other developers seem to want to just nickel and dime you anyway they can. Sven does make some valid points and he is right if you do not want to pay then you do not have to get it.
Ultimately I feel where most people complaints do come from is this is being announced so close to the release of the game, and it is really hard for us gamers who just spent $60 on a game to figure out why these things are not included with the game. I understand these are developed sometimes separately with their own budgets and own schedules, but it really does seem wrong to release something new so soon after the initial release. Would we of been happy if this was announced 2 months from now maybe, but this is a growing trend in the gaming world and us as gamers either need to accept it or do something about it.
