Someone trying to kill FPShooters?

[SubjectProphet]

So, we all know MW3 has the COD ELITE service, right? Well, just recently, the company who made Elite gave EVERYONE founder status. In this time, people downloaded the map packs for free, and that had a HUGE impact on the COD budget. What's worse is that when IW tries to contact the company who made Elite, they've failed, so IW had to fix it themselves, costing them money to fix a service they don't own.

 

In BF3, DICE relies a lot on the cash made from the current map pack, the online passes, and people buying the game itself. For around 5 hours last night, the prices of the map pack and online pass were adjusted to "free" for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Dice lost a lot of money on that one.

 

Crysis 2 relies on money made from all current DLC and the game itself, but three days ago, for around 45 minutes, the prices for all the map packs were adjusted to "free" for all platforms.

 

What's worse? Activision is saying that the impact on budget is so huge that they may not have enough money for Treyarch to get the next game published. Dice is saying that the CQC map pack coming in the summer won't be as big as expected do to "low budget."

 

It seems like someone is trying to attack FPS franchises and kill the major titles off.

[Thor.]

I wouldn't miss them, if Cod and other shooters go under, especially the dlc is killing the games industry in a whole. The one shooter that stands out from the rest though is Borderlands. This is how all shooter rpg's should be like. Especially the Whole new story and a good 6 hours of game play per dlc pack, not some map pack that should of been free in the first place. Edited March 20, 2012 by Thor.

[Gracinfields]

Dude the CQC maps are all TDM size maps so saying its not going to be as big is just talking out for their arse. As for the B2K for BF3 most people likely already have it by now if they where going to get it in the first place as it has been out for several months. As for whom ever is doing this it sounds like an inside job from a disgruntaled employee that manages the console markets.

[RitualBlack]

Not enough money to publish the next game :laugh: . I will believe that when it happens because the xbox first week sales alone are greater than most PC game devs could ever dream of.

 

It is an interesting observation you have made though. I haven't heard about that happening but it definitely sounds like someone is trying to stir things up a bit. I would only notice the positive effects of a juggernaut franchise like COD going under as I too dislike the entire DLC craze currently going on, though with money involved they will either release an additional service which comes with elite for people to buy or find a way to remove the maps from people who didn't pay.

 

Not going to affect me either way but I am sure it will be nothing to worry about to those who enjoy the series. This will not make any of the companies go belly up.

[hoofhearted4]

not enough money my butt. idk about Dice, but IW has plenty of money from their CoD sales.

 

 

that said, im with Thor. i wouldnt care one tiny bit if both companies never produced another FPS ever again. i had a blast with BC2, and am looking forward to BC3, but i wouldnt miss it if they said they couldnt or wouldnt make it....it would finally be the end of the modern military online shooter and the stereotype that your not a gamer until youve played CoD or that if your a gamer you play CoD.....not only that but it would finally start to bring out other shooters like Brink (which i loved, despite its shortcomings. i hope they make a Brink 2. if they fix what needed to be fixed, you have an amazing and unique shooter) and Borderlands and etc.

 

 

so i say without regret that i almost want this to be true.

[Vagrant0]

I'd actually think this would be more a case of someone trying to kill the idea of having to pay extra money for maps which were likely just pulled from the original game to sell later. These companies should be giving people new maps for free simply because it keeps their game interesting and current. More people playing a game over time means more actual sales of that game because they will be hooking their friends into it, or buying other stuff related to that game (like expansions that add something more than just more maps).

[ziitch]

Gotta agree on Vagrant on this. Seems to me that so far, not many game companies still can't understand the rules of supply and demand when it comes to digital goods because the normal rules of supply of demand do work - That is, for physical goods. See, there's a very high limit to supply for digital goods, the only limits being bandwidth, the number or media that can store and hold said content, and for some CD keys. Basically, if big-budget companies want to run in the green in the future, a good start is to promote digital distribution, which means not pricing digital copies of games at $60 and swapping out disc manufacturing costs for bandwidth costs (which should be much less expensive). Or, in other words, $40 for a brand-new AAA title would likely cause a crazy amount of sales compared to the $60 from others.

 

Also, if these companies are talking about budget problems... There's three things happening: Either a) purely bad bookkeeping, b) lack of employee motivation (which would not surprise me given the stagnancy of both series) or c) falsified and padded reports, in which MW3 and BF3 actually did not sell nearly as many copies as reported because let's be honest, how many of these big companies really want to admit that they are responsible for their own actions and eventual failure?

 

Also, if they really want to make money on expanding the game, there's this old thing called an "Expansion Pack", which is meant to be bigger than most DLC, and is much more accepted in the gaming realm - They should try this old practice more instead. if you put your effort and time into making $20-30 expansions instead of little $10 DLC, I guarantee that gamers will find the price and content more enticing than the current offers that are keep being given.

Edited March 21, 2012 by ziitch

[themoonbear45]

Maybe these companies should take a page from Valve. In games like Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2, all DLC is based on micro-transactions. No more of this DLC pack crap, if DLC could have the option to buying separate items for a low price, then people would have a better incentive to buy them. And, if someone wants to buy them all, then that is what the pack should be for, because the DLC in a bulk pack is cheaper than buying them all seperately, which is why we have stores like BJ's (yeah,I know what that looks like, stop laughing) that let you buy products in bulk because it's cheaper than buying each product individually. Also, I think that micro-transactions would work best for small items, like extra character chlothing or weapons, but I can definitely see map expansions working with it, but on a less successful scale.

[blitzburns4]

Gotta agree on Vagrant on this. Seems to me that so far, not many game companies still can't understand the rules of supply and demand when it comes to digital goods because the normal rules of supply of demand do work - That is, for physical goods. See, there's a very high limit to supply for digital goods, the only limits being bandwidth, the number or media that can store and hold said content, and for some CD keys. Basically, if big-budget companies want to run in the green in the future, a good start is to promote digital distribution, which means not pricing digital copies of games at $60 and swapping out disc manufacturing costs for bandwidth costs (which should be much less expensive). Or, in other words, $40 for a brand-new AAA title would likely cause a crazy amount of sales compared to the $60 from others.

 

Also, if these companies are talking about budget problems... There's three things happening: Either a) purely bad bookkeeping, b) lack of employee motivation (which would not surprise me given the stagnancy of both series) or c) falsified and padded reports, in which MW3 and BF3 actually did not sell nearly as many copies as reported because let's be honest, how many of these big companies really want to admit that they are responsible for their own actions and eventual failure?

 

Also, if they really want to make money on expanding the game, there's this old thing called an "Expansion Pack", which is meant to be bigger than most DLC, and is much more accepted in the gaming realm - They should try this old practice more instead. if you put your effort and time into making $20-30 expansions instead of little $10 DLC, I guarantee that gamers will find the price and content more enticing than the current offers that are keep being given.

 

Yes, Yes...I totally agree with this post. Kudos to you friend! Expansion packs also tend to have much higher producion values too. I haven't ever minded buying one or two expansion packs every other year. From Total Annialation to today I have never, ever minded expansion packs. But these 15 dollar map packs couldn't piss me off more. Espessially because there is no user creation tools. (So companies have no competition, they can just make so-so to terribad dlc., and would get tons of sales because that is the only other option for consumers to get if they want more.) So if we want more content we have to buck out 15 bucks or deal with it...Not a way to play imo. Honestly, if CoD MW was a PC game MW2 and MW3 would have to be expansion packs...Let's be real here.

 

Sorry for bad typing if there is any, and I would say more...but this is from my phone. (Yea sad I know, but it means that much to me.)

 

EDIT: Also, I hate what the DLC represents. Lately developers have been taking away peices of the actual game and selling it back to the consumers. (Even putting the "DLC" on the very game disk!)

 

EDIT2: Kudos to everyone in this thread! (I just read through it all...on my phone...)

Edited March 22, 2012 by blitzburns4

[hoofhearted4]

companies cant sell games online (Steam) cheaper then they do physical copies. while it may in fact be cheaper for them, if they sold online copies cheaper, people wouldnt go to brick and morter stores and more, and it would hurt them a ton. and gaming companies cant do that or they wont be sold in retail at all any more, and that would hurt sales even more.