Pay for completion: because time is money
For anyone looking for a quick way to add another ‘beaten’ title to their Backloggery listing, it seems Skate 2 is the game for you. Looking on the PS Store last night I spotted that, in EA’s infinite wisdom, they’ve released some day-one DLC that will unlock everything in the game (named the “Time is Money Pack”). So essentially you can pay to beat the game.
This isn’t the first time EA have pulled this kind of stunt with games: the last few Need For Speeds have all had DLC that allowed you to pay to immediately unlock the best car parts, which you could get anyway, but require time and effort to get. Sadly EA aren’t alone, I know Namco certainly allowed you to pay for Soul Calibur IV DLC that would unlock costume items already unlockable in the game (and I’m sure there’s more examples out there).
Of course no one is forced to buy this nonsense, but you can guarantee that some people will, and in games where there’s competitive online components it’s a crappy way to get an early leg up. To my mind at the point of buying these kinds of things the people’s consoles should shut down and refuse to turn on ever again, because really what’s the point? Why bother with games if you’re not interested in doing the whole gaming part and want to skip right to the end?
So, do you agree that it’s a silly idea, or does anyone actually see the point in this?
Posted by Ben: January 23rd, 2009 under Discussion, Rant, Thoughts.
Tags: Bad Practice, DLC, Downloads, EA, Namco Bandai, PSN
Comments
Comment from Tri-Devin @ January 25, 2009 at 2:51 am
To be fair, the costume DLC for SC IV is all for stuff not accessable in the game already. Those are the weapon packs. There’s one for Ultimate Weapons and one for Special Weapons, despite getting both for each character when you beat their Story. For other pointless things, don’t forget the Idolm@ster planes in Ace Combat 6. Basically any game from Namco-Bandai has this crap now.
Comment from Ben @ January 25, 2009 at 12:22 pm
@Tri-Devin: There are packs that unlock additional kit, true, but there are also packs (at least over here) that unlock stuff already in the game (the DLC states this). But yeah, Namco Bandai are doing their best to rip off their customers with DLC.
Comment from Tri-Devin @ January 25, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot about those. I’ve seen a costume pack for the maid outfit mentioned on several sites since launch, but it’s not on the US marketplace so I assume it’s Europe-only. I thought it was strange at the time, since the maid outfit unlocks pretty much right away by getting achievements.
Speaking of Namco’s ripoffs, I noticed a few days ago while checking for new costume packs that they put out a theme for both the Christmas and Halloween ones. The descriptions claimed they were guides on how to properly assemble the costumes, and suggested “why not purchase this along with your customization equipment?” Thank you Namco, I never would’ve figured out that Santa Boots went with Santa.
Comment from Nathan @ January 23, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Content that unlocks superfluous items (cousins and accessories in Katamari, costumes in Soul Calibur), is pointless. You don’t need the items to complete the game, and you could get them for free just by working a little harder. Content like you mentioned for Need for Speed, and buying auto level-ups for characters in Tales of Vesperia smacks of cheating, and I would mock anyone for buying them. That said, it’s not that much different than people in the NES days using a Game Genie to beat a game. They don’t get bragging rights, but at least if they were stuck for some reason, they could play through and finish the story. Truth be told, if there was DLC for Mega Man 9 that made the game easier, I’d buy it. I’ve beaten the old NES Mega Mans (Mega Men?) without cheats, but in replaying them, it’s often more fun to blow through them with a cheat (like the 2nd controller high-jump/pit nullifier for MM3).