Rumors surfaced the other day about an upcoming announcement of a partnership between Microsoft and EA. While I’m sure this won’t mean exclusive games, it most definitely will involve exclusive content and timed DLC deals. The publisher coin has flipped with the next generation of consoles. At the PS4 event Sony announced their partnership with Acitivison, the former bed buddy of Microsoft that saw Call of Duty map packs arrive later on PS3 than its platform counterpart. This means Destiny will have timed exclusive content on the PS4 first.
This is a bad practice.
I play a lot of games and some of them get my dedicated attention for a much longer time than others. A good example of this is Skyrim, which I probably poured at least 160 hours into. Technical issues aside (I didn’t have that many) it was and probably still remains a fantastic game. I have however never played any of the DLC for the game. Another game that I spent a lot of time in? Grand Theft Auto IV. DLC? Didn’t play.
I can only speak for myself and assume the rest, but paying over 50 million dollars for a timed exclusive deal is provocative to me. I have chosen an eco-system I’m happy with, so a deal for timed content will not push me towards another platform. It might help people on the fence about what platform to choose if that particular game caters to them, but I have my friends, I have my trophies and I get my multiplatform games. The argument falls short for pretty much everyone that already owns a console. What it does is create a bad taste in my mouth, and what’s worse is that the publisher won’t notice me not buying their DLC months later because they already got paid. I might sound overly sensitive to the matter, but it is my belief that this practice only hurts consumers and the brands involved.
I didn’t play Skyrim’s DLC and I didn’t play GTA’s DLC. This was not a boycott, but by the time the content got released I had lost any interest in going back. I was done with the game. New games, greener pastures. Not going back to an old game is of course a choice I make, but a game usually stops being relevant after a while so DLC should be released when it’s done. One thing is the initial wait for new content, but then having to wait an additional period of time to get it to your platform of choice? Come on.
As proven by the PS4 event and the rumored Microsoft/EA deal this isn’t something that will fade away any time soon, but rather happen more as platforms compete and consumers are forgotten in the midst of it.
Does exclusive content and DLC matter to you? And if so do you see it as a positive or a negative?
