Ben-DutkaIt's always a touchy subject: Premium downloadable content.
Developer Turtle Rock Studios has extensive DLC plans for the upcoming Evolve , but the sheer amount of content coming for a price has annoyed the community.
In response, Turtle Rock co-founder Phil Robb took to the game's forums to explain a few things. Firstly, he says the DLC plans are in-line with their peers and secondly, he emphasizes that the team did not finish development on Evolve and then cut content so they could charge for it. As Robb wrote:
"When Evolve hits the shelves, none of the DLC will be done. Behemoth won't be done. None of the planned DLC hunters or monsters will be done. The only exception to this might be some skins that were working on now while we wait for all the final stages of packaging, manufacturing etc. to finish."
Robb added that the extra Hunters and Monsters will require a fair amount of time and money to create, and gamers will see that once they start playing. Finally, he clarified that due to time and budget constraints, they couldn't possibly include all the Hunters and Monsters they wanted to include in the base game:
"As we got closer to finishing Evolve we ended up with designs for a bunch of monster and hunters that we just didn't have the time and money to make. Instead of throw them all out, why not put together a budget to make them as DLC?"
Means more content for the people who love the game and want more. It also means all those ideas get to see the light of day. Oh yeah, and it means more work for TRS and we can keep paying our bills and making cool stuff!"
Well, talk amongst yourselves…
Related Game(s): Evolve
Something's off about that last bit. They didn't have the time or budget to add this stuff to the game so they're coming up with a budget that they don't have to finish the DLC? I'm sorry, but what?
Nerdy said it.
Odd that they didn't have time or budget to put them in the final game…yet just said how its not finished and they will be finishing it after its released and selling it as DLC.
Good thing I'll be waiting for this to drop price. Its a lot of fun but not for the price they're asking. Its too repetitive.
To Nerdy/Knightzane – the thing about a budget is that it's got to be offset against something. In this case, it's perfectly fair for them to assume that their budget for the game at launch (offset against expected revenue less whatever profit is expected) isn't enough to include the extra person-hours for what they want to include as DLC. Don't forget they'll get extra money for the DLC, so that gives them a larger budget. Whether they're charging too much or not will be seen by how much money they make from the game. If they make a killing, they should have included more DLC in the base game. If they make a loss, they included too much!
From a game perspective as well, I think this kind of DLC is actually a good idea. The gameplay itself is repetitive by design, so by pacing out the release of hunters and monsters (and by enabling everyone to play with everyone, regardless of which DLC they own, so not splintering the userbase), they'll be something fresh for a good while for people to try.
Last edited by Axe99 on 1/15/2015 2:57:57 PM
The game isn't fun. It sucks being the monster… deleted the beta from my X1.
People don't seem to understand the process of making games and the constraints developers, or any company for that matter, faces when making a product to sell to consumers.
The first two comments are an example of that.
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 1/15/2015 10:11:39 PM
But that's just it, we're consumers. And that is my perspective as a consumer. I think it would be different if the industry were more transparent, but as it stands now, constraints of a developer are not my problem because it's a consumer/product relationship, not a consumer/developer one.
If people are upset about the way they're releasing DLC, it's because there's an inherent communication issue simply because there is no transparency, and it makes everything look super shady.
people need to understand game development does not stop the day a game goes gold.
oh please don't tell me they have day 1 DLC that drives me up the wall.but if its just made after the game comes out that i think i can live with even though its potential profit milking i just hope its genuine
happy gaming
Last edited by Rachet_JC_FTW on 1/16/2015 10:28:20 PM