Ben-DutkaIt's a common belief that developers hold back content for premium DLC.
However, in my experience talking with developers, it's almost never true. There's a reason all designers are adamant about doing no such thing; as gamers themselves, they despise the idea.
DICE is no different. Assistant producer Jesper Nielsen addressed such concerns regarding the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront : No content will be "held back" so they can charge for it later, as Nielsen made clear at Reddit :
"If you think there's anything we're not including in the game to save it for DLC, I can tell you you're 100 percent wrong."
And he added:
"In this project, I've never heard anyone say, 'Let's not do this for launch so we can do it as DLC instead'. Ever."
It won't stop the conspiracy theories because gamers love such nonsense, but at least the statement is made. You can choose to believe it or not, I suppose.
Star Wars: Battlefront , the new multiplayer-oriented shooter, will release on November 17 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Related Game(s): Star Wars: Battlefront
If some developers didn't use this approach there wouldn't even be a discussion or reason for other devs to defend themselves. This is much larger than DICE.
Developers have much less say in this than, say, the Publishers.
It's the upper management at EA or Activision who are making these decisions to 'hold back content to be used as DLC'. Because, at the end of they day, they need to answer to shareholders and show a profit.
Remember… this gaming thing.. yeah, it's still a business.
Exactly.
None of this has anything whatsoever to do with the developers. If it was up to them, they'd never hold back content for a game. The publishers are the ones that put out the product, so they have the final say. If there ever is content held back for DLC, it's absolutely at the direction of the publisher.
Which makes the DICE's statement that it's not going to happen meaningless, because they don't have a say. If EA decides late in the development cycle to hold back X planet or Y game mode/weapon/whatever, DICE doesn't get to veto that call.
If anything, people just need to make the distinction between developer and publisher when calling out shady business practices. DICE is awesome, EA is pretty terrible, so at this point I have zero faith that there will be no 'day 1 dlc'.
Amen we know developers make games because they love to do it and love their fans! It's all the publisher pushing this sort of stuff.
What'd be left for premium though?
What about the signature EA microtransactions?
Calm down dice no one blames you, they blame EA. Remember EA's microtransactions for Battlefield 4? Yeah. I haven't played like anything of Hardline but I can only hope it wasn't given the same treatment.
My only problem with that statement is anyone can lie on the internet. His words hold no weight when we have seen EA do this before.
Mind you EA and its devs have been much better lately, still they have done some weird things, the prothean character in ME3, micros in DS3, the weird premium micros in Battlefield, I hope they stay away from that stuff in this game.
I like the direction some devs are going, Starhawk had all its maps for free, Shadowfall as well, and Evolve did too.
Truth be told, I could care less. If they deliver an amazing, immersive Star Wars experience that, y'know, works, I'll grinning like an idiot as I play and count down the days to The Force Awakens. If it's a lame multiplayer, die-a-dozen-times-per-minute glorified game of laser tag that doesn't work at launch? We'll have much bigger concerns that proper DLC etiquette.
yeah your right indeed we do have bigger problems if it doesn't work thats a way bigger problem than over priced DLC
yeah okay i can i think i can take his word for it but i know one thing is like to make a bunch more content after the fact and charge crap tons of money for not much thats the part i hate about DLC for the most part
happy gaming
i also agree with the point on that it will be EA telling them to hold back stuff for DLC i didn't think of that before so this is me after that fact but yeah it'll be EA not DICE holding back the maps and stuff for their stupid friggin DLC
happy gaming
Guilty by association.