Game News Dragon Age DLC == A cool $1 million

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Dragon Age

Thar be money in that thar gold mine. <a href="http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6239818.html">Easy money, say UK Gamespot</a>:
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<blockquote>Electronic Arts executive vice president and CFO Eric Brown provided investors with sales figures for recent downloadable add-ons and games.
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Brown recapped the nearly instantaneous success of Dragon Age: Origins, the BioWare fantasy role-playing game that arrived in stores early last week. The executive said that sales of Dragon Age downloadable content are already "well past $1 million" collectively. Brown also reiterated the company's intent to support the game with new add-ons for an entire year after launch.
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Dragon Age launched alongside a handful of add-ons, including the $15 (but free for preorders) Stone Prisoner expansion, and the $7 Warden's Keep. EA is also selling a handful of premium Dragon Age themes for 240 Microsoft points ($3) each on the Xbox Live Marketplace.</blockquote>
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The Sims started this. Expect that cow to be milked for a long, long time.
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While we're talking about Dragon Age, GameBanshee <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/95753-gb-feature-dragon-age-origins-equipment-database.html">have launched their Equipment Database</a>. You'll find an extensive collection of items.
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<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/features/6239466/index.html">GameSpot have compared images</a> between the PC and XBox versions and there are some new 'making of' Dragon Age videos. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY00hpY2kW4">Part 8</a>; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNqB8NO6vXM&feature=channel">Part 9</a>; <a href="http://eu.dragonage.com/extra/?id=14462&#9001;=de">Interview</a>.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPGWatch</a>

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Don't blame EA for it though. R00fles!
http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/11/biow ... on_age.php
FACT: Bioware likes money.

 

[RaXz]

And the storie goes on and on, people paying for that kinda of stuff stimulaties companies to do more of that. And keep giving money they do.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Well, most of us can proudly say we didn't contribute, did we?

 

[vazquez595654]

DLC's are excellent ideas. They allow developers to give players more content relatively quickly. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Stupid DLC's like horse armor, hey if there is a market for it, go for it. Kind of ironic though that you could buy horse armor, but couldn't actually fight on horseback.

 

[Shoelip]

DLC's are excellent ideas. They allow developers to give players content that should have been in the original game for an extra charge relatively quickly. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Stupid DLC's like horse armor, hey if there is a market for it, go for it. Kind of ironic though that you could buy horse armor, but couldn't actually fight on horseback.

Well, some people don't like being ripped off. But whatever, Socialism for big business, capitalism for the rest of us, right?

 

[vazquez595654]

Well, some people don't like being ripped off.

How can you be ripped off by a DLC? You are not required to buy it.

 

[DefJam101]

Because even if you don't buy a ripoff, it's still a ripoff.

 

[Shoelip]

Because they left the retail game incomplete for the sole purpose of selling you the content they'd left out for extra money.

It's like if a book left out certain paragraphs and asked you to pay five - ten dollars to get them back.

Not only that but it means that either the game is disjointed because of the missing content, or has to be altered so that the missing content isn't obviously missing, which causes it to no longer fits as well with the rest of the game.

 

[Grunker]

Because even if you don't buy a ripoff, it's still a ripoff.

Well said.

 

[Bluebottle]

If they were ever to offer content of a quality and price comparable to NWN's better premium modules, I would but it without hesitation. However, the industry at the moment, and the presence of EA, makes me think that's pretty unlikely.

I'd appreciate not having this stuff advertised at me once I'm playing, too. Mention it in the menu, or on the splash screen before loading, but in game (either through NPCs or journal entries) is going too far.

 

[JarlFrank]

HEY GUISE YOU CAN GET A NEW ÜBERSWORD +5 COMPLETE WITH A TEN MINUTE QUEST TO OBTAIN IT FOR ONLY TWELVE DOLLARS!!!!11!11!!111!!1

 

[Ogg]

Fuck! 15$ for the Stone Prisoner?! It's one third of the whole game price! What's in this DLC? One quest and one companion I've heard. Is that for real?

 

[Grunker]

Fuck! 15$ for the Stone Prisoner?! It's one third of the whole game price! What's in this DLC? One quest and one companion I've heard. Is that for real?

It's the big "buy the game new mothafucka!"-thing. Presumably that's why. Presumably they're as big fucking assholes as the rest of the industry.

 

[dumuh]

Fuck! 15$ for the Stone Prisoner?! It's one third of the whole game price! What's in this DLC? One quest and one companion I've heard. Is that for real?

Yes it is but I think they might be off because my standard $50 copy(A purchase which I somewhat regret) came with a code to unlock this DLC.

 

[Krash]

FACT: Bioware likes money.

No kidding. Who doesn't?

 

[Weresloth]

DLC's are excellent ideas. They allow developers to give players content that should have been in the original game for an extra charge relatively quickly. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Stupid DLC's like horse armor, hey if there is a market for it, go for it. Kind of ironic though that you could buy horse armor, but couldn't actually fight on horseback.

Well, some people don't like being ripped off. But whatever, Socialism for big business, capitalism for the rest of us, right?

lol. You have it ass backwards. This is capitalism, socialism would be what you want, everyone gets the same thing for nothing. I swear 90% of the people who rant about capitalism have no earthly idea what it is.

 

[Weresloth]

Fuck! 15$ for the Stone Prisoner?! It's one third of the whole game price! What's in this DLC? One quest and one companion I've heard. Is that for real?

This is not correct I'm pretty sure. The stone prisoner was supposed to be available to everyone for free.

 

[vazquez595654]

Because even if you don't buy a ripoff, it's still a ripoff.

...but that is just an opinion. Many people are enjoying the game. Just because you are not doesn't mean it's a ripoff to everyone else. You could easily say Fallout was a ripoff, and Deus Ex, and so on, because they didn't have x,y,z feature, or length of content. Hell you can beat Fallout in a very short amount of time. What a ripoff? Deus Ex only has 3 endings? What a ripoff? Arcanum doesn't have flying ride-able dragons? What a ripoff? Tetris only has one type of game play mechanic, what a ripoff.

Because they left the retail game incomplete for the sole purpose of selling you the content they'd left out for extra money.

How do you know this? You simply seem to be making up an explanation for a DLC without any evidence simply because you dislike the game?

Not only that but it means that either the game is disjointed because of the missing content, or has to be altered so that the missing content isn't obviously missing, which causes it to no longer fits as well with the rest of the game.

Every single line of what you just wrote is the definition of conjecture. It's a decent theory, but you really have no clue.

HEY GUISE YOU CAN GET A NEW ÜBERSWORD +5 COMPLETE WITH A TEN MINUTE QUEST TO OBTAIN IT FOR ONLY TWELVE DOLLARS!!!!11!11!!111!!1

Regardless of whether we would ever buy that stuff, they make it because someone values it. A company is making a product that someone wants? Gee, what a thought.

It seems like most people here are making claims against the honesty of a game company simply because they don't like the content of their game.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I just can't get worked up about DLCs when so many people just take the whole product for free, and expect that new games will keep on magically appearing without money coming in to pay staff wages. Especially given that a cursory glance at the torrents shows that indies get pirated massively, not just major companies. Regardless of whether piracy is right or wrong (just to avoid argument, let's just assume that piracy is morally acceptable, decreases global warming and is slowly increasing the rate at which the Chernobyll area becomes inhabitable), people won't keep making games unless they get professional salaries to do so (ok, you'll get the odd Spiderweb Software, but even they need some income).

So despite all the good that piracy does for the world, it's comforting to know that developers aren't going to run out of income streams on the PC anytime soon. Whilst we should all hope that game piracy increases so that the Ruskies can live in the Chernobyll region again, we need to also think of other ways for developers to make money. Given that piracy is the only way that we can fight global warming, and that each game we pirate cures a child of AIDS, very few pirates are going to be so coldhearted as to only pirate the bad products and companies. Thankfully, we can see from torrent lists that most people aren't so selfish as to avoid pirating the games that they like. So it's not enough, then, for companies to just stop making shitty products - those pirates will still be dedicated to saving the world through the well-known ability of computer piracy to increase crop yields.

If we're going to keep supporting this wonderful rate of piracy, then we need other ways for developers to make money. DLCs seem to be working - whilst many people pirate them anyway, they still have a substantial net boost to income. Which keeps gaming, and PC gaming, profitable. Given that DLCs suit indie developers, as they often rely on downloads as their products aren't available in retail stores, it will hopefully provide another option for keeping them profitable. I'd happily see VD sneak up the price of AoD by $10-$20 due to DLCs if it makes development more viable.

And those who don't like the DLCs can just get them through the very same practices that DLCs were invented to keep viable: that generous practice of piracy.

 

[KazikluBey]

The stone prisoner was supposed to be available to everyone for free.

It's Bioware's way of cashing in on the used games market. The DLC is bound to your account.

 

[Krash]

Don't like DLCs? Think they're a rip-off? Buy the game, torrent the DLC. Problem solved

 

[Micmu]

Paying for DLC crap like this for $15 is equivalent of phoning a fortune teller hotline.
YOU LACK BRAIN

 

[dumuh]

Don't like DLCs? Think they're a rip-off? Buy the game, torrent the DLC. Problem solved

You can't play a game with DLC unless you are logged in on the game with your BioWare account, and have entered the key to unlock the DLC on their site. If you internet were to go out during a storm you'd have to start a new game without DLC to even play DA. Unless someone finds a way to trick the server into validating the DLC.

 

[vazquez595654]

You can't play a game with DLC unless you are logged in on the game with your BioWare account, and have entered the key to unlock the DLC on their site. If you internet were to go out during a storm you'd have to start a new game without DLC to even play DA. Unless someone finds a way to trick the server into validating the DLC.

As long as it's explained to players so they know what they are getting themselves into, I think it's fair game for a company to do something like that.

If the crew warned you before you stepped on their ship, and you don't like hearing cannons firing against pirates, then don't get on the damn ship.