| arcaneguyver said: Funny - the more I think about it, season passes (and to an extent, preorders) are similar to kickstarter funding. Only one is considered okay for big companies to use, and one is not. Hmm. MKX seems to be the current low point for this sort of behavior. You don't just cut out a character from a fighting game to spice up preorder sales. |
There is one big difference though: Without sucessful crowdfunding these games will not exist as the developers lack the funds to make them (there are exeptions now due to Steam greenlight, but I don't think I'll need to tell you how these generally look and play).
Season passes on the other hand, are meant to cash further on the games' sales which could and would also be developed without them. I see them more as a continuation of the expansion packs which existed during the 90' and early 2000 on PC, just cut up into smaller packages, advertised and produced along the main game instead of afterwards and rebranded to it's modern name.
As for this Video (and generally on Jim's views on the industry tbh), I can't agree more to what he's saying. Most Season passes are just cut-away content reinstated behind a paywall and thus not worth it's price, as it should be included in the main game proper. Both Season passes and DLC can be fine if made after the main game is done to expand on it's gameplay and priced right, but exaples which do this well are, sadly, very rare
The worst in my opinion are however pre-order bonuses and shop exclusives, especially if there's no way to get them afterwards, as this leaves you with an unfinished game no matter what. Here in Luxembourg for instance, we don't have any Videogame retailers like Gamestop or Best buy and our supermarkets and general stores generally don't take preorders. So guess what happens with all those preorder and shop exclusive content? Yep, we're shafted
