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[MichaelFassbender]

Glad to see my impressions of the Alpha being proved right! Not worth the money, at any price less than $2.

 

[bigbaldwolf86]

This dlc plan and pricing are disgusting. That is way overpriced for what you're getting and that press release is a clusterfuck of confusion. We'll need another Watchdogs style spreadsheet at this rate.

 

[Lord of Castamere]

Won't this have serious impact on game balance? What with a whole new monster being gated.

The more that an audience is segmented, the more troublesome it becomes for communities to develop. It is no coincidence that many of the biggest multiplayer games revolve around free-to-access content. This game had enough problems to begin with, this is a death sentence.

No.

You can play with anyone regardless of dlc. You can fight against the Behemoth, with a new hunter ally, with non of the dlc purchased yourself.

---------------------

I've seen this mode being played, it's not NEARLY as good as you might think.

All it does is add these modifiers to the map which from what I have seen make 0 overall difference and it lets you vote on which map you want next out of a pool of 2 maps/modes.

It's basically nothing.

Disappointing if true. I haven't actually watched any of the steams of it yet.

 

[Schreckstoff]

Well I was already not sold on the game but this was the last nail in the coffin.

I don't idolize CDPR like so many do but I preordered the Collector's Edition for TW3 because they did not pull any of this crap.

Edit: 404 post not found

 

[BrassDragon]

On top of a distinct lack of buzz, a poorly received alpha and a price plan seemingly designed by Goldman Sachs they hire an inept PR firm that can't do proper press releases or damage control?

 

[Dead Man Typing]

Something's gone wrong with the way games are sold.

I don't mind DLC but it seems like they are intentionally trying to confuse people now and my response is just to switch off and play something else. Then come back for a game of the year edition that includes all the DLC, but that doesn't seem to be happening as much these days as it did a few years ago.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Launch day paywalled content, pre order dlc as a "reward" (witholding content from those who aren't consumer suckers who blindly pay for shit before it's even out) , a 'season pass'

Get fucked turtle rock, seriously.
How far they have fallen since left4dead

No buy, ever. Not even at the inevitable 5 dollar bomba price at the next steam christmas sale.

edit :
Remember when left4dead had no dlc but (free) content PATCHES
Remember those days guys? When a patch meant new content instead of bandaids to fix a broken unfinished game?
Remember when l4d had support for mods, maps and skins?

I remember how I bought that game a week after launch.

Didn't even see the turtle rock shill earlier in this thread, truely shameful...

 

[Skyzard]

Even when you preorder it still releases with 3 monsters.
The 4 monster will be "released sometime after release".

Ah right, thanks for the headsup.

Doesn't affect me too much, I'll be setting monster as my 5th choice. Will give us some time to practice and learn the other monsters too.

 

[hawk2025]

Launch day paywalled content, pre order dlc, a 'season pass'

Get fucked turtle rock.

How far they have fallen since left4dead

No buy, ever.

Don't forget a couple more cherries:

- Exclusive pre-loading
- The Season Pass does not actually include the Monster content. I think. Maybe. If I understood this mess correctly.

 

[Ferrio]

Don't forget a couple more cherries:

Exclusive pre-loading
- The Season Pass does not actually include the Monster content. I think. Maybe. If I understood this mess correctly.

This one just confuses the fuck outta me. That can't be benefiting anyone involved.

 

[arts&crafts]

Don't forget a couple more cherries:

- Exclusive pre-loading
- The Season Pass does not actually include the Monster content. I think. Maybe. If I understood this mess correctly.

What does this even mean? I think it just means you can preload if you preorder..aka the same as every game that has ever allowed preloading.

 

[jaundicejuice]

I just went cross-eyed trying to read the PR wall of text in the OP. This is almost as bad as Watch_Dogs with all of its various SKU's as well as platform and retailer specific content. With each new release in this generation I feel like I need a Stumpo-styled graph to figure out which version of the game has what content and I honestly find that alienating as a customer.

I miss the days where if a developer wanted to add new content to a game they did it in the form of a substantive expansion pack but I guess that's because I'm old.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Well with that it's now a 100 percent don't buy for me. The premise sounded so awesome and then from what I saw of the beta and stuff just really dropped it almost completely off. I still held out a shred of hope though. Not now.

 

[Klyka]

Ah right, thanks for the headsup.

Doesn't affect me too much, I'll be setting monster as my 5th choice. Will give us some time to practice and learn the other monsters too.

Ha, well "learn" the monsters.
They have 4 skills each, usually one skill that stands far above the others.

It's more about the guy playing it and how good your team is.

 

[hawk2025]

This one just confuses the fuck outta me. That can't be benefiting anyone involved.

What does this even mean? I think it just means you can preload if you preorder..aka the same as every game that has ever allowed preloading.

Beats me.

The language is so dense that I've yet to understand if this just means you can pre-order earlier on Xbox (lol) or if actual pre-loading can only be done on Xbox (double lol).

 

[Schreckstoff]

I just went cross-eyed trying to read the PR wall of text in the OP. This is almost as bad as Watch_Dogs with all of its various SKU's as well as platform and retailer specific content. With each new release in this generation I feel like I need a Stumpo-styled graph to figure out which version of the game has what content and I honestly find that alienating as a customer.

I miss the days where if a developer wanted to add new content to a game they did it in the form of a substantive expansion pack but I guess that's because I'm old.

OT but

 

[minx]

How is this comparable to Watch Dogs at all? The free monster by pre-ordering is a little bullshit but other than that we are getting free maps not segregating the player base and people are bitching about character DLC that every other AAA release has? I don't get it. I'm not buying the DLC it's pretty simple that almost all DLC is a ripoff but people drill buy it.

 

[sflufan]

This thing needs a pivot table, not just a spreadsheet!

 

[apieceofstrange]

Sad to see how this game went from my most anticipated of last year to this mess. I'm not even sure I'm going to bother with it at all anymore.

 

[Giriath_89]

I hope this and any game with such horrible content plans sell horribly.

 

[LurkerPrime]

That was Agrius' first post.

I miss Left 4 Dead's DLC pricing.

You mean L4D2?

Not a fan.

 

[Ferrio]

That was Agrius' first post.


You mean L4D2?

Not a fan.

Find it odd they were banned, but guess he wasn't upfront about who he was.

 

[-Deimos]

Find it odd they were banned, but guess he wasn't upfront about who he was.

Looks like he's a dev at TR.

This is a disappointing day for Evolve fans. Fuck.

I wasn't even mad at TR for this bullshit since 2K is mostly to blame for this nonsense, but a dev trying defend this crap is pathetic.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

Find it odd they were banned, but guess he wasn't upfront about who he was.

That was partially why, as it sort of comes off as astroturfing (if it isn't by definition, haven't looked into it) by not divulging you're promoting/representing the company/product subject to the discussion.

What makes it worse is that even looking at it as someone from TR, their post didn't provide any sort of solid reasoning. Just a bunch of excuses on pricing that had little to nothing to do with the game itself. Also have to wonder why this all didn't apply to L4D and L4D2 in 2008 and 2009 if all those things spoken about are driving these tactics.

 

[fargofallout]

If you need a press release for your DLC plans, and then a website to clarify those plans, you might be making things too convoluted.

 

[hawk2025]

Find it odd they were banned, but guess he wasn't upfront about who he was.

It was a condescending mess of a post.

 

[jblank83]

The Evolve PC Monster Race Edition contains $131.88 of content for $99.99

Wow, wotta deal. Thank you!

 

[BreezyLimbo]

You know, the Agrius post reads like a huge indoctrination/PR piece.

"Let me tell you why it's this much! That's right, you're completely wrong and we're right! So give us your money because we really are working hard!"

It's like...wow.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

If you need a press release for your DLC plans, and then a website to clarify those plans, you might be making things too convoluted.

I can't even access the website on my computer. Might be able to do it on mobile, but haven't been able to access the beta stuff due to the issues. Tried Chrome and Safari.

Too late now, especially since I won't be looking much further into the game outside of what looks to be very interesting reviews and my eventual purchase down the line. I enjoyed the game with my time with it and want to support the concept, but these practices and PR issues are not something I want to reward with a day 1 purchase.

 

[Revolutionary]

Looks like he's a dev at TR.

This is a disappointing day for Evolve fans. Fuck.

I wasn't even mad at TR for this bullshit since 2K is mostly to blame for this nonsense, but a dev trying defend this crap is pathetic.

Yep. What's even worse is he was defending it with faulty logic (SNES price bit completely ignores manufacturing costs of then vs now, where we have digital options) and stating that "with some rational thought" that the prices are reasonable.

 

[PFD]

The DLC plans for this game are a joke

Preorder cancelled

Spoiler

not really, was never interested

 

[BenjiGAF]

If I hadn't been driven away by the pricing, the TR PR bullshit post sealed the deal.

Pretty scummy. Warning friends to steer clear.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

if you don't pay now we rip you off later!!

 

[Jigolo]

I'm glad this turned off a few people from buying this and supporting this kind of bullshit. Don't pay for this, show them this is unacceptable.

The game will bomb in sales.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

if you don't pay now we rip you off later!!

That's exactly how it reads lol.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I'm glad this turned off a few people from buying this and supporting this kind of bullshit. Don't pay for this, show them this is unacceptable.

The game will bomb in sales.

Honestly, I think it would of on its own. I still have no idea why it's being advertized so heavily either. MS marketing?

 

[Toxi]

We can’t drive this part home enough: If you are planning to buy the game, but are skittish about pre-purchase, don’t be. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on 2/10/15, the FREE Monster Expansion Pack bonus goes away and it will run you over$14.99 to buy Behemoth, the fourth Monster, and the Savage Goliath skin after the fact. Think of it as us buying the first round for you. As a thank you.

http://evolvegame.com/news/the-evolve-digital-versions-breakdown

 

[ArkkAngel007]

Honestly, I think it would of on its own. I still have no idea why it's being advertized so heavily either. MS marketing?

Because it's an interesting concept and was fun when it worked for a lot of people? But no, because it doesn't attract you it should bomb. Don't really get that kind of attitude at all here.

Anyway, the heavy marketing was supposed to explain the game and keep it known as being a new IP it's easy to get lost amongst all the franchises. Yet, they really screwed up by not talking much beyond a single mode and monster for a long time, and only just talking about the other modes in some quickly buried articles a month or two ago.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Because it's an interesting concept and was fun when it worked for a lot of people? But no, because it doesn't attract you it should bomb. Don't really get that kind of attitude at all here.

Anyway, the heavy marketing was supposed to explain the game and keep it known as being a new IP it's easy to get lost amongst all the franchises. Yet, they really screwed up by not talking much beyond a single mode and monster for a long time, and only just talking about the other modes in some quickly buried articles a month or two ago.

It should bomb for price gouging and basically tricking people into pre-ordering a new IP. "Get this monster free Day 1, and if you can't, spend $15 on it." Not only is that a vile thing to do, it shows that they intentionally removed that monster from the core game just to make it DLC and force more pre-orders.

 

[Papercuts]

It should bomb for price gouging and basically tricking people into pre-ordering a new IP. "Get this monster free Day 1, and if you can't, spend $15 on it." Not only is that a vile thing to do, it shows that they intentionally removed that monster from the core game just to make it DLC and force more pre-orders.

The monster isn't available day one.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

It should bomb for price gouging and basically tricking people into pre-ordering a new IP. "Get this monster free Day 1, and if you can't, spend $15 on it." Not only is that a vile thing to do, it shows that they intentionally removed that monster from the core game just to make it DLC and force more pre-orders.

Sure, I agree with that. Turned me off from the game.

Might have misread your post, but it sounded like you were saying the game should have bombed despite all this coming to light, and that you couldn't understand why the game had a lot of marketing behind it. So that's what I was really confused on why the game should have bombed despite this DLC bullshit.

Also, because content is planned ahead doesn't mean the content was removed from the game. It could have been, but that doesn't mean that makes it a concrete 'yes it was' because of that possibility.

 

[Toxi]

There's some heavy irony in naming your extra-expensive release-date DLC edition "PC Monster Race".

 

[Revolutionary]

Found a spreadsheet at the Turtle Rock forums:

Taken from this thread regarding DLC pricing that was recently necrobumped, where a TR writer and a producer (respectively) chimed in last July:

We have no idea how much any of its going to cost, or exactly how it's going to be parceled out. No one here or at 2K does. Purely because there's still so much left to do on the game.

Taking off my developer hat for a second, I can say that the more popular the game is, and therefore the potential audience for DLC, the less DLC has to cost to generate profit.

They've been promoting it as the next e-sport and winning game of the show awards left and right - how much larger did the potential audience have to be to get the DLC prices down to a reasonable level? Were the preorder numbers not there or something?

I know this discussion has been going around for a while. I just want to say that Evolve will ship as a complete game that can stand on its own without DLC. We didn't cut anything out to try to part you from more money. You all have interacted with the devs pretty substantially through these forums and I think you know that's just not our personality as a studio.

Phil and Chris and the rest of the team were working on Evolve and knew they could only do so much work in a set time frame with the funding they had. The selection of Hunters and Monsters they decided to launch with was designed to stand on its own as a complete AAA $60 game. Getting the go ahead for creating DLC was as exciting for them as I hope it will be for you guys because they get to share even more creations with you that they initially thought would never see the light of day. In creating Evolve many Monsters and Hunters were concepted and considered. If the game is received as well as we're hoping, we look forward to bringing you more and more content down the road - not because we want to take all your money, but because we want to share all the crazy stuff we've thought up.

I hope that answers some questions and you guys feel a little better about Evolve DLC.

Kind of at odds with Agrius' "rationalization", no? Agrius paints the DLC and pricing as a necessity to make a profit on the game. Back in July, though, the decision for DLC seemed to have been made independent of worries about profit.

 

[Dragonborn]

Yea, I'm not buying this. I feel bored of it already and it was never really interesting to begin with. This just adds to the list. I feel it's going to bomb big time.

 

[mbmonk]

We can’t drive this part home enough: If you are planning to buy the game, but are skittish about pre-purchase, don’t be. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on 2/10/15, the FREE Monster Expansion Pack bonus goes away and it will run you over$14.99 to buy Behemoth, the fourth Monster, and the Savage Goliath skin after the fact. Think of it as us buying the first round for you. As a thank you.

This DLC practice would make me even more skittish if I was getting the game.

Good use of the MJ gif by the OP.

 

[AlphaDump]

the FREE Monster Expansion Pack bonus goes away and it will run you over$14.99 to buy Behemoth, the fourth Monster

absolutely not.

watched streams of this the other day and wasn't impressed. this kills it entirely for me.

 

[Yagharek]

Went from 'an interesting concept' to yet another case of why 'games as a service' is a broken, shitty business model.

 

[SGRX]

I was somewhat interested in this game until I read the OP. Now I'm not going to buy it even when it's on sale for $10.

 

[LocarionStorm]

We can’t drive this part home enough: If you are planning to buy the game, but are skittish about pre-purchase, don’t be. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on 2/10/15, the FREE Monster Expansion Pack bonus goes away and it will run you over$14.99 to buy Behemoth, the fourth Monster, and the Savage Goliath skin after the fact. Think of it as us buying the first round for you. As a thank you.

As a thank you? It seems more akin to extortion to force you into preordering if you want to play the game.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

The thing that's gonna hurt it the most, surprisingly, isn't the DLC, I feel. I feel that the audience they're going for-Competitive, MoBA, eSports....it's not gonna work. It's like...how would those brackets even work?

I'd like to say I'm in tune with what goes on gaming. If Evolve manages to somehow make strides in term of sales, I'll be damned surprised. It's already got heavy competition on the consoles thanks to CoD/Battlefield/Halo/Titanfall, on the PS4 it might succeed multiplayer wise but...