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[CloudWolf]

I think you are out to lunch, They do DLC better than almost any other developer.

They really don't. Sure, there's a ton of content, but the quality is mediocre at best. The only DLC Bethesda has released that I'd classify as good are The Pitt and Shivering Isles.

Most Oblivion DLC was house-mods, Fallout 3's DLC included a lame retcon to make up for the stupid ending and fan-fiction about aliens and Skyrim's DLC were a house-mod, a story that only existed because Morrowind-nostalgia and a Vampire-story that only existed because someone at Bethesda came up with a silly overpowered gimmick (Vampire Lords in Dawnguard).

The last one was even worse for someone that cares about the lore, because not only did the Dawnguard storyline conflict with the known lore, it also created a huge plothole. Because if there are still living Snow Elves, why the fuck do you leave him standing around in his own little castle instead of sending him to the Mages Guild pronto to talk about the Dwemer and all other kinds of lost knowledge that only he knows.

Compare that to New Vegas, where Obsidian planned everything way ahead of things. Even without the DLC you hear people in the main game refer to Ulysses, Joshua Graham, Elijah and the Big MT and you see Dean Domino posters in the casinos. And of course there's the fact that every DLC is connected. You can find stuff about Elijah and Christine in the Big MT (and vice-versa, they talk about Big MT in Dead Money), Joshua Graham was waiting for Ulysses when you first meet him and in the Big MT you find Ulysses' voice recordings.

 

[jshackles]

I'm quite sure that Bethesda is doing this in response to the usual (quite opposite) criticism I see about their DLC all the time on SteamGAF. Most people feel that Bethesda DLC pricing is terrible because it usually screws over the game's early adopters, usually because the "Game of the Year" edition ends up costing less money than buying all of the DLC separately. This routinely forces people who purchased the game on release to "upgrade" to the GotY edition by buying said version for the same price as people who already own the base game. This is especially true with Steam sales, as Bethesda often puts their GotY versions on sale for -75% while only discounting the individual DLC by -25% or -50%.

In comparison, I paid $30 for The Shivering Isles when it was first released on the Xbox 360. Dragonborn is still $20 if you don't buy it on sale.

The bottom line is, if you're the type of person who complains about Bethesda screwing over early adopters with their DLC practices, then you should be comforted knowing that you can buy the season pass at any time which will essentially upgrade your base game to the version with all the DLC. That's not been possible in Bethesda games before now, so I think this announcement is actually a good step forward.

 

[Neuromancer]

"If people don't pre-order our game, then that means they don't want it."

"If people don't buy season passes, then that means they don't want DLC."

Disgusting practice...

Do publishers actually say that? I doubt it. Preorders are a good way to sell games and season passes are evidently a good way to sell DLC. If preorders didn't exist and season passes didn't exist, there's no reason to think that games and DLC still wouldn't be made.

 

[RoboPlato]

This is a good illustration of how publishers use of DLC and Season Passes have warped good ideas in theory. Devs want people to know they're going to be supporting the game in the long run but pubs want to sell the season passes immediately. They either announce concrete plans for additional content early which makes many feel like they're getting an incomplete package or you do this and make it seem like you're charging for nothing.

 

[Slixshot]

Burned by Arkham Knight's season pass. I'll just wait for all the DLC to be released and if I want it all, buy the pass then.

 

[MrS]

Of course not. Wait for impressions from trusted sources. You don't need to buy anything day 1. If what you read or hear in terms of opinions on the final product is good enough for you to make an educated purchase, then go ahead.

Spoken like a true video game reviewer

If somebody is a fan of Fallout,or MGS, or any other trusted franchise and has waited years for a game, why wouldn't they pre-order?

$40?
That is pricey.
Didn't it took them like forever to release the vampire DLC for Skyrim?
With that rate, might as well buy a new game to play and start on a new adventure instead.

Joke post? They said it's gonna be $30

 

[Steve Youngblood]

A possible problem can arise when enough people preorder in pure blind faith (which I personally strongly advise against, not just with videogames but in all facets of life) that this becomes the new normal, and publishers find some way to incentivize purchasing a season pass ASAP, with little to no details.

But I don't even understand what the crime is here just yet. Honestly, it strikes me as silly to announce a season pass when there's not even a road map as to what that content might be. But if you're a Fallout fan with money in hand shouting "shut up and take my money!", then ok. This might strike you as a sensible purchase. And if you're a consumer of more discriminating tastes who doesn't like to feel like some sucker, then the solution is that you don't preorder the season pass. I get why people personally think it's BS to announce season pass content in this type of fashion. I disagree though that this is Reason #213214 why this industry is going to shit and that we need to do something about this yesterday because this should be borderline illegal.

 

[Interfectum]

I am not against people buying season passes. I do find it quite alarming to see people blindly line up and nothing has been even explained on what it'll even offer. That shows incredible naivety.

I dunno, posts like these bother me. You act as if you 'figured it all out' and the people who choose different than you are naive or are sheep to the corporate machine. I've pre-ordered and bought season passes before knowing full well what I'm getting myself into. I'm not being ignorant... perhaps foolish but not naive in the least.

Why do I do it? Sometimes to just get the full purchase out of the way. I bought Witcher 3 + Expansion Pass the day it was announced and now, besides arguing about it on here, I don't have to think about it. When the content comes out, I'll have it on Steam. It's a first world luxury I guess.

I'm sure there are people here ready to go "all in" for Fallout 4. They love the series and are ready to buy the best "pack" they can. I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Bright-Light]

I'm not against dlc at all, but I think its funny they see a season pass as a "reward" to the fans.

 

[fedexpeon]

$40?
That is pricey.
Didn't it took them like forever to release the vampire DLC for Skyrim?
With that rate, might as well buy a new game to play and start on a new adventure instead.

 

[Auctopus]

I trust Beth with their track record...

Edit: I retract this comment. Didn't quite think it through.

 

[ANDS]

It takes a royally fucked business model to know the cost of the product before you even have a slight idea what the product is. It's pretty appalling to think this is how bad the consumer is bent over by the publisher.

You wouldn't order at restaurant that hadn't decided on a menu, or buy tickets to a movie with no name or trailer. How the fuck can any business sell a non existent product while openly admitting they don't even have a clue what it is they're selling you?

Because the only ones who believe they have literally no idea what the content is going to be are the people who want to believe this is a terrible idea. There is 0% chance that Bethesda doesn't know what kind of content they will be offering.

I am not against people buying season passes. I do find it quite alarming to see people blindly line up and nothing has been even explained on what it'll even offer. That shows incredible naivety.

It would be naive if no one know who the hell Bethesda was and this was their first rodeo. It isn't. The last few games released through them (directly and indirectly) have all had pretty great DLC. Other than GOTY editions, they've never offered a discount for post-launch content. Now they are.

 

[Give War A Chance]

The issue isn't spending a premium on video games. It's buying a season pass without knowing what it includes.

I can't wait for other things to adopt this model.

Me too! Because I won't have to buy it if I don't want to, or I can and get a discount, OR I could just buy them all at full price.

I hate it when I get options!

 

[blame space]

Does the pip boy edition come with the season pass?

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Lootcrate, naturebox, etc.

Those are neat ideas and can be canceled if you don't find it meets the value of your dollar.

 

[Psychoward]

Do you trust babysitters by their sex offenders record?

wut

 

[Foffy]

I dunno, posts like these bother me. You act as if you 'figured it all out' and the people who choose different than you are naive or are sheep to the corporate machine. I've pre-ordered and bought season passes before knowing full well what I'm getting myself into. I'm not being ignorant... perhaps foolish but not naive in the least.

Why do I do it? Sometimes to just get the full purchase out of the way. I bought Witcher 3 + Expansion Pass the day it was announced and now, besides arguing about it on here, I don't have to think about it. When the content comes out, I'll have it on Steam. It's a first world luxury I guess.

I'm sure there are people here ready to go "all in" for Fallout 4. They love the series and are ready to buy the best "pack" they can. I don't see anything wrong with that.

There's a difference, though. With the Witcher 3, they explained what's coming. I am not even saying wait till it comes out, but wait till they explain what the fuck you're getting.

Doing otherwise is literally being naive. You are, quite literally, spending money on a blind hypothetical, as it's not explained even slightly on what's on offer. That's the only sincere flag I see.

 

[spekkeh]

I have to say I love the way they do things at Bethesda.

From 'we can't figure out how to program ladders' to 'buy our season pass we don't even know ourselves what it's going to be'. Zero fucks are given in their PR. It's very refreshing in this age of media training.

 

[SprachBrooks]

:lol

"We don't know what we're making, but it's $30!"

This fucking industry.

At least they're being honest about it hahaha.

 

[prwxv3]

Do you trust babysitters by their sex offenders record?

Jesus

 

[Monster Zero]

Please explain how either of those are disgusting practices.

Are you suggesting it is never going to exist and therefore won't be a discount, or being sarcastic?

It does not exist, we don't know what the dlc is, we don't know what's being discounted, we know nothing. $30 please. If my own mother called me today and said "Monster zero, im having a cookout, don't know what food I'm cooking but it's $10 dollars to come, but the meal is worth at least $20" even if I know it's gonna be a bomb ass BBQ, I would ask where is my money going toward. Are people here truly comfortable putting $30 into a non existent product?

 

[spekkeh]

And is this season pass really that different from some kickstarters?

 

[On Demand]

Whilst that does sound strange, I'm sure Bethesda have some sort of structure to how they approach dlc. I think it's entirely possible they have a rough idea of how long they need to spend working on each dlc and when they want to release it buy. If they have most people on the team available after launch o work on it it's entirely possible they could develop something within a couple of months.

I don't believe that. They're still working on the game and they will come up with full story DLC from scratch by next year? Note that they said early next year. They have to have some idea what it is and started pre production on it by now.

 

[Pseudo_Sam]

Do you trust babysitters by their sex offenders record?

I don't even know what this is supposed to mean

 

[nubbe]

everyone should just tell em to piss off

srsly

 

[GoldandBlue]

Burned by Arkham Knight's season pass. I'll just wait for all the DLC to be released and if I want it all, buy the pass then.

Yeah, same here. Bought the damn Season Pass on PC and haven't gotten anything for it lol. Of course what I've seen so far, it's disappointing.

 

[blame space]

Your mom would charge you to eat at her BBQ?

 

[Gravy Boat]

Me too! Because I won't have to buy it if I don't want to, or I can and get a discount, OR I could just buy them all at full price.

I hate it when I get options!

Options are fine but not when they encourage and reward people for making purchases based on faith. That's just bad for consumers but somehow people have been tricked into thinking it's a good thing.

 

[Foffy]

Your mom would charge you to eat at her BBQ?

If she was a full blown capitalist? Of course.

 

[Giriath_89]

Give me that dog armor!

 

[StoveOven]

If I was a huge Bethesda/Fallout fan, I would probably put down the cash for this. I think they should at least give a general idea of what is going to be there, but there is a history and pedigree you can look at. And while I don't normally bring up Gearbox as an example of good business practices, I bought the season pass for Borderlands 2 after enjoying most of the post launch content for the first game. I didn't buy it until after the game was out, and they had detailed what would be in it. But after seeing the first game have four $10 campaigns, I would have expected to same from the second.

However, I played Skyrim on PS3, so I'm not even going to buy Fallout 4 on day one, let alone preorder the season pass. I'm gonna be playing Tomb Raider and then make sure that Fallout works properly before picking it up.

But that's just my experience. There are plenty of people who have loved all of the recent Bethesda games as well as their post launch content. And they have every reason to have faith in this company to deliver. And if they don't, then Bethesda will lose a lot of good will, and those people might not be so quick to throw down money next time.

 

[MegaMelon]

Do you trust babysitters by their sex offenders record?

The point you're trying to make I assume is that you don't think Bethtesda has a good track record with dlc. Which is fine. You don't need to buy the season pass. But just understand that other people may have a different opinion about bethesda's track record.

 

[JoeNut]

fucking hell i know it's been said in this thread already but jesus christ, "we don't know what it'll be but its 30$" is just ridiculous, no other industry could do something like this.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Me too! Because I won't have to buy it if I don't want to, or I can and get a discount, OR I could just buy them all at full price.

I hate it when I get options!

Who's complaining about the idea of a season pass? I like that as an option.

If I were to buy blind, I'd like the option to cancel and get a refund if it doesn't meet my expectations. They can keep the money I use on anything I may have redeemed. Options!

 

[bombshell]

Burned by Arkham Knight's season pass. I'll just wait for all the DLC to be released and if I want it all, buy the pass then.

It seems like a lot of people keep forgetting that this is an option. Just like it's an option to purchase the season pass sights unseen. Nobody is forced to buy it now.

 

[Daffy Duck]

I can already hear the Jimquisition script being penned.

 

[Pseudo_Sam]

Options are fine but not when they encourage and reward people for making purchases based on faith. That's just bad for consumers but somehow people have been tricked into thinking it's a good thing.

lol, thx white knight for knowing what's best for me. I've been tricked! Todd Howard must be twirling his mustache this very moment

 

[TheOhrenberger.]

Well at least they're honest

Options are fine but not when they encourage and reward people for making purchases based on faith. That's just bad for consumers but somehow people have been tricked into thinking it's a good thing.

To be fair you can just buy the season pass once all the DLC is released and get a deal that way.

 

[Kacho]

I mean, part of me wonders why they would say this. Seems like a bad PR move in general.

That said, Bethesda more than others deliver with their DLC so its not totally absurd to have faith in them and trust what they say. I'll be holding off on buying the DLC until more information becomes available.

This is prime material to be discussed in an upcoming Jimquisition I reckon.

 

[Gravy Boat]

lol, thx white knight for knowing what's best for me. I've been tricked! Todd Howard must be twirling his mustache this very moment

No need to thank me, just make smarter purchases going forward.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

No need to thank me, just make smarter purchases going forward.

Just stop.

 

[KurtFehl]

http://bethesda.net/?utm_source=twi...ame/fallout-4-launch-and-beyond/2015/09/08/22

 

[Foffy]

lol, thx white knight for knowing what's best for me. I've been tricked! Todd Howard must be twirling his mustache this very moment

He doesn't have a mustache, and there's a clear reason Howard has become a meme about lies.

 

[StoveOven]

I mean, part of me wonders why they would say this. Seems like a bad PR move in general.

That said, Bethesda more than others deliver with their DLC so its not totally absurd to have faith in them and trust what they say. I'll be holding off on buying the DLC until more information becomes available.

This is prime material to be discussed in an upcoming Jimquisition I reckon.

I think that they see all the backlash to DLC being announced before the game, so they wanted to make it seem like that's not even a focus right now. Yet retailers still need the announcement because they want to start selling the season pass.

 

[MegaMelon]

I don't believe that. They're still working on the game and they will come up with full story DLC from scratch by next year? Note that they said early next year. They have to have some idea what it is and started pre production on it by now.

I'm sure they have some incredibly vague idea about what they want to do, maybe not enough to qualify saying so but yeah. I don't know the full story so I may be completely wrong, bu Fallout 3 came out end of october 2008 withe Operation Anchorage releasing end of January. Based on taht perhaps it doesn't take as long to make their dlc as we may assume. Now they said early 2016 so they could mean march for all we know right?

 

[Charcoal]

Why are so many people acting like there's never been Fallout DLC? There was like what..5 seperate entities for New Vegas? $30 is a great deal, even solely based on what's happend in the past.

 

[jond76]

I loved all of Fallout 3's DLC (never got around to play Mothership Zeta) and it was easily enough to be worth $30.

I expect good things.

 

[Pseudo_Sam]

He doesn't have a mustache, and there's a clear reason Howard has become a meme about lies.

I don't think Todd Howard is actually a "meme about lies". Though rumor has it he's a full blown capitalist so god help us all

 

[GECK]

I'll wait for the Obsidian edition.

 

[KarmaCow]

No, but if they say 'we're planing on doing this to be released at X time, here's a screenshot or whatever' then you've got people acting outraged that they're working on DLC before the game is released.

Like, nobody is forced to buy the season pass until details are announced. Anyone who does is stupid, but I'd still rather them say 'Hey, we're going to release some DLC. It'll cost $30, going to start working on it soon' than 'Hey, we're selling you this content 2 months after the game releases, buy it now to save $5'.

I'm not defending season passes at all here, but it's a nice change to say the least when a developer pretty much admits they haven't started working on DLC while the game itself was still in development. That doesn't mean people should buy the season pass, at least not until some info is announced.

The thing is that I find this change to be arrogance more so than being open and honest. They know people will just buy this sight unseen, so they don't need to justify it. People are free to do what they want but the idea that the only thing they do know is that it will cost $40 is pretty disconcerting and speaks to how this is being made. Even worse is how this is framed as a deal, despite it being nothing right now.