Assassin’s Creed II Sequence Gap Omitted for DLC on Purpose
Fears justified, Assassin’s Creed series creator Patrice Desilets recently told Kotaku that the sequel’s upcoming DLC was originally part of the core title. Removed late in the day, Desilets attributes the shift to the game’s tight working time scale acknowledging that “there were too many things to do and to finish”, taking chunks to later offer as paid content in order to ease “stress [on] the team” and apparently “giving more to fans and people who like Assassin’s Creed”.
“I think we gave [gamers] so much content that they cannot say that we owe them” followed Desilet, presumably as a proverbial flame shield against the armies of sighing players half-heartedly relinquishing the dream that mainstream titles were still made with the gamer in mind. While DLC is now floated by all major publishers and largely excused by consumers as a necessary evil, it is not considered common practice to blatantly admit the omission of content, regardless of your products alleged longevity. When said package is reasonably integral to a narrative’s time line, the micro-transaction pill becomes all the harder to swallow.
Here, the eventual fan’s digital store front browse is coated with a fug of angered necessity rather than the joyous broadband stare that extended content for a beloved game should incite.
Via: Eurogamer
Wow…seriously? That’s taking micro-transactions to a new low..
“Let’s make a game, then omit a bunch of content on purpose. Then later we can sell that content to our customers and make more money in addition to the retail box price!”
I’m not naive enough to believe other publishers haven’t been pushing for similar practices to maximize DLC profits. But this is the first I hear of someone outright admitting they did such a thing.
Why don’t they just shit in my mouth and kick me in the balls while I hand them my wallet after I buy the game? =P
The guy would be talking sense if these updates came out as a free update. As it is, this is a dick move.
Actually that part of the story isn’t integral to the story. The game is about Desmond and not about Ezio. So filling in the gaps in Ezio’s story is only something for fans.
While I won’t disagree that AC2 didn’t have a ton of content, I’m very willing to disagree that content cut from a game because of time constraints is now worth extra to put into it after the fact.
But then this is the conundrum of DLC; if this had come out on the PS2 then it still would’ve been cut and we’d have never seen it short of a GOTY release (which will happen next year, guaranteed). All this really does is add more flames to the argument and once again prove that creative directors need to keep their mouths shut over such issues =P
On one hand he’s at least honest and the game’s really got enough content to warrant the price tag. On the other hand it’s still a dick move. The problem’s simple, they made a great game and now I’m really looking forward to pay to download the content I should have had in the first place. Damn you, Ubisoft for making such a great game in the first place, they knew this would work out to be a great deal for them, hooking us and then ripping us off, smiling with glee.
Awesome picture by the way Chris.
Whilst this was a dick move, I’ll probably still buy it. The price of both parts of DLC is unusually low, and I would be willing to bet makes Ubi very little profit once the cost of development and putting the file on PSN/XBL are accounted for. Had the Dev said “We held it back with a view to charging for it” or words to that effect, my opinion would be different. When you think about it, £3 is basically a coffee or a sandwich at today’s prices, and you can’t go back and drink/eat them again when you’re thirsty/hungry. This is a bad analogy when used for things like music game DLC or Avatar clothes, but I think it applies in this case.
I’m certainly getting better with PS Sam!
This game was 60 dollars and is requiring payment for the 1st update.
Team Fortress 2 was 20 dollars and has had i believe 90-100 updates, all free.
INDEED.