With the release of the horse armor mod for Oblivion, and charging for it, it has caused quite a stir amongst gamers. It’s a fairly new concept, and there are varying opinions about the matter. EvilAvatar highlights a good point of view on the matter, however:
Though bonus content has always co-existed with PC gaming, it was Xbox Live that first introduced paid extras and evolved the concept to a respectable level. More specifically, with LIVE’s networked capability publishers came out with the $5 for ~2 map deals - that’s 10% of the $50 cover ($60 more recently with 360) for ~2 deathmatch arenas or golf courses, not to mention there’s none of the associated cost to box, print, transport, stock, shelf, advertise, etc. typical with fully standalone products. It’s money in the bank for the publisher without giving out the usual handout to retailer and distributors. Worse, companies are known for withholding contents that are made for the game to be distributed later - sometimes priming the consumers by giving away some of the withheld content and charging for the rest.
What are your thoughts? Personally I’m not worried, I think it won’t be an issue because in this case, people will just vote with their wallet (or not.)
I chipped in $2 to get the mod just now. I look at it this way — Oblivion is insanely fun, I think it’s a massive world that I will be engrossed in for a long time. Bethesda deserves every amount of praise and profit they get, and hopefully it’ll motivate not only them to come out with another game that raises the bar like Oblivion did, but other developers to release stellar single-player RPG’s. $2 is a Happy Meal to me, and I can give that up to support a developer that I don’t mind supporting.
Matt on 04 4th, 2006