Episodic content
Episodic content: New idea or a new way of ripping us off?
Remember when EA announced that they will be releasing new content for Battlefield 2? Remember 5 seconds later when you found out that you were gonna pay $10 for a few new maps? I sure was shocked.
Until then developers and publishers supported their games not only by making patches and fixing the bugs (something EA still hasn’t learned) but by providing additional content free of charge. That was their way of saying “thanks for buying the game.”
It was mostly Valve that continued to make free content for the players. Maps, updates, mods etc.
Now it seems that Valve has joined EA, at least to some extent. Let me explain.
You have a game and you count on, say, twenty hours of gameplay time and the game retails at $50. If you split up that game into 3 episodes of 5-6 hours and charge $20-$25, it’s a much better business than before. Not so hard to understand.
That’s what happened to Half Life 2: Aftermath, in my opinion. When it used to be “Aftermath.” Now Valve has split up the expansion pack into at least two episodes (Episode 1 is out in a month or so) of five hours of gameplay. How long before Valve begins to charge for new Counter-Strike maps, if they continue down this road? It wouldn’t take long for Valve to lose the respect of the community like EA did with the boosterpacks.
It makes perfect business sense, the marketing departments must feel like real geniuses at this point. But with the boosterpacks from EA (and the lack of support) I swore never to buy another game from them. I hope I won’t be adding Valve to that list in a few months.
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April 29th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
You make some interesting points, but the bottom line is, busines is business, and sometime they just don’t care about us, but the shareholders (EA case)
November 20th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
I for one am not a fan of Episodes. The only reason for them is for the developer to make more money. They don’t enhance gameplay or do anything for the consumer. Episode 1 was fun but is essentially re-used content from HL2 – hardly anything original in there. I saw Episode 1 in a GAME store (UK) yesterday retailing at £20! That is $40! For one episode! How can anyone pay that much for one map!?
I am not impressed with Valve at all these days. Not only are they skimping by releasing Episodes instead of making a new and original game, but they becoming more and more obsessed with publishing rather than developing games. The Steam client is now a full on sales service to buy hundreds of 3rd party games. It is, in my opinion, an ad-ware service.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Just goes to show you, even if you go out and make the best game ever, some people will go to great lengths to find faults with it.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Wrong post, stupid browser.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
After waiting over 6 months for a lousy 4 hour experience (EP:2) and getting NOTHING and after that subpar SiN game and it’s lack of any more episodes or even any news about it I am all done with anything that remotely resembles episodic play. I don’t care how much it costs give me a full gaming experience or forget about finding a home on my HD.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
And actually in this case it does NOT make good business sense … at all. For a few more lousy dollars (I know it comes out to be hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions) you are willing to risk your professional rep (one that is already tarnished because of the long product cycle) and your customer base who have been sticking by your side through years and years of delays and who defend your product vigoursly on every FPS shooter forum … no that doesn’t make any sense.
What makes sense is getting your products out in a reasonable time frame and then expanding your portfolio of IP and coming up with another title to wow your fans … see Epic for an example Valve (even if I personally don’t like Gears that much).
September 25th, 2007 at 11:16 am
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October 18th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Wrong post, stupid browser. thanks