Surely this new wave of game marketing can't last...

[Frosty]

I'm really surprised that you guys are not more concerned about the implications of EP1. For a long while game developers have been trying to promote a direct-2-drive style of purchasing games online, because in theory it cuts out alot of the middlemen - especially publisher costs, advertisement companies, graphic designers (who make box art & manuals.) and printer expenses etc.

Moreover the knock-on effects of this would be a smaller price tag, say 10-15 for a new title that at the moment we pay £35 for.

Now the issue i have with Sin Episodes, EP1 and Bethesda's Oblivion add-ons (Horse Armour) is that they are making gamers pay an extortionate amount for their product; what once would have been considered worthy of a patch or part of a 20 hour add-on pack we are being made pay for piecemeal.

Sin Episodes was originally touted as one of the first series of games that would be released in 5 hour chapters, just online, and because of this it would be cheaper. But Valve have gone ahead and packaged and sold it at the price of a full 30-40 hour game (£19.99) in most places.

EP1 has the same story, originally it was meant to be just a download (and be something like £5 because they cut out the aforementioned costs) but instead they have gone ahead and packaged it, and ramped up the costs. Even the most die hard of us can’t justify paying 19.99 for 3-4 hours of more of HL2 when the original game was 20-25 hours long for £30.

My final thought is that EP1, EP2, Ep3 should all be packaged and released at the same time as a fully fledged add-on pack in 8 months time for an acceptable price...say £20 for the lot and not the accumulated 15x3 = £45 for something that isn’t even a fully fledged game. Next they'll be making us pay for patches..(more on that later)...surely that Horse armour for Oblivion that we are being charged 2-3 quid for is the sort of thing we would have seen in a patch a few years back. If companies were to really get this chapter style of game presentation off the ground and to schedule it, it might actually work...but the current trend of making 5 hour stints and packaging them at full price is simply unacceptable.

*sigh* needed to get that off my chest...

Adam.

[mike_w]

You're not being forced to buy anything, so I don't really see the problem. If you had to pay for patches, that would be a different matter, but I don't foresee that occurring anytime in the near future.

If there are enough people willing to pay the money, it will carry on. Otherwise, it will most likely stop, or never really take off. Obvious, really - but my point is that this is just like any other product - if there's the market for this, why hold anything against the company?

[toolsong]

Cost me £11.44 over Steam at today's exchange rate

[skuzgib]

Don't forget BF2 and its booster packs.

[directhex]

I'm really surprised that you guys are not more concerned about the implications of EP1. For a long while game developers have been trying to promote a direct-2-drive style of purchasing games online, because in theory it cuts out alot of the middlemen - especially publisher costs, advertisement companies, graphic designers (who make box art & manuals.) and printer expenses etc.

Moreover the knock-on effects of this would be a smaller price tag, say 10-15 for a new title that at the moment we pay £35 for.

Now the issue i have with Sin Episodes, EP1 and Bethesda's Oblivion add-ons (Horse Armour) is that they are making gamers pay an extortionate amount for their product; what once would have been considered worthy of a patch or part of a 20 hour add-on pack we are being made pay for piecemeal.

Sin Episodes was originally touted as one of the first series of games that would be released in 5 hour chapters, just online, and because of this it would be cheaper. But Valve have gone ahead and packaged and sold it at the price of a full 30-40 hour game (£19.99) in most places.

EP1 has the same story, originally it was meant to be just a download (and be something like £5 because they cut out the aforementioned costs) but instead they have gone ahead and packaged it, and ramped up the costs. Even the most die hard of us can’t justify paying 19.99 for 3-4 hours of more of HL2 when the original game was 20-25 hours long for £30.

My final thought is that EP1, EP2, Ep3 should all be packaged and released at the same time as a fully fledged add-on pack in 8 months time for an acceptable price...say £20 for the lot and not the accumulated 15x3 = £45 for something that isn’t even a fully fledged game. Next they'll be making us pay for patches..(more on that later)...surely that Horse armour for Oblivion that we are being charged 2-3 quid for is the sort of thing we would have seen in a patch a few years back. If companies were to really get this chapter style of game presentation off the ground and to schedule it, it might actually work...but the current trend of making 5 hour stints and packaging them at full price is simply unacceptable.

*sigh* needed to get that off my chest...

Adam.

the traditional price for expansion packs has been about £10-£15

unless you buy it in the stores (in which case your 'skipping the middle man' bit doesn't apply), then the current episodic games fall well below £15

and to be honest, so many full-priced games offer only 6 hours' play, i think £12 for 4-5 hours isn't bad

[kalniel]

You're not being forced to buy anything, so I don't really see the problem. If you had to pay for patches, that would be a different matter, but I don't foresee that occurring anytime in the near future.

If there are enough people willing to pay the money, it will carry on. Otherwise, it will most likely stop, or never really take off. Obvious, really - but my point is that this is just like any other product - if there's the market for this, why hold anything against the company?

My thoughts exactly. Market forces are still king.

[kempez]

I think that episodic content is good. Pay £10-12 for 6hours of decent gameplay is pretty sweet

[Flibb]

Quiet interesting that non valve based games have started appearing on steam. Red Orchestra is based on one of the UT engines, but they chose to distribute it via steam. I have got a few odds on sods of steam, mainly DoD-S, and RO. But they only cost around £12, for full games would probably buy retail box. They also tend to keep the games updated with new content, unlike BF2 where they charge for it.

[UltraMagnus]

horse armour only cost like $1.98, where did you get £2-3 from?