EA touts Battlefield 1 micro-monetization opportunities

[Saracen]

Until they release the Special Deluxe Ultimate Limited 10th Anniversary Director's Cut Collector's Edition that comes with an extra 3 minutes of previously unseen footage and an alternative ending

Nah, I never fall for that. It strikes me as a blatant way to chisel more dosh out of us, and if I've got one version on disc, that's enough for me. The only way I'd buy a "collector" edition with extra bits, whatever poncy name they gave it, is if it was available at the same time I was buying, and at the same price. That might happen if I was picking up a bargain-bin version of something I didn't want enough to buy new-ish (I never buy at full price, on release, as there's nothing I want that badly).

In days long gone, I might buy games on release (if I couldn't get a press copy) but, as I say, days long gone. These days, my game buying is limited to heavily discounted stuff a year or two old, at least, and given the prevalence of Steam (and similar) more or less to de-DRM'd stuff on GOG anyway.

[jag272]

Nah, I never fall for that. It strikes me as a blatant way to chisel more dosh out of us, and if I've got one version on disc, that's enough for me. The only way I'd buy a "collector" edition with extra bits, whatever poncy name they gave it, is if it was available at the same time I was buying, and at the same price. That might happen if I was picking up a bargain-bin version of something I didn't want enough to buy new-ish (I never buy at full price, on release, as there's nothing I want that badly).

In days long gone, I might buy games on release (if I couldn't get a press copy) but, as I say, days long gone. These days, my game buying is limited to heavily discounted stuff a year or two old, at least, and given the prevalence of Steam (and similar) more or less to de-DRM'd stuff on GOG anyway.

This has been my approach for the last few years since the discount battles are pretty big on PC. Very easy to pick up AAA games for £5-10 only a year or 2 later, and I usually don't care enough to buy them on release, so I for the most part just keep track of deals with reddit and isthereanydeal. Only game I bought on release in recent memory was XCOM2 because I had such a great time with XCOM1.

Usually by the time a game gets discounted, the special editions are only £1-2 more so I spring for them, though I only go for whatever has the digital content. Often the digital deluxe edition or whatever includes all the dlc etc, I don't care about the physical rewards with the collectors editions.

[Vorlon99]

My buying habits are much the same too... I buy through Humble Bundle and GOG, both nice and cheap, and from steam and origin sales when sufficiently discounted; now I have so many games to work through that I can easily wait for years before I buy something else I wanted. I have enough games to last 5 lifetimes in a fallout bunker after a global apocalypse... All I would need is power, food and a bucket in the corner

[Dragonstongue]

I miss the days when games earned their money only from how many they sold and weren't used as stores to sell you things.

could not agree more...Devs now will do everything they possibly can to "chop" as much as they can to ensure can sell DLC "packs" etc and the more folks that buy into this, the more they do so, Give us the full game THEN add DLC after the fact as extras, ok, but to chop away from a full priced game THEN oh you need to buy this and this to get the full experience, BS. Bethesda and Tripwire are great devs in this regard, all extras are done after the fact, whereas Ubisoft, Activision and EA all are insanely bad for charging arm and leg for the experience and then after the fact, not long later, they shut the game down "to keep costs in check" even on games/app that are still being heavily played.

Horsecrap EA, massive horsecrap, you all obviously have not learned over the years what is fair and reasonable, the only thing you all see is how much more millions of $ can we make so we can be wasteful and make ever worse the insane $$$$$ marketing campaigns showing basically photoshopped and tweaked gameplay and hollywood inspired absolute crap "effects" instead of putting this $$$$ in properly supporting and ensuring rock solid games.

You all really have lost touch with reality since the BF2-2142 days prioritizing
"flash but no substance" not allowing your devs to truly shine and ruining in many cases beloved franchises just to serve that insane level of greed, so much for "digital games" being less $$ then the physical editions, and so much for your "great games gaurantee" maybe try making properly supported and up to the high price standard before you "gaurantee" them ahem like many of the need for speed games-BF modern games etc, high production cost, rushed development, game crippling bugs, poor actual quality etc.....Dummies

[Biscuit]

could not agree more...Devs now will do everything they possibly can to "chop" as much as they can to ensure can sell DLC "packs" etc and the more folks that buy into this, the more they do so, Give us the full game THEN add DLC after the fact as extras, ok, but to chop away from a full priced game THEN oh you need to buy this and this to get the full experience, BS. Bethesda and Tripwire are great devs in this regard, all extras are done after the fact, whereas Ubisoft, Activision and EA all are insanely bad for charging arm and leg for the experience and then after the fact, not long later, they shut the game down "to keep costs in check" even on games/app that are still being heavily played.

Horsecrap EA, massive horsecrap, you all obviously have not learned over the years what is fair and reasonable, the only thing you all see is how much more millions of $ can we make so we can be wasteful and make ever worse the insane $$$$$ marketing campaigns showing basically photoshopped and tweaked gameplay and hollywood inspired absolute crap "effects" instead of putting this $$$$ in properly supporting and ensuring rock solid games.

You all really have lost touch with reality since the BF2-2142 days prioritizing
"flash but no substance" not allowing your devs to truly shine and ruining in many cases beloved franchises just to serve that insane level of greed, so much for "digital games" being less $$ then the physical editions, and so much for your "great games gaurantee" maybe try making properly supported and up to the high price standard before you "gaurantee" them ahem like many of the need for speed games-BF modern games etc, high production cost, rushed development, game crippling bugs, poor actual quality etc.....Dummies

I dont think its the devs that do it, its the publishing companies that fund them. I think a lot of them are hardworking folk who take pride in their work but, unfortunately, are forced down the dark path of capitalist greed. When gaming overtook other forms of media as the most popular form of entertainment, this was bound to happen... sucks.

[Dragonstongue]

I also wish they get away form DLC crap, very little added, big price, now proper expansion packs, for sure, nothing worse then running into a situation where "oh sucks to be you, you cannot proceed without shelling out more and more for this game you just bought to have the DLC" and if you dont have it, wish many people are being idiots IMO buying into it, you have very few games/servers to play in, because of not having these DLC maps, guns vehicles etc.....Oh yeh, and cant forget something simple like BF2 where a jet/tank are as good as they get right off the bat, yet modern BF, lets make sure they are crap until you "level them" I swear whoever playtest these games, or design them in first place are just people throwing ideas in a hat, random picking them out, and adding in with no changes, no matter how stupid it is, yay fancy laser light shows and "parts" they do not use they way they are portrayed cause it is "cool" yay for anything but realistic constant effects(lens flare, eyes in chest instead of on head, fishbowl aspect visual ratios and so forth)

Think before do. Otherwise you lose customer base, then you lose business, simple as that

[jag272]

I dont think its the devs that do it, its the publishing companies that fund them. I think a lot of them are hardworking folk who take pride in their work but, unfortunately, are forced down the dark path of capitalist greed. When gaming overtook other forms of media as the most popular form of entertainment, this was bound to happen... sucks.

Agreed on this. The majority of publishers don't seem to consider that good will alone can go a long way in selling games, and so try to pander their games to the currently very generic market and bung on preorder bonuses and the like because consumers so far aren't punishing them enough. Were thankfully seeing a gradual shift of people consumers speaking out about it, whether thats because people are becoming more aware of what is happening, or people are simply getting tired of having to pay extra for the full package.

Either way, I do think in most cases the blame is to be placed mostly if not wholly on the publisher. There are some pretty crappy devs out there, no doubt about it, but for most devs pride in their game comes before anything else, whereas to the publisher all that hard work is simply a product they have the task of selling. With any luck we keep seeing people speaking out about these practices and voting with their wallets, I think some of the publishers are starting to tone it back a bit, but there are some like EA who don't seem to have gotten the memo quite yet.

[Biscuit]

Agreed on this. The majority of publishers don't seem to consider that good will alone can go a long way in selling games, and so try to pander their games to the currently very generic market and bung on preorder bonuses and the like because consumers so far aren't punishing them enough. Were thankfully seeing a gradual shift of people consumers speaking out about it, whether thats because people are becoming more aware of what is happening, or people are simply getting tired of having to pay extra for the full package.

Either way, I do think in most cases the blame is to be placed mostly if not wholly on the publisher. There are some pretty crappy devs out there, no doubt about it, but for most devs pride in their game comes before anything else, whereas to the publisher all that hard work is simply a product they have the task of selling. With any luck we keep seeing people speaking out about these practices and voting with their wallets, I think some of the publishers are starting to tone it back a bit, but there are some like EA who don't seem to have gotten the memo quite yet.

The problem is, talk is cheap. People still buy COD and Battlefield when they are release then complain about it afterwards. Hell most people still pre-order games and that does nothing but encourage these reptiles.

Like you say, people need to vote with their wallets more.

[realstock]

modern BF, lets make sure they are crap until you "level them"

Personally I liked that element of BF, all guns, vehicles needed to be played to allow upgrades, new sights, muzzles, secondary weapons etc. But after a year or so, EA added the ability to buy these upgrades that seasoned players had unlocked through play time, but this can make it more difficult for new player(s) to be successful online from the start.

I have been a massive fan of BF2/3/4 and have purchased the season pass for both 3 & 4 costing in excess of £100 for each of them, knowing that I would get my moneys worth. Then come along both Battlefield Hardline, and Battlefront, two games I would have been interested in, if it was not for the £100 price tag to fully enjoy the game (DLCs etc). So those games have been missed, and because they are primarily games to be enjoyed online with friends, if you don't buy in at the start you are likely to miss boat. I blame the intolerable greed at EA.

The statement above for Battlefield 1 regarding "turning a game into a pay-to-win experience" means this will be the first Battlefield since Battelfield 2 that I will not be pre-ordering, or purchasing a season pass. It is sad more than anything, its not like EA create the only FPS available and for the first time in 10 or so years, I will be looking for an alternative.

So just to stick it to the man (@EA), does anyone have recommendations for an alternative, for cost conscious gamers? Something released 2 years ago, where it is easy to snap up the DLC along with the game for a reasonable price would be ideal (along the same style as BF, FPS, team based, ideally 32+ players in server etc)