Now this is not a new point I'm making certainly. In 2022 the argument over paid DLC in video games has now been a long and storied one. How game makers and publishers have got to where we are has been oft-remarked and commented upon by minds wiser than mine, in takes more considered than this one and debates more finely argued than anything I'm about to say on the matter. That said, get a load of this bollocks!
I'm actually somewhat curious about The Callisto Protocol. Made by some of the same people who made Dead Space way back when and very much channeling the same niche, it looks like it might be a rather good time (reviews pending). However for some reason, someone wanted to include extra death animations as part of the season pass. Channelling the grim fascination with the grisly death scenes seen in Dead Space into an additional revenue stream.
Look how far we have come from horse armour in Elder Scrolls? Remember how that energised gamers back in the dark and dusty depths of 2006? God I'm old, anyway remember that? That now seems almost benign now doesn't? Almost quaint and bygone even, an odd reminder of the time when the norm was not the norm we now normalise.
Now I get that games, certainly AAA games, cost a lot of money to make, largely as a result of chasing high fidelity and large scale. This in effect creates the immense cost which then demands the blood sacrifice of monetisation. All hail the gods of DLC and so on. The upper end of the game space is now saturated with the mindset that said AAA games must be deconstructed only to be reconstructed at a cost. Not an inevitable situation I would say but it's one we're now firmly at the centre of.
Begs the question though, have the most expensive games of say, the last decade alone, been the best out there? Is all this cut-throat business practice in aid of a superior product? Tastes may obviously differ here but I'm not so sure. You have your Call of Duty's and your God of War's but you also have your Papers, Please and Undertale's getting all the critical darlings hot and bothered. Budget is not correlated to quality sure so the question then becomes, what is all of this DLC paying for?
Short answer: profits, bottom lines and dividends. Long answer: we seem to be paying to feed and sustain the cycle itself. The cycle of ever larger, shinier and elaborate products, paid for by the games themselves but also by the subtraction of content plugged back in via our wallets. Insidious and commonplace yea, but also increasingly bizarre. If death animations can be repackaged, I can't help but wonder where next? Sure you can argue that extra death animations are cosmetic additions, barely distinguishable from character costumes and gun skins. I mean you can argue that but it's hardly a slam dunk argument.
Might be less galling if it wasn't already a fully priced release, it'll never be entirely without gall but they can certainly mitigate that by not doing the thing they're doing. Alas that seems to be too much of an ask now. In the age of microtransactions and currency paying for less tangible in-game currency, I'm beginning to feel like there's no lack of imagination when it comes to finding exciting new ways to drill down beyond the bottom of the barrel.
It all feels predictable is what I'm saying, in the sense that had it not happened here, it was surely only a matter of time before it was attempted elsewhere. Can't help wonder where its all heading. A small fee for changing the font colour on the main menu perhaps? A minor consideration for enabling full access to the soundtrack maybe? Only the merest fee for optional extras like the first act of the story or even full access to the dialogue in your chosen language. The possibilities you see, are limited only by our ability to dive into the murky depths.
Until next time.
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