The Great Big Microtransaction: It’s On The Disc!

With the recent news that Namco Bandai would be releasing DLC for SoulCalibur IV that would allow 360 owners to play as Darth Vader, and PS3 owners to play as Yoda, I thought it would be a good time to explore the topic of DLC that’s already on the retail disc - which is, in fact, the case with both vader and Yoda.

Now, in the case of Vader and Yoda, this is absolutely deplorable. See, SoulCalibur IV is a complete work unto itself. It’s a fully finished product, and a damn fine one at that. That finished product has both Vader and Yoda in it already for both the PS3, and the Xbox 360. What Namco Bandai has done is block you from accessing those characters until you pay $5 for the key to unlock them. Let’s compare this to buying a new car. You walk into the car lot, and pick out the one you want. Only $5k - what a deal! On your way home, you notice it has an MP3 player built right into the dash, a fact you were unaware of at the dealership. Sweet! But wait - it doesn’t have a power button. Just an empty hole where that button should be, so you go back to the dealership and ask for the power button. They then tell you that if you’d like that button installed, you’ll have to pay $417. Seems kinda silly doesn’t it? Charging anything (let alone one twelfth the price of the game) for an unlock code for content that’s already on the disc is just a low move. This shows intent on the part of the publisher to hold back part of the game that’s already completed, and charge more for it later. Essentially what they’re doing is assuming their audience is ignorant of how large such a piece of content should actually be, and also assuming that when charged $5 for a 108kb unlock key, their audience won’t realize that’s what they’re getting. Maybe they’re right for the most part, but for those that do know better, this is a terribly alienating practice, and it creates ill will among members of the game’s devout community.

Does all of this mean there should never be locked content on the disc? No - it means that locked content should be available for free. Shortly after Dead Rising came out, free unlock keys were made available for several new outfits for Frank to wear. This was a pleasant surprise. The content was already on the disc, but having the perceived surprise of getting something “new” for free was great. Developers could be using this to create surprises for gamers rather than attempting to saw off pieces of their game for future profits. How about a Halloween costume for the main character of a game? Why not an unlockable present during the holiday season? There are a million ways this could be used positively, however, most developers and publishers jump straight to monetizing anything that’s locked on the disc, and it usually ends with them looking foolish in front of their fans - I’m looking at you Beautiful Katamari, VF5, and many many EA sports games from the past three years.

Developers, the simple fact here is that if you’re charging for content that’s already on the disc, somewhere someone will figure that out, and when they do, they will make that knowledge very public, and your reputation will suffer for it.

-Mike Kurz