Some of the time leading up to a game’s release has nothing to do with development. It goes gold, the marketing cycle begins, copies start printing and then much later it’s opening day at the box office. You can’t keep designers and coders on the payroll if they aren’t doing anything, so studios throwing them an extraneous task to crack on with makes more business sense.

When that task finishes you’ve got another property that sits on the shelf while it could be making you money, the obvious reaction is to pump that out and earn some dollar bills while the game is still in the zeitgiest. Not to tell multimillion grossing companies how to do their job (especially considering my studious nature and current lack of income), but it doesn’t delight me as a consumer when I see an addition to a game, for an extra cost, available when I’ve barely taken the packaging off.

How soon, is too soon?

Double Fine is releasing a Brutal Legend map pack within weeks of the shipping date. As someone that has barely scratched the surface of the multiplayer (lack of enjoyment aside) this seems far too quick. I realize that it’s extraneous content that doesn’t have any impact on the genuinely interesting part of the game, but it’s an addition that seems to say that the original selection wasn’t enough. Why offer alternatives before the current options have run their course?

It’s like giving someone a delicious ice-cream sundae, then charging extra for honeycomb segments. It was already a delicious ice cream and I’m not done eating it yet!

The alternative is to hold off and release later, but that runs the risk of selling even less because your install base may have moved on, or worse, sold their copies entirely.

There is a comment box below this post! Maybe consider how you stand on this issue? Then maybe tell us about it?

Tweet This Post