New Gears DLC Outs Microsoft In Pricing Fib
- Scribbled on May 1st, 2007 by tank
- Filed in Action, Industry News, Microsoft Xbox 360, Patches, Shooter
Gears of War will get another set of downloadable content this week on May 2nd. The new DLC however outs Microsoft in a pretty significant fib.
First off the new content will be a map pack and for 800 points, you will get four brand new maps.
Secondly, 800 points for just maps is a little too greedy, if it added some new weapons or new versus modes, then ok 800 points seems fair. But just for new maps 800 points is a bit of a rip off. Here’s the kick in the pants though, if you want to wait until September you can get them free.
Here’s where Microsoft, specifically Major Nelson gets caught in a bit of a fib.
Major has consistently led us to believe that someone other than Microsoft sets the price of marketplace content. We hear that every time something comes out and the community is in an uproar about the rip off price, the most recent uproar being the insane price of the Guitar Hero tracks.
Well in the case of Gears of War we have it on record that Epic wants the content to be FREE. Going back to the last content, it was delayed while Epic and Microsoft went back and forth on pricing the content. Epic wanted it free and Microsoft wanted money. Eventually that content came out as an ‘update’ and was free for everyone as an automatic download, not a Marketplace download.
Recently Cliffy B posted on Epic’s Blog that there are 12 new maps done for Gears of War and all will be free.
“I will sit down here and discuss the twelve new maps to be released for a little game I envisioned called Gears of War. These maps will cost around a total of 0 Micro$oft Points a piece. In the end, we worked it out. Idle threats of Gears slipping to PS3 (HA!) worked in our favour.”
So, how is it if Epic wants this stuff free and they hit the Marketplace at 800 points? Sure sure, one could argue they will be free in four months. Problem is in video game age, four months is dead and buried for 99% of games. There are a few jewels that buck that timeline like Halo 2 and maybe Gears of War, but four months is a ridiculous amount of time to make fans wait to get content that SHOULD HAVE been free. It’s become very clear that Microsoft does in fact weigh heavy on what vendors charge for their goods in their cyber-mall called Xbox Live Marketplace no matter what Major Nelson trys to make you believe.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
The worst of it is that it’s not an instance where the PR stance has been that MS doesn’t set the pricing and this is the first case scenario to the contrary. Geometry Wars, the insanely popular XBLA launch title, was intended to be free as a gift to those who got the 360 on launch, but MS forced them to charge 400 points for it. Do they really think that this type of thing is just going to slip by us unnoticed? How much other content have we been overcharged for? At one point, Major Nelson said on his podcast that if anyone has noticed that content on the XBLM has a higher price than the same content on a different platform to let him know and he would look into it. I promptly emailed him to let him know (because I’m sure he had no idea) that GRAW Chapter 2 content ($15 on XBLM) was free for PC. Last time I checked, it’s still premium content on XBLM, however discounted. Still more expensive. Stop the lies.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:25 pm
[quote]
Major has consistently led us to believe that someone other than Microsoft sets the price of marketplace content. We hear that every time something comes out and the community is in an uproar about the rip off price, the most recent uproar being the insane price of the Guitar Hero tracks.
[/quote]
he said the “someone other than Microsoft” is the publisher. he specifically says publisher. in the case of guitar hero, the publisher is activision/red octane. they set the price on that content. in the case of gears of war, microsoft is the publisher.
May 1st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
The Graw Chapter2 content was free on a recent OXM disc.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:51 am
This does suck, but MS is the publisher. They have the ultimate say. It’s too bad this isn’t UT3, and a third-party published game, as it would be free.
I’ve said it before… when Gears’ hits the PC, how are they gonna get new maps? Even as a Games for Windows title published by MS, on the PC, there is no way in hell MS can get away with charging for MP maps, for any game. Interesting times…
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:51 am
message detail I wrote up a petition to order Microsoft to lower the price. In short, I (and from what I understand the Xbox Community in general) feel that the 120gb Hard Drive is overpriced. Considering that the larger drive will be used for downloadable content Microsoft already makes a ton of money selling/renting, I believe that even if they sell the 120gb hard drive at a loss, they would still be making money on it. But I’m not asking for the drive to be $80 or somthing like that, just that it’s reasonable. I’m sure my fellow 360 owners agree that $180 is absolutely too much for a 120gb hard drive, but for $120 (even though some would still consider it overpriced) is much easier to swallow. If you agree with me, please click the link to my petition and give it a read, and if you still agree, sign it. Thanks.
http://www.petitiononline.com/rc120/