DLC Absurdity

[Seventh]

So, with PSN's recent update, we've officially got prices set in stone - three dollars per new character (regardless of whether they unlock a new class or not), two dollars for pirate ship sets, and one dollar for maps. We don't know how much scenarios are going to cost, so let's leave that out for now.

Now, let's just ignore the tad ridiculous wait for DLC to start being released (which could only hurt NISA) or the fact that we still don't have a proper schedule for its release. Sure, that's bad, but we can move on, right?

... But this is something else. Let's break it down for a minute here.

16 characters (disregarding ones unlocked in other modes, as they are included in that mode's price) and
8 maps and ships (at least - I think I'm missing some). And this is ignoring the Necromancer/Medic class, the Survival Mode, the All-Star Demon Battle Mode, the Tyrant Ball fight, and the two scenarios - which have no current to base a price off of.

Characters: $48
Maps: $8
Ships: $16
Total: $72 (at least)

And that's not including the $30+ worth of content I haven't even listed.

So, in other words, NISA will be charging over twice the game's price for DLC alone, most of which isn't even remotely near that length in comparison to the real game. Hell, I still argue at least half of those characters should have been included on the disc in the first place due to their importance.

So there you have it guys. There's the numbers, plain and simple. Sure, you could argue that "Oh, we don't HAVE to buy all the characters!" but still. Isn't it expected that, when you make a good game, you make good DLC that's WORTH buying?

I have to ask: Is that how you view us, NIS/NISA? The loser, nerdy crowd that will shell out no mater what you charge? The creepy otaku that blow all their money on merchandise and things related to their fandom when it just isn't worth it?

It's insulting. It's demeaning. It's poor practice and a bit disgusting. I've defended NISA over and over again when people here bashed regarding porting habits, but this is something else entirely, and it just takes the cake.



So that's it. Discuss, agree, disagree, defend, what have you. Just figured this needed to be said.

[linkey]

If they would announce a package like "all DLCs for 50$" it wouldn't be as critical as it is now...
It's okey to charge money for extra content which isn't that important. Maybe some ppl only will buy a few characters.

But for ppl who want to buy all DLCs there should be a package with a lower price...
Nisa would get more money because some ppl could think "instead of paying 20-30$ for ~10 characters i will buy all DLCs for 50$"...

[Ringwraith]

I would like to point out that amount isn't too much further away from the price for all of Disgaea 3's DLC, and Disgaea 4 has much more DLC anyway, so it's not too unreasonable.
You only have to look at Call of Duty for unreasonable prices, as they charge $15 for their map packs, which only have five maps in typically, and in Mewtwo's case, some of those maps were simply ports from older games, left completely the same. In order to get all the map packs for BLOPS (Black Ops that is) for example, it would cost you $60, for 12 multiplayer maps and 8 extra co-op zombie mode maps, 4 of which were updates of maps from their earlier game.

[kanade2]

* was going to post in the other topic but probably get a better discussion here

Well we're paying what the Japanese gamers had to pay so really no room to cry about it when NIS was nice enough to match the price for us.

The characters may be important in their own game ,but for Disgaea 4 they don't fit in the main game at any point thus not important to include on disc .The two extra scenarios plus other random things ( maps etc) are really the only DLC they need to put on the disk to make the game complete . Generics are not important just another extra class .

I feel sorry for NIS because everyone ignores the work they had to put in the HD sprites for the DLC . Sure they had to a template to work with after the main game ,but still probably had to do a few things from scratch . DLC prices are not justified completely for that reason,but it's better then having no reason at all besides NIS just wanting to make money.

More money to NIS isn't that bad of a deal considering there's a possibility of better games in the future and even more localizations from NISA .

In the end you don't have to buy everything or anything at all . I'm sure there will be a bundle just wait for it to be announced . Businesses don't put up a mega sale on a new product the same ( or next) day it's released .

One last thing the schedule is probably DLC every two weeks ,and following the same course of Japan's DLC. Of course we won't be getting some DLC like Sony's mascot chars for various reasons ,but the schedule should be the same regardless.

Happy Thanksgiving =p

[darkrchaos]

I think $3 a dude is okay, if you think about it, a LOT go into each dude. I don't plan on getting them all, just a few of my favorite dudes, so it no big deal to me. I can't wait till the next DLC pack, there 2 from that I really want.

[Overlord Hero Noctis]

I had said to myself the same thing when I first added up the amount that I spent on D3's DLC and Neptunia's DLC combined. I was honestly surprised at the price of everything together and realized that it was all money that could have been better spent on more acceptable items. However, it should be full known and understood that this is exactly what we are walking into with the purchase of DLC with any game. It's not like we are unaware of it before we walk into it, we knew in full that the DLC would cost money that could easily add up like most other things a person would buy, NIS is just releasing things that will make the game more fun and interesting, and if you want the extra pieces to a game where they aren't even necessary to make it more fun, I find it reasonable to have to pay a price for it. There was extra work put into making the DLC, it stands for reason that we should compensate the workers for their work much similarly to anyone who works overtime at their job, yes? There are many who wish to buy all of the DLC, and if they want to pay the full price in the end, so be it, it is their choice in the matter. Although I won't make the same mistake I made with D3 and Neptunia, the prices that I pay for some of the D4 DLC will be more than worth it because I want the extra material.

[japangator]

It may sound pretty high overall, but it is gradually getting there. It's not like they just put all the DLC out there at once and expect for you to pay over $50 on day 1. What we have now is very reasonable, plus you know what's coming so better go ahead and start saving money for this.

[Seventh]

I would like to point out that amount isn't too much further away from the price for all of Disgaea 3's DLC, and Disgaea 4 has much more DLC anyway, so it's not too unreasonable.

The "much more" isn't included in that total I put there, though.

The characters may be important in their own game ,but for Disgaea 4 they don't fit in the main game at any point thus not important to include on disc .

Then why include any cameos at all? With that logic, every character would be made DLC. Furthermore, characters and even classes that have always been in the games - in both 3 and 4 - were removed just to come back again as DLC.

Forget "their own game," the post-game is the "all the games" pooled together, at which point they can do what they want. If they're going to put a miniscule amount of characters in purely so we can pay for them later AND leave out more characters to be DLC later, that's just bad twice around.

I feel sorry for NIS because everyone ignores the work they had to put in the HD sprites for the DLC .

Please don't go there. Just... don't. You can't turn around and say "oh they worked so hard on these sprites!!" when, overall, the product is still the same as it was in D3, and furthermore, we didn't pay any more to have the characters be HD in 4 when they weren't in 3. With your logic, the game should have been $100 - no premium edition - just for the omg sheshul HD sprites.

HD sprites, if they choose to go their/make their game take that leap, are well-- That's what they've got to do. What are you going to tell me, that DLC for new games should start coming out for new games fitting the content of the new game, but we have to pay more for it (50% more in fact) because it's updated... to fit the game it's in? Think about what you're implying for a minute. Either way, we're buying a standard character, except in the case of 4, one costs more and there aren't any options to bundle them.

That's. Insane.

Using that logic, new Pokemon games should cost more because it has newer Pokemon in it. Sequels on the same console should cost more because they're "updated" - like in this case!

When you make a standard, you stick to it. Disgaea isn't some elitist snooty rich-kids only franchise - until this, I thought it was just the opposite in fact. We should be allowed to play and enjoy the damn game without feeling like we're being robbed.

There was extra work put into making the DLC, it stands for reason that we should compensate the workers for their work much similarly to anyone who works overtime at their job, yes?

Which is why we paid for the D3 DLC at the fairly reasonable price that it was, even having the option to buy characters seperately or at decently priced bundles. On the other hand, with 4, that just goes out the window.

There is simply no reason that this should be what it is. We'll be spending well over $100 in DLC if N1 has their way.

[Red_Rose]

So yeah that's about it people well either hate it or love it most likely they well not buy it but if they ignore that Fact that your spending money on DLC they well buy it but yeah for me I'll end up spending a lot of money on Disgaea 4 DLC I really don't mind that and having everyone in HD but for me I wished they come out more then LV 100 that takes time to grind LV's

[kanade2]

Then why include any cameos at all? With that logic, every character would be made DLC. Furthermore, characters and even classes that have always been in the games - in both 3 and 4 - were removed just to come back again as DLC.

Well NIS always had this tradition of just including a small amount of cameo characters in their games at the end . Phantom Brave ,and Disgaea 2 for the ps2 come to mind .I don't think NIS even made a console game where they had a bunch ( more then 6+) cameo character from other games on the disc .
.

Please don't go there. Just... don't. You can't turn around and say "oh they worked so hard on these sprites!!" when, overall, the product is still the same as it was in D3, and furthermore, we didn't pay any more to have the characters be HD in 4 when they weren't in 3. With your logic, the game should have been $100 - no premium edition - just for the omg sheshul HD sprites.

HD sprites, if they choose to go their/make their game take that leap, are well-- That's what they've got to do. What are you going to tell me, that DLC for new games should start coming out for new games fitting the content of the new game, but we have to pay more for it (50% more in fact) because it's updated... to fit the game it's in? Think about what you're implying for a minute. Either way, we're buying a standard character, except in the case of 4, one costs more and there aren't any options to bundle them.

That's. Insane.

Using that logic, new Pokemon games should cost more because it has newer Pokemon in it. Sequels on the same console should cost more because they're "updated" - like in this case!

When you make a standard, you stick to it. Disgaea isn't some elitist snooty rich-kids only franchise - until this, I thought it was just the opposite in fact. We should be allowed to play and enjoy the damn game without feeling like we're being robbed

Well I'm going there if you like it or not . The DLC is extra work for NIS as it's not mandatory to make DLC for us to enjoy.Sure they're put time,and work in the HD sprites in the game itself ,however they already set the price for everything in there for $50 dollars . Since the HD sprites for the DLC is extra work since it's not mandatory they can price them higher then what the sprites in the game are worth if they want .

*Ok I see what you mean by bundles now ..I can understand making a fuss if the bundles were a dollar cheaper ,but only a few cents is nothing. Also would like to point out D3 had issues with the DLC. It was not 100% prefect ,and didn't really set a standard for future DLC content . Just wait for NIS to announce things because they could be doing things differently now to avoid the issues they had with D3's DLC bundles .

Well you can enjoy Disgaea 4 without DLC just fine,and you don't have to feel robbed. For the $50 bucks ( normal version ) you get a main story,postlude with a short story + unlockable cameo characters,land of carnage , Extra dimension , and even ok online functions. Almost everything that was in the previous games that didn't have DLC is there . True it's missing a few end game bosses that normally appear.


* Did some editing to clean up some things . Also don't care about any bad grammar or punctuation I've made in my post .

[Seventh]

For the record, by bundles, I just mean the "you can buy these two characters at a slightly higher price than one of them" bundles - these came out the same week, as far as I recall, that the characters themselves came out.

Will reply to the rest tomorrow when it's not after hours and hours of Thanksgiving and I can brain properly.

[dood]

I don't mind the DLC prices to be honest. I wouldn't pay for DLC characters that are over 3-4 dollers each though.

[Ringwraith]

I would like to point out that amount isn't too much further away from the price for all of Disgaea 3's DLC, and Disgaea 4 has much more DLC anyway, so it's not too unreasonable.

The "much more" isn't included in that total I put there, though.

Yet it's already got things that Disgaea 3's DLC does not, like more maps and pirate ships.

I feel sorry for NIS because everyone ignores the work they had to put in the HD sprites for the DLC .

Please don't go there. Just... don't. You can't turn around and say "oh they worked so hard on these sprites!!" when, overall, the product is still the same as it was in D3, and furthermore, we didn't pay any more to have the characters be HD in 4 when they weren't in 3. With your logic, the game should have been $100 - no premium edition - just for the omg sheshul HD sprites.

HD sprites, if they choose to go their/make their game take that leap, are well-- That's what they've got to do. What are you going to tell me, that DLC for new games should start coming out for new games fitting the content of the new game, but we have to pay more for it (50% more in fact) because it's updated... to fit the game it's in? Think about what you're implying for a minute. Either way, we're buying a standard character, except in the case of 4, one costs more and there aren't any options to bundle them.

That's. Insane.

Using that logic, new Pokemon games should cost more because it has newer Pokemon in it. Sequels on the same console should cost more because they're "updated" - like in this case!

When you make a standard, you stick to it. Disgaea isn't some elitist snooty rich-kids only franchise - until this, I thought it was just the opposite in fact. We should be allowed to play and enjoy the damn game without feeling like we're being robbed.

I fail to see the point you're making here, the sprites take extra work, and that's all there is to it. Saying that Disgaea 4 should've cost more just because it has HD sprites is also silly, as you many have noticed that they already cut out many of the classes between 3 and 4, so that cut down the workload in that department by quite a lot from what it could have been. Would you prefer that they simply released the characters in a SD-only version that was cheaper? As that's what you're asking for, which sounds daft.
You may have also noticed that the Pokemon games are on systems that cannot support DLC (not to mention Nintendo's aversion to it anyway), and they don't make brand new HD ones which take significantly more time to make than their existing ones for every new game, they simply update them a bit, and don't really have to do any animations until they made them all animated in Black & White, and then they're still fairly low quality in comparison.
They also don't have extra costs incurred with making new characters like Disgaea has, that is to say, voice acting. Nor do they have to introduce new moves just for them, as most of the new moves in a pokemon generation are spread out among the old Pokemon as well.
Anyway, the closest Pokemon gets to DLC are the Pokemon which are there and not unlockable by normal means. Isn't this on-the-disc DLC? You have to go to specific events, which may be limited by physical location (and of course likely cost you money for transport) and are limited-time only. They've recently started to do more internet-based event unlocks, but these still have a limited window of opportunity. This is of course not mentioning the Pokemon you can't get in a certain game and are forced to trade with other versions or older games, so these Pokemon would possibly require you to buy another game to get them, which costs significantly more, and that's if they're playable and transferable on the same system, which some aren't.

Of course, if you think the prices are unreasonable, don't pay them, or only buy the things you really want. Vote with your wallet!

[Yuuta-kun]

Well to me the map packs kinda aren't important, think; we have what? a map system people barely use, plus the fact it kinda sucks anyway because it's not able to be completely made to anyone's taste. So guess what, the map packs don't matter, sure someone like me would buy it for nostalgia, but still, no one uses the map maker anymore (which is irritating in it's own right, I haven't seen an easy level map up at all from any of the players, making feel even more disappointed in the community.). These prices though... are kinda absurd to me, maybe that's because I'm a penny pincher, besides NISA did say Disgaea was kinda their last hope for money. Though I admit, disgaea 3 was more player friendly price wise, they are going to wind up losing more money rather gaining at this rate.

Disgaea 3 DLC: Charcter Bundle - 3.99 (or was it 4.99?)
Single class alone: .99 This was a reasonable price, i mean the only reason purchasable classes that were from last game didn't make it was because of scheduling.

Then we have the maps: 1.00 reasonable, this is because of the map system and how people BARELY USE IT.
The main problem might be the extra stories, people paid what? 10.00 bucks per chapter?
if it's 15.00 per chapter, then I'll pass, I'm not going to help NISA like that. But if we had a 50$ bundle Nisa could make more money off that, or sell each DLC pack about 20, or 25 bucks when it comes out. But this is according to my price junction and business perspective. Some players of disgaea are casual meaning they don't really care for the NISA and it's problems, we do. So that also comes into play, if Disgaea 4 barely appealed to many, these prices just might turn them off from the whole series of DLC in the future. There ARE Gamers who decide either a company is good or bad based on how they price their DLC, and to those players, I'm sure the company is in the yellow right now.

in the end I might buy about 20$ worth of DLC but that's gonna be it, I'm 15 and can't get a job, and money is extremely tight for me as always this year, so yeah sorry NISA but I can't give you money this year.

[kanade2]

@Yuuta-kun

The current prices on PSN are fall sales.
original prices for Disgaea 3

Story prices = $3.99 per chapter . $11.99 was for all 4 in a bundle . It cost $15.96 total for buying every individual chapter instead of the bundle .

Some character bundles were $4.99

Story characters= $1.99

Generics = $0.99