I’m not very impressed by this marketing decision. In fact, I’m remarkably ticked off, to the point that I won’t buy this game for months, if not years.

I found out from a friend that while you could get some of the DLC (specifically, the two quests) straight with the game, you couldn’t do this unless you bought the PC version. And I strongly doubt that GameStop and other game resellers are going to discount their copy of the game that much merely because of the DLC.

In fact, I would bet real money that their used price will hang at $55 for months, because people will constantly be snapping up used copies. So that means, even at best, to get the “full game experience”, people will have to pay upwards of $70, certainly till after Christmas and more likely for most of next year.

If I play this at all, it will certainly not be until after it’s come way down in price, and that may not be for years. I don’t care if it’s a good game (and I’ve enjoyed Bioware’s other games). I refuse to reward a company for making pricing decisions which are designed solely to make them more money, at the cost of the consumer. Because you can be sure that other companies will follow suit, which means that the “real” cost of buying a new game is going to increase again. And if you don’t happen to have an internet connection, well, tough cookies.

In fairness, I’m referring more to the console version than the computer version of the game, where you can’t get a nice neat package that contains the two mini-expansions (The Stone Prisoner and Warden’s Keep), but instead have to buy them separately. The two combined cost 1740 Microsoft points, which translates to about $21.75. Honestly, I don’t care about the little items at all, so those really aren’t at issue for me, just the expansion content.

So that means a console owner is going to have to pony up a minimum of $81.75 if they want the digital expansion content and buy the game new (which of course does not include taxes, which can easily add 10% or more to the retail value). It’s even more than that if they buy the collector’s edition, which does not include the digital content. And yes, while you can buy it used for %5-10 less using the normal used pricing scheme, it’s very unlikely that GameStop or other used resellers are going to drop their prices by an additional $10.

They don’t care about digital content, they care about how well the game sells – and given the fact that this is likely to be a very popular game, that means it will stay at the standard used price of $55 for months to come, if not longer. That means even with the membership discount, you’re still going to be spending upwards of $70, pre-tax, if you decide to get the expansion content.

But what bothers me the most about this is that apparently you get a little “bonus” with the main game – a NPC who’s sole purpose is to tell you about a questline that you can’t access without buying the expansion content (I assume it would be the Stone Prisoner, since they already have something that you “need” out of Warden’s Keep). In other words, an in-game advertiser who guilt-trips you pretty bad if you haven’t bought the content so you can do his quests. If that isn’t “held-back content”, then I’m not understanding the concept.

So while that and the inventory thing aren’t as bad as I thought they might be when I first heard about this from a friend, they’re still plenty bad enough. Camel’s nose in the tent time, as you said yourself. And unfortunately there’s enough gamers with stars in their eyes about this game that they’ll probably get away with it. Which of course means that other companies will likely follow suit. How long do you think it’ll be before we get a game (released at full retail price, of course), which has Day 1 DLC expansion content which actually totals more than the game itself costs?

That’s why I’m not buying this game anytime soon. I may not be able to stop the camel’s nose from getting in the tent, but I can at least keep it out of my wallet as much as possible. And maybe if enough people wise up to this and do the same thing, it’ll get the message across. Not likely, but even so it keeps me from getting shafted by Day 1 DLC which I would likely feel I “had” to buy.

That explains why GameStop dropped their default used price so quickly. People with a membership card can get the game for 10% less, so in effect someone who buys the used game that way will pay the same as for the new if they buy the digital content. So they, at least, are trying to make sure that their used market doesn’t get shafted too badly. Doesn’t change what you said, that this move in general hurts the used game aftermarket.

I definitely plan on waiting now. Even if this wasn’t intended as first-day DLC, the fact that they included one of the expansions but not the other (and frankly, the more useful one) in the retail version still comes across as a bit of money-grubbing skulduggery.

Incidentally, I agree with you on the Fallout 3 DLC. I actually didn’t mind ponying up the cash for the downloads, because they in general added enough content to make it worth the cost. My meterstick is that if I get an hour’s worth of enjoyment out of a game for every dollar I spend on it, it was a worthwhile purchase, and the DLC got me playing Fallout 3 again after I’d already finished the game.

That’s probably the biggest reason I don’t like first-day DLC. I tend to view DLC/expansions as a way to extend my interest in a game after I’ve already finished it, and to have stuff released along with the game which isn’t included in it is somewhat offensive. It’s like they’re saying that it’s not enough that people buy their games, they have to pay extra for stuff that feels like it should have been included with the game (even if it was done by a separate team, if it’s released at the same time, it’s going to feel that way to most gamers).

That doesn’t include pre-order items, by the way. Those have always been nice little bonuses that people can get if they’re willing to pay a bit more, and in any case they’re always available with the game (at most, you have to download them with a code). It also doesn’t include extraneous content that doesn’t actually affect the game (such as skins or gamerpictures or the like).