Nintendo Doing DLC The Right Way

[Murr]

So... I just wrote the feature / article up and put it on my blog. Reddit seem to be enjoying it, but wondered if it'd create a discussion here?

 

Appreciate all criticism or feedback, Just try not to be too mean...

 

http://geeksleeprinserepeat.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/nintendo-doing-dlc-the-right-way/

 

Last generation Nintendo led the way in the ‘console war’ with its innovative little console The Wii. It sparked the move for the HD twins to configure their own versions of motion control gaming in PSMove and Kinnect. It captured gaming audiences that the HD twins manufactures neglected to attract. It got families with members of all ages into the living room playing Golf or bowling. And it sold like hotcakes, clearly taking first place last generations consoles battle comfortably.

 

But for all it’s innovation and praise it did fall behind in the way of online. Xbox Live and PSN were miles ahead in this area. Millions of games of Call of Duty and Battlefield have been played across the 2. That’s not to say that Nintendo didn’t have online gaming, it did have call of duty titles with an online community, It did have Mario Kart Wii online, it’s just it wasn’t as easy or thought out as the competition.

 

Well one other feature that the competition could offer that Nintendo couldn’t mainly due to the popularity of the online community of the PS3 and Xbox360 was Downloadable Content (DLC). Rockstar could offer fantastic DLC to follow on to GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption. Sony & Microsoft themselves created not as great value for their own games such as costumes for sackboy in little big planet and maps for Halo.

 

DLC at it’s finest

 

Well we’re well and truly into the next generation of consoles and all we’ve been seeing recently is season passes for games and additional content being announced for games that aren’t even out yet. The developers for the majority are probably sat on this completed DLC that could be added to the game for launch, but hold the trigger on it knowing that they’ll pocket a nice sum 3 months after launch for new maps, weapons or vehicles they clearly could of added to the final cut of the game. Whats more, the content doesn’t often tend to represent good value for money in terms of the season passes. Perhaps 2 new maps and weapons for £15, or 5 new vehicles for £10?

 

Season pass costing as much as a game you say??

 

Step in Nintendo. DLC for Nintendo is fairly new territory. Additional maps for Fire Emblem Awakening and courses for Mario Golf for the 3DS were 2 of the main larger signs of Nintendo’s DLC. But it was certainly a good start in terms of value. Mario Golf for 3DS boasts 10 courses with 126 holes which they’ve pointed out their-selves is equivalent to previous games in the franchise as standard. Their DLC rolled out in 3 packs in May & June. If all 3 packs were purchased it added an additional 108 holes and 3 new characters to the game. Each pack costing £5.39, but if you purchased all 3 in one transaction you got it for the discounted rate of £10.79 and got an additional bonus character added buffing the new character count to 4.

 

The Wii U has clearly taken some time to get going, and it could be argued… it’s not really ever got going. 2014 saw the release of Mario Kart 8, and recently Hyrule Warriors. Taking a page from their DLC structure with Golf they’ve finally confirmed DLC for those 2 games in question.

 

Mario Kart 8 will be split into 2 packs, one launching this November, one launching in May next year. While that may seem a fair distance away, I think personally it’s a good idea to get people back into the game next year. It can also open opportunities for further marketing next year when the game hits 1 year old. “Animal Crossing DLC coming in May, pick up Mario Kart 8 players choice range for £20 now” (as it’ll be a year old I’m assuming it’ll be priced around £20 and if any game kicks a player choice range off for Wii U, it’ll be Mario Kart 8.)

 

With regards to the content, Mario kart 8 currently has 8 Cups each with 4 tracks, So a total of 32 tracks. Not to mention a huge roster of characters and vehicles to unlock and choose from. The replay-ability value is already massive to unlock everything. The content for each individual pack adds 4 new vehicles, 3 new characters each and 8 new tracks so if both are bought, technically both packs will offer 50% of what’s already in the game in terms of tracks. They’re priced at £7 each or both for £11 with again a bonus of new colour schemes free for 2 of the existing racers. They also just had free Mercedes DLC that offered new vehicles and wheels.

 

Hyrule Warriors will be offering 4 DLC Packs one of which will be free. You can get all 3 priced packs for £13.49 and if you do you’ll be given a free character to use. The packs launch in October through to February. With the 4 packs set feature new scenarios, challenges, weapons and characters each month.

 

Add 50% More tracks… yes please

 

With upcoming games such as Smash Bros for the 3DS and WiiU, Bayonetta 2 and Toads treasure tracker seeing the year out, it’ll interesting to see if DLC is featured in these titles and if they’ll hopefully be of equal value as the current DLC. Smash Bro’s DLC stages and characters should be a given really.

 

So while they may be lacking in terms of the competition, they’ve certainly raised the game in DLC stakes. It would be nice if other companies took a look at Nintendo’s pricing structure and value of content they add to their DLC. £11 for 16 tracks, 6 characters and 8 vehicles is more appealing than £15 for 10 new vehicles for a game and nothing else. The addition of new tracks for MK8 and Scenarios and challenges for Hyrule Warriors will keep me playing them long into next year.

 

I’ll tip my hat to Sony though, the £15 price point and content included for Infamous: First Light was impressive, but it’s time for people to look at Nintendo and make the DLC really worth our money.

 

- Murr

 

Sorry to mods / admins if this is deemed as promoting, If so lock and delete. It's just something I've been impressed with as of late, and wondered if anyone agreed.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Murr

[Serebii]

Indeed. After years of abuse of DLC on the 360 and the PS3, I was dreading the day we saw Nintendo do it, but they have truly revitalised the entire concept. It's no longer ridiculously expensive, you get more bang for your buck, and it all seems actually worth it.

 

Nintendo may be behind in some areas, but at least they have learned from the mistakes of others.

 

Great article

Edited September 25, 2014 by Serebii

[Ashley]

Mario Galaxy 2 went down to £20 in June of this year. I wouldn't hold my breath for MK8 to be £20 next year

 

Decent article and I'm happy to provide some general grammatical advice if you think it will be helpful.

 

Would have been good to perhaps discuss how Nintendo should have learnt from others given that they were late to the party, but a fair overall point made.

[Jimbob]

A very good article, nice read. I was chatting to a few friends the other day about this very subject of DLC, i even made a video on it myself (which i'm needing to upload at some point). It is a fair point, Nintendo are doing something right in terms of DLC. Not only in the price of it, but from what i can see the content they are adding wasn't finished/wasn't deliberately held back for sale at a later date (unlike other gaming companies).

 

Maybe the other companies should take a leaf from Nintendo's book again and make DLC more affordable, and of course as it's put, more bang for the buck.

[Murr]

Mario Galaxy 2 went down to £20 in June of this year. I wouldn't hold my breath for MK8 to be £20 next year

 

Decent article and I'm happy to provide some general grammatical advice if you think it will be helpful.

 

Would have been good to perhaps discuss how Nintendo should have learnt from others given that they were late to the party, but a fair overall point made.

 

 

Haha probably wishful thinking that price point for MK8 :p

 

Yeah that'd be really appreciated for some points and advice for future write ups. I had some pretty harsh reaction regarding my grammar usage on Reddit. Buy hey-ho.

[Goafer]

I quite like Rockstar's DLC. So far for GTA Online, all extra content has been free (A fair few extra cars, missions, events, clothes etc.) and their previous paid DLC has been huge. Basically a whole new game for $20 (I forget the UK price).

 

There has been some horrid abuse of DLC, but I'd hardly call cheap DLC a revitalisation, especially when good value DLC is nothing new. Season passes and some of the massive games have been a bit silly though (seriously, I don't need any more Skylines. Gran Turismo, please stop).

 

I don't really bother with DLC any more, as I'm normally done with the game by the time it comes out. I tend to play games for the story now, so I only really get DLC if it's a new chapter or something, like in the case of the GTA games or Fallout.

 

Also, real money for in game currency needs to stop, especially for full price retail games. I don't mind the FTP model, but when I've paid £40 for a game, being blatantly asked/pestered to spend more money is a bit of an insult, especially when it doesn't unlock anything actually new.

[Wii]

Very good article and a nice read. I agree with Ashley, no way I can see MK8 being £20 in May next year or discounted at all. I think the pricing of DLC for MK8 is very fair. I have questions and doubts over Hyrule Warriors though. The Mario Golf DLC sounds terrific value as well. The Forza 5 "deal" is scandalous.

 

I could be Nintendo have learnt from others mistakes or it could be Nintendo's first forrays into this market. You've got to start from the start and attract and incentivise people to check out your wares. Will it go up in time as they get more established? How did the competition first start out price wise and content wise? I genuinely don't know. Like every other company out there, Nintendo are greedy, they increase their markup if they feel the market will allow it or reduce the amount of content for the same price.

 

Last point, Nintendo should learn from others mistakes but they also should look in the mirror and learn from their own mistakes as well.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Wii

[Cosker]

I cant support DLC, even from Nintendo :/

I feel the games are incomplete nowadays.

[Clownferret]

I cant support DLC, even from Nintendo :/

I feel the games are incomplete nowadays.

 

i don't like the idea of DLC, however in the case of Mario Kart they have released a game with the same amount of content as previous iterations, so you can't argue that it's a shorter game and there won't be a new version coming out every year like COD and FIFA so it DLC is in fact a pretty good package.

 

But I agree that the likes of COD and FIFA that expect you to buy a new game every year and top up with DLC inbetween is a piss take.

[Blade]

I have a PS4 and so far DLC appears to be an expensive joke.

 

Destiny especially, the DLC for that is 40 quid for the two extra packs and i'm still unsure what you get with it. Bungie are hoping to develop the game with each bit of DLC. It's going to be one hell of an expensive experience.

 

Although I have clocked up the hours playing Destiny I am now coming to the end of finding things to do. The game has DLC in mind and it shows. Monster Hunter on the Wii U was different. I clocked up around 400 hours of gameplay spread across several months of continuous play. I just paid the price of the game for that, nothing more.

 

Looking at what Nintendo has done with respect to DLC, i'm impressed. It's probably the only thing that they are doing right with their online.

[Hero-of-Time]

I have a PS4 and so far DLC appears to be an expensive joke.

 

Destiny especially, the DLC for that is 40 quid for the two extra packs and i'm still unsure what you get with it. Bungie are hoping to develop the game with each bit of DLC. It's going to be one hell of an expensive experience.

 

Although I have clocked up the hours playing Destiny I am now coming to the end of finding things to do. The game has DLC in mind and it shows. Monster Hunter on the Wii U was different. I clocked up around 400 hours of gameplay spread across several months of continuous play. I just paid the price of the game for that, nothing more.

 

Looking at what Nintendo has done with respect to DLC, i'm impressed. It's probably the only thing that they are doing right with their online.

 

I feel the same way when it comes to Destiny.

 

The past couple of days i've been talking about this with a couple of guys at work and lostmario and his brother. Monster Hunter is the closest thing i've played to Destiny that has the grinding/looting mechanic and it does it so much better. You actually feel like you are getting somewhere, the drops/carves seem a lot fairer and I just find it a lot more fun.

 

The whole DLC thing with Destiny leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Having to fork out another £35 for content when the main game is pretty light on levels anyway is something i'm not supporting. MH gave you new quests on a weekly basis with new beasties to fight and all of this was free.

 

My copy will probably be heading to CEX this week as they are offering £35 cash at the moment. I've put around 70-80 hours in to it, and enjoyed what I played, but methinks i'm done with the game now.

 

To be honest the whole season pass/DLC thing is out of control now, at least in my eyes. What started off as a bit here and there has now turned into something where you have to pay around £20-30 on top of what you've paid for the game just to get the full game.

 

I've got the urge to play Monster Hunter now.

[Dcubed]

Yup. No complaints at all with how Nintendo are handling DLC so far. Their games already come very much complete and the amount of content you get in their DLC packs is just incredible for the price you pay.

 

Even Hyrule Warriors (a 3rd party developed game, from a developer/publisher who is notorious for absolutely filling their games with worthless garbage DLC in the Warriors games) has DLC that offers insane value for the pittance you pay!