Marketplace petition

[Blaze Lord]

http://www.petitiononline.com/xbl2dear/petition.html

"The most recent addition to the Marketplace is horse armour for Oblivion which costs 200 live points which equates to over £2($3). This is pretty steep considering it's value in the game, lets face it, it's not that exciting. Future releases for Oblivion have been announced at a MORE EXPENSIVE rate. This is also unnacceptable and should be classed as free content."

Personally, I think this is just a lot of whiners making exhausting efforts at trying to sound objective, important, and rational, and failing at all three.

Everyone knew going in that Marketplace was going to have micropayments and extra-content-for-pay. What everyone should also know is that $3 is a coffee at Starbucks, a supreme burrito at Taco Bell, two slices at the corner pizzaria. This miniscule investment is motivation for developers and publishers to actually put content out there on XBL. On Xbox1, there was a fair bit of content. Imagine the freedom of choice we'll experience in this generation in terms of online content being available, because now devs and pubs can see cash floating out there.

But, on the other hand, it's also 1/20th of a game, so maybe they have a point.

[Killer 57]

I purchased the armor, I didnt mind paying 2.50 for content, the only thing I'm afried will happen is Game Developers will leave out content just to sell it 2 weeks later on the market place.

[JJBDude]

I honestly think that the prices for these add-ons is overpriced. I can understand that the developers and Microsoft want to gain money for spending time making these add-ons but paying £2 for every little addition to a game which you would like to purchase will soon add up causing a very large bill.

[smileemptysoul]

i don't think they will couse by the time they get enuff support it will be too late. microsoft isn't exctly the refund type for those who already bought it

[RollerCoasterRider]

Even though I think it should be free, I do not agree with this petition.

If a company wants to charge for something, then that is their choice.

As long as it's not needed to complete the game or anything, then I'm fine with it having a cost.....

[Blaze Lord]

paying £2 for every little addition to a game which you would like to purchase will soon add up causing a very large bill.

So will buying every game you want to purchase. It's just a matter of choice.

the only thing I'm afried will happen is Game Developers will leave out content just to sell it 2 weeks later on the market place.

Maybe. And it's hard to draw the line between this (for lack of a better word) conspiracy and episodic content. But, for some reason, I'm not riled up about this possibility.

[II AWESOME II]

I think £40 for a game everthing should be on there and if there are upgrades they should be free its a robbery i tell you!

[Blaze Lord]

Yeah, but then they just won't make upgrades. That's better?

[II AWESOME II]

If upgrades are made they should be free £40 is soo much all this so called upgrades should already be in the game.

[Cheese Head!]

I agree with II AWESOME II we are getting robbed by microsoft!

[Blaze Lord]

But they weren't. Would you rather they not put them out? And Microsoft doesn't set the price for stuff like this.

[Mez]

If people want to pay it fine, but I don't expect to have to pay money for bloody add ons in a game. Games are already extortionate prices without paying £2 for bloody armor. As said, it will add up in the end.

[JJBDude]

So will buying every game you want to purchase. It's just a matter of choice.

You do have a point. I guess it comes down to whether you want a brand new game from the shops or to upgrade your games by giving the characters extra costumes.

[Benj]

I think the horse armour has 0 value for money whatsoever (3% of the cost of the game for not even 0.01% of the content) although the petition is completely pointless as it's not going to change anything.

The thing with this is that it's going to be come far more common place, as someone at Bethesda mentioned yesterday the Orrery addon they're bringing out was supposed to be in the full game but they coudln't finish it in time, yet they're still going to charge for it.

It's going to become far too easy for developers too simply leave things out on purpose and end up making more money because of it.

[Blaze Lord]

And if you don't want to, then don't buy it. Is there anyone here who isn't going to get Oblivion, but would buy Oblivion if it included horse armor? Or is there anyone who didn't buy Kameo because she didn't have enough in-game costumes? Probably not.

But, does anyone here love Oblivion so much, you'd be willing to pay a little more for horse armor, or an extra building? Yes. I will, when my copy finally comes. For the same reason some people bought the collector's edition. How come you guys aren't up in arms that the normal retail of Oblvion didn't come with a coin?

[Benj]

And if you don't want to, then don't buy it. Is there anyone here who isn't going to get Oblivion, but would buy Oblivion if it included horse armor? Or is there anyone who didn't buy Kameo because she didn't have enough in-game costumes? Probably not.

But, does anyone here love Oblivion so much, you'd be willing to pay a little more for horse armor, or an extra building? Yes. I will, when my copy finally comes. For the same reason some people bought the collector's edition. How come you guys aren't up in arms that the normal retail of Oblvion didn't come with a coin?
I bought the Collectors Edition twice, don't think I don't like the game.

Can you honestly defend charging extra for something that was left out of the game originally becuase they made a mistake with their schedulling? Are you going to tell me the cost of the box would have been more if the Orrery had been finished in time?

For Morrowind Bethesda released addons for free but now they're charging, the only reason I got the PC version as well was so that I could get quality content (some of which is better than Bethesda's) for free as well as make my own.

If Oblivion was not on the 360 then they would not be charging for these addons, however they feel they can get away with it due to us not being able to mod the 360 version ourselves.

[Blaze Lord]

Can you honestly defend charging extra for something that was left out of the game originally becuase they made a mistake with their schedulling? If it's the difference between having the content for pay, and not having the option at all, then yes.
Are you going to tell me the cost of the box would have been more if the Orrery had been finished in time? No, I'm going to tell you that having the micropayments encourages devs and pubs to finish this content at all.

[Benj]

But they've done it for free before, the only reason they're charging this time is because they know they can get away with it on the 360.

[Blaze Lord]

But we can't know that for sure. What we can be reasonably sure of is that having the microsystem payment will encourage more after-box content in general and as a whole. What we can be sure of is Bethesda will sell a fair amount of these add-ons, and that will encourage more and more games to do the same, which will ultimately benefit all of us.

[Benj]

There were 8 offical plug-ins for Morrowind, all free. We're about to have 3 for Oblivion, only problem is it's going to cost just under 1/10th of the original price. 9 plugins and we're pushing paying another third of the price of the original game.

I'll take the 8 free ones everytime.

[Benj]

We hope to have The Orrery available for purchase next week. This plugin will cost 150pts on Xbox, and $1.89 on the PC. The Horse Armor Pack has been very popular, and exceeded what we thought it would sell. Despite that, we’re still trying to find the right spot, so we’re putting a much larger plugin out for less than the last one and we'll see what happens. Your feedback as we move forward in this is invaluable. Tell us what you want to see, how much of it, and what it might be worth to you. No, don’t say you want it free, because these plugins take a surprising amount of time to create, polish, and test (much more then Morrowind's).

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=348450

At least they got the point that they were charging way over the odds.

[Blaze Lord]

And, at the same time, apparently countered your point about Morrowind. Plus, I wouldn't say they 'got the point' about 'way over', as they've sold -more- than they expected. They're just looking for the right price point, and since they know that the first copy of a download the sell costs thousands, but the second costs nothing, they'll eventually figure out a point that something less than 200 points ends up giving them more money, since they sell more copies. Which encourages more and more companies to offer more and more micropayment content. But the majority of download content probably won't be free, and I think we'd all be less frustrated if we just stopped assuming things will be.

[Benj]

And, at the same time, apparently countered your point about Morrowind.
Indeed. :D

[bingo83]

Most of this content they are talking about would have been unlockables in the previous generation of consoles. To start charging for armour etc is a rip off.

It would be a different story if they where releasing things which actually added to the longevity of the game like extra maps, new quests etc. Those in my mind are worth a small fee.