Choosing big games for free dlc – Customizable looks beat debit card

A good example leads to good follow, Ubisoft must have thought. During the big presentation of the French game publisher at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles, Julian Gerighty, the creative director of Ubisoft development studio Massive Entertainment, announced with some fanfare that The Division 2 will release three new episodes in 2019 in addition to the base game. gets. However, that was not the most important information about this DLC that he wanted to share with the world. ‘ The best part ‘ was yet to come; these three new parts are free for everyone. No sooner had Gerighty said this than he received a long round of applause from the audience.

That the attendees welcomed this news of the three free DLCs with approval, because who wouldn’t want extra stories, areas and activities that you don’t have to pay a penny for? But why did Ubisoft feel the need to stress so strongly that a major new game comes with additional content that is completely free? One reason is undoubtedly that developer Dice also came up with such news about free additional content in May, during the reveal of Battlefield V . Ubisoft’s leadership probably felt they couldn’t be outdone: if EA can make a splash with free new content, so can we.

The question is whether this is a prelude to more. Will more publishers follow this example and will more and more new games be provided with new content without gamers being tempted to dig deeper into their pockets for DLC? Why is this suddenly such a popular topic in Ubisoft and EA’s PR, how and for how long has the construction of paid DLC been used in the Battlefield series, why is it now partly abandoned and can we perhaps already speak cautiously about it? start of a trend break?

The DLC system in Battlefield games

A well-known game series in which season passes and paid DLC have been applied as standard for years is Battlefield. Since 2011’s Battlefield 3, developer Dice and publisher Electronic Arts have consistently provided all games in this series with paid DLC and premium passes . The pattern is usually the same; the base game must be purchased for roughly fifty or sixty euros, with a premium pass being offered for a similar amount.

What do players actually get for twice the price of the base game? With Battlefield games you will receive a dlc package with four new maps at regular intervals after the release of the base game, which often introduce new vehicles, weapons, environments and sometimes game modes. But that is not everything; the various DLCs are also always released separately, but premium pass owners do not have to wait for these release dates; for example, the premium pass with Battlefield 1 gave players the opportunity to get started with the new content two weeks before the release of the DLC. Priority over the rest.

Priority also applies to attempts to access a Battlefield server so that a game can actually be played. The premium pass allows players to bypass any queue for the server, much like the Disney theme parks allow visitors to bypass a huge line for a roller coaster with the FastPass system. Such a ‘premium system’ is of course nice for the premium pass owner who wants to get to his favorite, popular server as quickly as possible, but that automatically means that gamers without a premium pass are left behind on servers that are already (almost) full .

Benefits such as early access to the DLC content and skipping the queues for the game servers mean that many Battlefield gamers are undoubtedly tempted to consider purchasing a premium pass. After all, getting early access to new maps is fun and who wants to be sentenced to waiting times or playing on half-empty servers because access to a server isn’t arranged on a first-come, first-serve basis? In addition, the number of nine different maps present in Battlefield 3 didn’t really last either; it was only with the dlc that there really was a bit of variation in the playing fields. In addition, the four DLCs together cost more than the premium pass.

Back to the Past: Free DLC

Although the sale of DLC and premium passes has benefited EA, the publisher has decided to make DLC available for free with Battlefield 5, which will be released in October. The means of the premium pass does not return in this game either. With this, EA is in fact going back to the past.

Bad Company 2, the 2010 Battlefield game that came out a year before the release of Battlefield 3, did not yet have any paid DLC or premium pass. During 2010, Dice released no less than seven different map packs at different times . On PC, these packs became available as updates for free, and on console they were also free, albeit via a VIP code, which was provided free with every new copy of the game on Xbox or PlayStation. With this, EA probably tried to motivate gamers not to buy a second-hand version of the game, since it would have to be paid; a VIP code then cost fifteen dollars. Bad Company 2 also received an expansion in the form of Bad Company 2: Vietnam, which had to be paid for.

These seven released map packs contain a total of sixteen different multiplayer maps . Some of the released maps were already in predecessor Bad Company, but completely new maps were also introduced. This often also involved maps with an impressive surface. An example is Arica Harbor , a sprawling desert map for Bad Company 2’s signature Rush mode, which is based on the existing port city of Arica in Chile. In this map of tanks and infantry, attackers must first fight their way through the desert and capture a small base, then descend a hill and capture a sprawling desert town.

In April 2010, Dice expressed a clear opinion about these free maps. “We never want to charge money for our maps and have stressed to EA that this setup is crucial to keeping our community happy and together,” said Dice producer Patrick Bach . A few weeks earlier, EA employee Eric Brown said Bad Company 2 fans should “consider different options for spending $5, 10, or 15 dollars on new content.” In view of the map packs provided free of charge in 2010, it can be concluded that Dice ultimately won the debate over whether or not to pay for additional content.

The game-as-a-service revenue model

It can now be concluded that since the release of Battlefield 3 in 2011, Dice has adapted or must comply with EA’s position. Battlefield 3 and all Battlefield titles after that didn’t get the free Bad Company 2 model for new content. The main reason for this is easy to guess and can be made clear by, for example, looking at recent quarterly figures from EA, but also, for example, those of other major publishers, such as Ubisoft and Activision.

While discussing EA’s latest quarterly earnings, CEO Andrew Wilson said his company will continue with the FIFA Ultimate Team mode. In fact, this is a mode with loot boxes where gamers can buy digital football pictures, so to speak, to strengthen their own football team. This mode has been returning to successive FIFA games for a number of years, and that has everything to do with a continuous stream of revenue, which has been generating much more than just the sale of a new FIFA title for some time now. The days when publishers earned a one-off income from just selling their games are long gone; nowadays games are mainly regarded as a ‘service’.

Key elements of this game-as-a-service model include monthly subscriptions, such as World of Warcraft, microtransactions, and season passes. For example, EA classifies this revenue under the heading of “live services,” and this category is becoming increasingly important to overall games-related revenue. It’s actually the only substantial growth driver of EA’s digital gaming revenue left. In the latest quarterly figures, revenue from mobile game sales and full game downloads showed barely any growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier. For live services, that’s a whole different story. This category grew by 31 percent to $679 million and is therefore gaining an increasing share of the total of these revenues.

This picture is no different with Activision Blizzard. In May, it emerged that the company had returned to earning more from in-game purchases in the first quarter of this year, even though there were fewer active players and no major games were released during the quarter. The figure came to a billion dollars : a record.

Ubisoft is still lagging behind Activision and EA in terms of recurring player spending. In February it turned out that 18 percent of the turnover at the French publisher came from the sale of microtransactions, DLC and the sale of loot boxes. In comparison: at Activision Blizzard and EA this was 38 and 39 percent respectively. Still, Ubisoft saw its microtransaction revenues almost double in the last quarter of 2017. And in fiscal year 2018, the French publisher earned 483 million euros from digital items, DLC and season passes, up 59 percent from a year earlier. .

Research firm Superdata already established at the end of last year that the add-on content sales mentioned by the agency are increasingly outpacing the traditional one-off sales model in terms of revenue. And there are no signs of this abating, on the contrary. Superdata predicts publishers on PC and consoles will collectively earn $32 billion from service-based monetization by 2022 ; the income from the sale of the games alone will then not exceed 11 billion dollars. The research firm dryly determined that EA with the specific implementation of the loot boxes and the pay-to-win mechanismin Star Wars Battlefront II it is true that the board has gone wrong, but that this model with the additional content to be purchased does indeed have the future.

Better, personalized looks

The major publishers, often listed on the stock exchange, will try to maintain this lucrative model of games as services as much as possible, if only because of the undoubtedly present pressure from shareholders. As publishers begin to phase out paid DLC and season passes while maintaining the game-as-a-service revenue model and increasing associated revenues, something has to take its place. Battlefield V is a nice indication of what publishers are increasingly adopting: customization , or the possibility of cosmetic item releases to give your character their own look.

EA was clear about it during the official announcement of the next game in the Battlefield series: players will have extensive options to customize the characters in their company, from gender and race to freely designable tattoos and even limbs which can be replaced by prostheses. Exactly what that will look like will only become clear when the game is released in October, but in any case it is already certain that there will be so-called airlift items. According to EA, these are not loot boxes, but only cosmetic items. The precise content of the airlifts is already clear in advance and, according to the publisher, no performance advantage can be gained from it. Players gain access to these airlift items by purchasing a more luxurious, more expensive Battlefield V edition, but it is likely that the publisher will also allow players with only the basic version of the game to purchase individual airlifts for small amounts. purchase.

EA and Dice seem to be fully committed to character customization as a new lucrative income source, which should make you forget about the lost premium pass and DLC income. If you look at the very popular and lucrative battle royale part of Fortnite, it’s not surprising why EA is going to bet heavily on this. Fortnite is completely free to play, but it still generates money. And not so little too; in May, the developer, Epic Games, announced it had raised $100 million in prize moneyavailable for all esports tournaments in the upcoming first year of the competition. Such huge amounts are not such a problem for Epic, knowing that Fortnite generated a turnover of $ 126 million in February alone, according to Superdata. And that all comes from players who want to look different and more beautiful. Customizing characters just for better looks is big business.

In Fortnite, V-Bucks can be bought with real money; this is the name of the virtual in-game currency in the game. For example, with V-Bucks you can buy a different outfit, a new emote or a nicer glider, so that the character will look different in the game. V-Bucks can also be used for a Battle Pass, but that too is just a means, which must be purchased with V-Bucks, to unlock cosmetic rewards based on challenges and achievements in the game. Fortnite emphasizes in its own store, where new items can be purchased daily, that all items are only cosmetic and do not entail any competitive advantage, as was the case with Star Wars Battlefront II.

This model of a free game that only brings in tons of money through cosmetic innovations has been successfully used for much longer by Riot Games with League of Legends and to a slightly lesser extent by Valve with Dota 2. These moba games have been completely free to play for years, but still make a lot of money. So-called skins can be purchased in both games. That is in fact a total remake of the playable champion of hero, where it can suddenly look very different, sometimes with completely different visual effects and sounds. According to Superdata, all these microtransactions earned Riot Games $2.1 billion in 2017 , with Valve raising $406 million that year.

Criticism of paid DLC

With such huge amounts of money that game makers can rake in just offering cosmetic items and new, nicer looks, EA couldn’t stay behind with Battlefield V. Even though this will probably make it possible to enter the battlefield with extravagantly dressed characters, and it won’t come corresponds to the historical reality of the Second World War.

Undoubtedly, with The Division 2, Ubisoft will also focus more on microtransactions and options to purchase personalized items, equipment and looks. With the Star Wars Battlefront II debacle in mind, the publisher is aware that the monetization model in its games must be balanced, fair and modern, as evidenced by a job posting Ubisoft previously posted for a Monetization Designer for The Division 2.

EA’s move to stop asking gamers for money for new maps in Battlefield V was probably not just born out of a desire to get a good share of the lucrative sale of cosmetic items. The feeling of having to make a gesture after the storm of criticism of Star Wars Battlefront II can also play a role. What matters most, however, is that the model of asking twice the purchase price could count on increasing criticism. The most important argument is that it leads to a dichotomy or fragmentation of the group of players. The part that has the money for it can purchase all new maps, but players who don’t have it will be deprived of it. That is especially bitter if you create a dichotomy within a group of friends.

In addition, a recurring problem with successive Battlefield games is that maps from paid DLC are not very popular in the long run. This is probably due to a combination of factors. For example, there are too few players who have the money for it or they simply ignore the DLC maps, because a significant part of the player group cannot access them anyway. With empty servers running DLC ​​maps, EA ultimately misses its target. Especially in combination with the increasing criticism, the publisher has probably chosen eggs for its money and the end of this premium pass model seems to be in sight.

Key lock

It is difficult to say whether the means of the season pass and paid DLC will disappear across the board. For now, EA and Ubisoft have announced that they will waive this for Battlefield V and The Division 2 respectively, but those are only two games from two publishers. For example, the Sega-published and Creative Assembly-made Warhammer games in the Total War series still simply have a construction where you have to pay for new DLC, which can probably be explained in part by the strategy genre being less easy to get into. playing on the lucrative introduction of cosmetic items and microtransactions.

Activision does not seem to follow the path of EA and Ubisoft for a new major title to be released. Those who want to buy dlc for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which will be released later this year, still have to purchase a season pass. It was initially announced that the so-called Black Ops Pass, which is required for access to the additional content, could not be purchased separately from the game. Those interested seemed to be able to get this season pass only by purchasing a bundle of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and the Black Ops Pass. On a support page, Activision had some advice for fans who had already pre-ordered the basic version of the game, but still wanted access to the DLC: go back to the store where you ordered the copy and upgrade your preorder to an edition with the Black Ops Pass.

The digital ink on Activision’s support page had barely dried when the publisher retraced its steps; the Black Ops Pass also became available separately. However , the content of the Black Ops Pass, such as new maps, will not be available separately in the form of map packs, for example, as is the case with previous Call of Duty games. So no free extra content and it’s all or nothing.