 |
. : [N]ews du 05/05/2010 à 14:00 : . |
 |
| |
 |
EA et les DLC Command & Conquer |
 |
Un visiteur du forum officiel a sans doute posté la "question qui tue" en demandant s'il y avait des chances que EA lance des DLC pour les futurs Command & Conquer, mais aussi et surtout en affirmant que l'extension pour Alerte Rouge 3 "La Révolte" aurait due être gratuite du fait de l'absence de multijoueur.
La réponse d'Apoc ne s'est pas fait attendre et le moins qu'on puisse dire c'est qu'il en avait à raconter!
It depends what you classify as "DLC", as most people generously associate that word with XBOX 360 or Playstation 3, which publishers hardly ever give free DLC to. A lot of publishers, ourselves included, give free console DLC such as map packs, new outfits, weapons, skins, etc, and then ensuing packs are charged for. That's micro-transaction business 101 for ya =) The basics at least. Console gamers certainly don't get the same level of tech patch support as PC gamers, but ironically, that has more to do with the technical and policy issues of "patching" console games. Its significantly less an expectation as well. PC gamers expect it, console gamers do not, weird yes, true yes.
"DLC" on PC I would rather look at as patches, maps, and sometimes new missions and weapon/character skins. And once in a blue moon, new game modes, which to Valves credit they have been rockstars at with Team Fortress 2.
When it comes to PC, Valve has one pretty big advantage WITH THEIR OWN GAMES when it comes to giving away free DLC, if they choose to do so...STEAM. Their service is conceptually the same as XBOX Live and PSN, wherein there games are bound to STEAM whether you buy them online or in a box, which makes it very easy for them to serve up additional content FREE or PAID to user accounts. Similar to C&C 4, if we had a digital store tied in, we could have done the same, flowing out free and paid "DLC" month to month.
Everyone else for PC, unless you're an MMO, doesn't have that luxury because STEAM is a retailer to us. So if we give free DLC out, that means everyone must get it, no matter where they purchased it from. Or unless you have an in-game store.
Red Alert 3: Uprising was a single-player digital download expansion pack. We contemplated selling it in a box as well, or re-packaging it with Red Alert 3, but at the end of the day, the PERCENTAGE user base that would be purchasing (30% average of your base game sales), wasn't substantial enough to justify the massive expense to sell in-store. I wish I could say retail store channels are free and boxing up a game is free, but that would be far from the truth. Google "COGS", and research "cost of goods and services". There is no doubt that is part of the larger pie that is the rise of digital downloads and micro-transactions.
AND TO YOUR POINT, the game itself was right at that line of being a true expansion with multiplayer (like KW / ZH), and a smaller expansion without, which is what it turned out as. That being said, the amount of content from the SP missions to Commanders Challenge to the wealth of professionally made multiplayer maps is more than justifiable as paid content.
Uprising had a packaged SP campaign, tons of new units, and the Commanders Challenge (which was made in to an XBOX/PSN Arcade title, not free). The amount of work and budget that went into that was over 6 months, and that alone does not justify our ability to provide that to you free. Had we just added a few units, maybe just one SP campaign, I would absolutely agree FREE would be justifiable. We never EVER charge for patches, and the amount of work that goes in to every patch is always significant whether its a week or a month, but improving/fixing quality of the game is not something that should ever be charged for. Additional content is always a point of contention that you'll find most disagree with on the word FREE.
The modders such as Bibber would not have been able to create their mods without extensive help from myself and JonWil, in providing assets and expanded tools long after Uprisng came out, at which point, we were totally fine. Bibbers mod, while it may have many of the units, doens't have the single-player missions, Commanders Challenge, and one really big caveat, requires you own Red Alert 3. The Uprising expansion was standalone, so you did not need RA3 to play it. Bibbers mod is amazing, but its really just making it possible for you to use Uprising units in RA3, which was something we cut during the process for reasons that are long gone now.
At the end of the day, no dev team or publishers creates DLC for free, or to charge without knowing what the ROI (return on investment) is. A team can't spend 6-8 months on a significant expansion, put it out for free, and receive nothing in return. That's just business 101 to keep our lights on. It's a lot different when say, we're making maps, or smaller doses of content, while the rest of the team is working on the next big thing. Uprising was a significant effort, and exponentially greater in content than any of the DLC you mentioned below. |
En résumé, il n'est pas du tout d'acord sur le fait que l'add-on La révolte aurait dû être gratuit. Cette extension a demandé 6 mois de travail et aucun éditeur ne donnerait un contenu ayant demandé autant de ressources sans un retour sur investissement raisonnable.
S'en suit un passage sur le mod Bibbers vous donnant accès aux unités de La Révolte dans AR3. Si ces unités sont cools, il n'en reste pas moins que ce mod ne rajoute pas les défis ou les missions supplémentaires, et demande l'achat d'Alerte Rouge 3 alors que La Révolte est un stand alone.
Par contre bien entendu, pour les contenus plus petits qui sont faits pendant que le gros de l'équipe travaille sur d'autres projets, ils seront toujours disponibles gratuitement.
- Lire le post sur le forum officiel.
Furax
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
. : [V]os commentaires : . |
|
| |
|
|
Bah moi ce qui me fait marrer c'est qu'il nous dit que cet add on leur a pris 6 mois de travail ... Alors qu'ils en ont mis 9 mois pour Alerte rouge 3 selon Mike Skaggs et légèrement plus pour CNC 4 ...
Ça fait beaucoup de travail pour une campagne et quelques unités ..
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
Faut bien justifier son salaire  |
|
|
| |
|
|
Mouai .... pourtant TF2 (Team Fortress 2) est régulièrement MAJ et gratuitement; proposant un jeux 2x plus complet qu'au tout début, alors leur excuses .... |
|
|
| |
|
|
Jackson > Vivement la MAJ de l'ingénieur  |
|
|
| |
|
|
En effet! ^^ Vivement ste MAJ et les vidéos!
D'ailleurs je pense que EA devrais être plus regardant sur le suivie de valve (malgré LD4) pour leur jeux, je pense que EA y gagnerait .... |
|
|
| |
|
|
+1 Lebelge, il est pas du tout crédible sur ce coup.
D'ailleurs sans relancer la polémique, "l'absence" du multi est vraiment minable. Je vais tester le "patch 1.5 unofficial" comblant cette lacune entre 2 partie d'HH Contrat. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
