DLC Season Passes: Do we really need them?

With the first batch of Battlefield 1’s paid Downloadable Content – titled They Shall Not Pass – right around the corner, I finally caved in and bought the season pass. It’s one of those games with a lot of post-launch content, and with 180 hours logged already, I figured it was worth it to purchase the additional content if I was “in it for the long haul.” But it’s not just ultra-popular games like Battlefield and Call of Duty that have season passes; it seems like every AAA game nowadays is doing this practice. Like, every major game is vying for my attention and trying to squeeze every bit of money they can out of their customers. What is going on here?

I started to notice the phenomenon with Gears of War: Judgement. It wasn’t everyone’s favorite Gears of War game, but I could appreciate it for what it was: a fun spin-off. However, on top of being released at full price, it also came with a season pass that was almost as expensive as the game itself. I just had to know: Why is this happening? Who is buying these season passes? I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that Judgement didn’t have staying power like the core Gears games. I may be wrong, but I highly doubt that any considerable base paid for the extra content for that game and then stayed until the end of life cycle of the game to justify the purchase.

I noticed season passes before in games like Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but I soon realized they became omnipresent: Saints Row, Fallout, Borderlands, and more. Every full-price game must have a season pass!

Why is this happening for nearly every game? Why do publishers have the guts to ask for another $50 upfront right as we cough up $60 for their game? Who on earth bought the Battlefield: Hardline season pass and then was still around when the final content pack released? These are questions I would like answers to. Until then, it seems like season passes here to stay.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to DLC Season Passes: Do we really need them?

  1. Michael Joseph Postava says:

    The concept of DLC has really bugged me. If you look back in time, a lot of the best games of all time had no DLC. The only games that I felt did this well were the fallout series. This was because fallout was already a full game. You could play it for hundreds of hours and still not find everything. The problem comes in when game designers won’t even finish their own games.

    I really wish the whole concepts of season passes wouldn’t exist. When people have already spent $60 on a new game, people don’t want to pay more for a season pass. At the same time, if I buy a game used, I don’t want to spend more money to get the rest of the game. The whole point of buying a used game is so I don’t have to spend full price. Then making the season pass required just makes you have a used game but at the price of full price. It’s honestly in your best interest to just buy the game at full price.

  2. dfz5022 says:

    I agree, if there’s one thing that instantly turns me off of a game its seeing a normal retail price tag and then seeing hundreds of dollars of downloadable content available after that initial purchase. I understand the game industry is a business and has to make money, but when I feel like part of the my game which I paid money for doesn’t contain the ‘entire game’ I feel cheated. I think this move to subscription services might not be the best for consumers, but as multiplayer because the main point of many games (and with it server upkeep and people to run those servers) it might make the most business sense.

  3. jja5212 says:

    I think you hit the nail on the head! To me this is tantamount to paying a large down payment on a leased vehicle, or even pre-ordering to some extent. The game developers/publishers are working to get people to volunteer money over before they even know what the final product will be like (this also happens in the movie business with bad movies and review embargos… *cough* Batman v Superman). This is especially true in recent times where a number of games have dissapointed upon release. They want to lock in your money before hand as they know once people are invested, they usually are locked in (number of pre-order cancellations is rather low to my knowledge).

  4. vqm5108 says:

    I must say I really don’t like how companies try to milk all of the money that they can out of you with these season passes. Back in the early 00’s, I feel like these weren’t really as popular but they are definitely sprouting up now and are seemingly tied to any major AAA game. I don’t think that I have ever bought a season pass for a game, but I have bought individual map packs if I felt that they looked interesting and worthwhile. I do not like the fact that you have no prior knowledge about what is going to be released for that game so you don’t even know if the DLC is going to be even worth your time and money.

  5. Titus I Matthews says:

    Excellent topic. Season passes are a scam to get players to play a game longer and spend more money while doing it. There is no reason why i should have to pay the price of the game twice just for a few maps and insignificant add-ons and side stories. But I believe if done right season passes offer great things for players. For example in a typical Call of Duty season pass you get a new zombie map, new multiplayer map, and exclusive add ons to boost your multiplayer experience. Other players may not want to purchase the season pass and are therefore disadvantaged by the “big spenders” because they have the most exclusive weapons. Although this creates an imbalance in the gaming experience the developers don’t seem to care because the customers payed for the weapons, so it is almost like they “earned” the right to be superior to others.

  6. dok5327 says:

    This is also something I have thought about over the years. I do think it is unreasonable for companies to charge so much extra for a dlc pass when the game itself on release is quite a large amount of money, basically double the price is what ends up having to be paid. Either way I think that companies should either make the passes cheaper due to the fact that these huge name games are going to be making so much money without people buying the season passes. I hope one day they can get rid of them and make it more affordable for everyone as a whole to have access to DLC.

Leave a Reply