Home Gaming Ubisoft is going to stop selling “compulsory” DLC

Ubisoft is going to stop selling “compulsory” DLC

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Since the infamous horse armour, developers and publishers have been looking for ways to monetise their games outside of the initial purchase. We’ve seen in a rise in extraneous content – skins, loot boxes which offer skins, gun templates, extra heroes and more – al costing users money, which many of them are happy to pay. That’s the good sort of DLC – the optional stuff. It does get worse.

The very worst DLC is the sort of stuff that feels like it’s been ripped out of a game – and then shoved back in at a cost. Even otherwise great games – like Mass Effect – have been guilty of this. Thankfully, the industry is largely learning how to best monetise games without getting up people’s nostrils.

Speaking to GI.biz, Ubisoft’s VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin said that the company no longer wants to sell DLC that gamers need to buy to have a :complete” experience.

“Monetisation is something we have to be very careful about, and my team is in charge of that and making sure we find a right balance,” Blondel-Jouin says.

“The key is if it’s not adding something on-top of the actual experience of the game, then it is no good. Because you’ll be asking for more money for the wrong reasons. Also, if the content is compulsory for the gamers, it’s no good as well. It is a way to deliver more fun to gamers, but they have a choice to go for that extra fun or not. If I take an analogy of an amusement park, you can go through all the rides, but then you can also go to the shop to buy some food or merchandise or whatever… regardless of whether you spend in the shop, you’re still part of the whole experience. Nobody is making you buy if you don’t want to, but it is another way to have a different entertainment experience. If you’re with your kids, and there’s a toy you want to get, we will make sure it is an extra experience. It won’t be the case if you don’t buy it then you can’t do anything else.”

That’s the sort of thing that happens especially with map packs. Call of Duty and Battlefield have both had paid-for map packs that split user bases in half, and feel necessary for players who want to remain competitive. Ubisoft doesn’t want that.

“It wouldn’t work if it was about making it compulsory for gamers. No more DLC that you have to buy if you want to have the full experience. You have the game, and if you want to expand it – depending on how you want to experience the game – you’re free to buy it, or not.”

“The way we monetise Rainbow Six is that people are happy about the new characters, and they can customise them with weapons and charms, but even if they don’t do it, they will have the exact same experience of the other gamers,” she says. “It is just an extra piece of revenue for us, which comes from gamers being happy. If gamers were not happy, we would not ask for that extra money.”

It’s the way a number of people have been doing DLC. Titanfall 2, as an example, has n superfluous content and its maps are free. Of course, it’ll be easy to point out that Ubisoft’s own Watch Dog 2 has a confusing amount of DLC – but honestly, none of it is really important the game or its experience.

Last Updated: November 22, 2016

20 Comments

  1. Ottokie

    November 22, 2016 at 13:34

    Aren’t there other game development companies other than Ubisoft?

    xD

    Reply

    • Lord Chaos

      November 22, 2016 at 13:40

      I’d say Activision, but copy and paste != development.

      Reply

      • Andre Fourie

        November 22, 2016 at 13:57

        ROFL. True Dat.

        Reply

  2. Andre Fourie

    November 22, 2016 at 13:39

    Ubisoft will only be able to redeem themselves in my eyes if Wildlands is absolutely awesome.

    Reply

    • Thorsten

      November 22, 2016 at 15:41

      Wildands and For Honor (reallllyyyy want the latter to be awesome. Wildlands I am unsure of…)

      Reply

  3. Fox1 - Retro

    November 22, 2016 at 13:40

    The first time I came across DLC was in NFS3:HP on PC, 2 cars were free. Same model for the next 2 games. PC games on the otherhand started to delve into expansions that costed money but most of it was worth it, opening new worlds and experiences.

    Fast forward to present day, there’s so much DLC per game that it’s littered all over digital market places and just keeping track of them is a chore. Just last week I purchased Forza Horizon 2 for R239. The mega-all-in-one DLC pack costed R362. That’s R120 like more than the game but not adding much more in terms of value to the gamer.

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    November 22, 2016 at 13:40

    “The way we monetise Rainbow Six is that people are happy about the new characters, and they can customise them with weapons and charms, but even if they don’t do it, they will have the exact same experience of the other gamers”
    https://media.giphy.com/media/g2h2gaBLJp1n2/giphy.gif

    Reply

  5. Kromas Ryder

    November 22, 2016 at 14:10

    Says the company that just dropped Division Survival for a nominal fee.

    Vivendi needs to take them over super fast.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Argonian

      November 22, 2016 at 15:10

      Vyftien euros, nee dankie, ek Skyrim liewer

      Reply

      • Skyblue

        November 23, 2016 at 08:40

        I’m still pissed at Bethesda for that last patch. They broke it, fixed it and managed to come up with all new glitches in the process. Grrrr. Still playing though coz I’m an idiot.

        Reply

    • Thorsten

      November 22, 2016 at 15:43

      To be fair, Survival adds a unique experience which some people like and others don’t. It has no impact on your ability to progress in the game. I for one am not interested in it and don’ feel like I HAVE to buy it at all. That is exactly the point she is making. Don’t get me wrong though, Ubisoft has a few things to learn lol

      Reply

      • Kromas Ryder

        November 22, 2016 at 15:47

        I would have agreed with you except for the fact that it is a super fast gearing system that completely puts you in another league and those who don’t have it will take ages to catch up to you.

        Reply

        • Thorsten

          November 22, 2016 at 15:54

          Hmm I got the impression DZ will still be far more efficient from what I have seen of Survival. Besides, there isn’t really much to “catch up” on anymore except maybe squeezing that last 5% from your gear stats by min-maxing. But you may be right – haven’t spent time with Survival myself so can’t exactly comment on the loot rate.

          Reply

          • Kromas Ryder

            November 23, 2016 at 07:47

            Did survival l;ast night went from a 198 Gearscore to a 236 gear score in 2 runs.

            Max with this DLC is 258.

            Without doing survival it would take about two weeks to do the same cause your only alternative is farming 1200 pheonix credits per 258 item.

          • Thorsten

            November 23, 2016 at 09:40

            Max is 256 and I went from 229 to 250+ for two characters between 6pm and 7:30-ish pm farming DZ. Haven’t tried survival yet though – just reading about people’s opinions lol. It is any good? If the loot is as fast as you say I might have to jump in 😀

          • Kromas Ryder

            November 23, 2016 at 11:20

            The first game I failed i recieved two 229 (round about there) lootboxes. The second failure i got 3. A success however nabs you about 9 boxes (if you picked up 6 in the DZ). bout an hour run in total per game more or less.

          • Thorsten

            November 23, 2016 at 12:23

            Awesome! Will have to give it a shot.

  6. Deceased

    November 22, 2016 at 14:52

  7. Avithar

    November 22, 2016 at 14:56

    we want Free DLC #PaidDLCMustFall

    Reply

  8. Craig "CrAiGiSh" Dodd

    November 23, 2016 at 08:25

    DLC … is a curse …

    Reply

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