It's not the money that bothers me... It's lack of value ! Just the pure greed of the devs squeezing out every penny for hardly anything... Should concentrate on fixing all the bugs and designing a proper UI before squeezing customers endlessly ....
Games are cheaper now than they have ever been. The price of a full game has remained virtually steady since the 90s, while inflation has gone up 82% since 1991, when the original Civilization was released. A game which cost $50 in 1991
should cost over $90 now. Games also are more expensive to make now than ever before. I couldn't find specific numbers for the Civilization series, but it's a safe bet that Civ6 cost at least several million to make, and not unlikely that it may have gone into the double-digit millions.
Add on top of that unrealistic pricing expectations from game consumers that are created by Steam (and other digital platforms) sales, and frankly game companies really can't win. Players expect higher quality than ever before, and want to pay less than ever before. A full-priced game is now considered overpriced, which is ridiculous, and does not fairly reflect that development costs have increased while the MSRP has not. And on top of this, there is no guarantee that steady sales will continue after the initial launch because there is now
so much competition, so publishers need to try to recoup most, if not all, of the cost of development within the first few months of release. Note that I said "recoup" - obviously ideally the publisher wants to make a profit, but for large project there have to be significant sales success
just to break even, especially considering the fact that we as consumers are generally
underpaying (even at $60) for a new game.
Now let's talk about DLC. DLC accomplishes (at least) three things:
- Keep bringing existing customers back to the game
- Maintains a steady stream of income to fund continued development and development for future projects
- Bring in new customers by keeping game content in the "new releases" category and thus keep continued visibility in an over-saturated market
Contrary to what you seem to think, DLC is not cheap to produce. At the
very least, DLC requires the following contributors: designer, programmer, artist, modeller, voice actor, writer, QA. Probably a few more - and almost certainly more than one of each of those. DLC takes several months to develop, and while each contributor doesn't need to simultaneously work full-time on that single project, they certainly need to keep coming back to the project to fix issues or provide updates as the development process continues. Paying those salaries, plus the salaries for support and administrative personnel, software, equipment, rent, utilities, and the fact that Valve takes 30% of the DLC revenue and 2k takes another unknown percent, bottom line is that Firaxis only receives a fraction of the DLC revenue and uses that revenue to, you know,
pay their employee salaries. Oh - you want them to develop new games? Invest in new technology? That costs more money on top of just paying employees and keeping the doors open!
Firaxis' small DLC isn't even necessary to play the game. It doesn't add new gameplay features, it only adds new content that fits within the existing framework. So if you don't buy it you're not missing out on the full gameplay experience. I personally am glad for the steady drip of new DLC as it helps tide me over until the expansions drop and keeps me excited about the game and engaged as part of the broader community.
So this "greedy devs" BS needs to stop. You need to re-align your perspective of game costs with reality.
Haven't bought any civ6 DLC. When ever I get tempted to I just ask myself "Why not play with mods, they are free and some are better balanced than DLC?"
I have yet to think of a good answer to that question.
I hope you'll buy R&F if you haven't already, although perhaps you're talking about the smaller DLC.
The new modding capabilities provided with each expansion mean that if you play with a ton of mods it's best to invest in the expansion so you continue to have access to all the mods.
Personally, while I would enjoy having the DLC, my potential enjoyment of the DLC does not outweigh the unhappiness I would get from knowing that I was conned into buying the game under one set of expectations only to find out that the Deluxe Edition would receive additional DLC and become the only viable method of getting a discount on any DLC. As it is I'm hesitant to buy any future products relating to this game because I don't want to make the same mistake of getting locked into a bad deal.
Perhaps you need to rethink what you view as a "bad deal". On a per hour of entertainment basis, Civ6 and its DLC is one of the best deals around at full price. Or if you don't try to quantify it on a per-hour basis, is one good game with Poland worth the price of a cup of coffee?
I say yes, but maybe the sugar and milk with mild coffee flavoring I occasionally treat myself to is too expensive.
Oh, and FYI, the Indonesia/Khmer DLC is currently 12% off at the
WinGameStore. If you're absolutely set on finding a discount, don't just look at Steam.
