I can’t believe Yang and Blake are DLC! I was expecting Phyrra, Penny, Cinder, or (out of left field) Velvet Scarlatina (bunny girl has moveset potential).
Such a waste!
This is what bothers me the most. You’d think there would be 30+ characters AT LAUNCH given how 90% of the roster is already finished and the only work ArcSys is (supposedly) doing is adjusting the sprites to bring non-BB franchises to be more inline with BB’s visual style, and tweaking the movelists (sadly to the point of straight up removing moves in favour of a simpler control system). Given that they’re launching with 20, game is coming out in May, AND they’re going to be releasing another 20 charas over who knows how many months (I fear it will stretch out well into 2019 if they don’t release character packs on a monthly basis) - it screams that the project is rushed and underbudgeted, AND the general consensus is after all is said and then there will be a total of
20 blazblue characters
8 UNIEL characters
8 Persona characters
and 4 RWBY girls
That just sounds like all kinds of whack to me, and it;s unknown if they have any plans beyond the upcoming DLC that are currently announced
Well, the ratio there really shouldn’t be all that surprising. I mean, it IS still a Blazblue game first and foremost.
oh i wont touch this game AT ALL now. The greed of Arcsys is just too much for me this time.
Well im a PC player so what am i supposed to do if NOBODY plays it on my system of choice? sure as fuck not touching console versions.
So if I’m understanding this correctly, the base game only including half of the planned roster was their plan to give people the ability to only buy the characters that they want? Fine, but it already has 20 characters that they may or may not want.
Seems like they wanted to try a new business model but got cold feet.
They should’ve had an American representative a LONG time ago.
Pretty much. This strat doesn’t work at all unless you tell people the price upfront so they think it’s a sweet deal.
Otherwise… Well, we’re seeing the reactions already, aren’t we?
Well if misinformation isn’t going to keep spreading, something would have to keep people spreading “downplay” type of information, no?.. because it could pose a problem when even basic media targets don’t have a full understanding:
(to those that happen to care, beware of the eventhubs link):
SPOILER = Direct text
[details=Spoiler]The controversy of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle’s DLC announcement - Why is doubling the roster post-launch being seen as a bad thing?
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle has gotten into some hot water, and this will help you understand why
Last week after the ArcSys Fighting Game Awards, the release date and full 20 character launch roster for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle was announced.
While this is normally something to celebrate and be happy about, there was a very dark cloud hovering above this announcement as well.
The trailer shown was for the character Blake Belladona from RWBY, and that she’ll be joining the battle… as DLC after release.
Not only that, but it was also announced that the roster would be doubled post-release, eventually going from the 20 characters in the base roster to a large 40 character roster.
So what’s the controversy here? A lot of people will think it’s obvious, but in case you don’t, look no further than right below for some more insight into what’s causing such a ruckus across the internet.
Downloadable content, or DLC, is a pretty controversial subject in gaming. The point of it is to extend a game’s lifespan by delivering additional content to the game after its launch, to keep players engaged.
While that sounds like a pretty neat thing, the unfortunate reality is that many games end up taking advantage of their consumers, by withholding already completed content from the initial release and locking it behind a paywall, essentially forcing consumers to pay full price for an incomplete product, and then being asked for more money later on to unlock the full experience.
In fighting games, the by far most famous and egregious example of this was back in 2012, when it was discovered that 12 characters that were eventually added as DLC to Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken were already fully functional, and in fact even on the game’s disc, but locked out from consumers behind a paywall.
Since then, no scandals of the same magnitude have surfaced, although a recurring theme that has soured players on DLC is it being announced before a game’s release. Just in recent memory, we’ve been told by developers about Season Passes and Character Packs and all sorts of things ahead of release for Injustice 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and most recently Dragon Ball FighterZ.
That’s enough out of you, Capcom.
Although DLC is something that is often being mishandled by developers, it’s an unfortunate reality for anyone who does not like it that as long as it keeps selling, which it clearly does, it is not going to go away, so this practice is simply something everyone will have to get used to, and the best we can hope for is that companies improve their way of going about DLC.
Unfortunately, although Arc System Works have done a stellar job in the past with their games, although they might be a bit too re-release heavy at times, they don’t seem to have gotten the DLC memo for their upcoming title BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
There are a lot of missteps in their approach to DLC, based on what we can see so far, and it’s no surprise that consumers are reacting with frustration.
This actually relates back to an article I wrote a few months back about the DLC practices of companies, and how they should be kept fair for both consumers and the game development companies behind the projects.
In my previous piece, I listed several things companies should ideally try to avoid if they want their playerbase to feel fairly treated and satisfied when purchasing DLC.
The very first point I brought up and tried to hammer home was that for consumers to not feel duped, which is the worst thing you can make them feel, you need to produce the content post-launch, or at the very least make it seem like you have. It’s business, we can’t always get what we want, but at least market it in a way that players feel like you care.
Announcing that there will be 20 DLC characters and showing gameplay footage of one of them 6 months ahead of the game’s release is a perfect example of how to do the complete opposite of that.
The following point I articulated back in November is that it’s important for players to not feel that the core game, which they are paying full price for, has been cheapened, but rather that the DLC enhances an already complete game.
From the company’s perspective, it’s going to be hard to argue this, because while this is an interesting crossover concept between 3 fighting game series, and newly added RWBY franchise characters, it’s hard to ignore the fact that 90% of the launch roster consists of characters that have effectively been copypasted from their respective franchise.
The value of blending popular franchises cannot be understated, but you still need to put in work for your fans.
Crossovers are always fun, and seeing your favorite fighters engage with eachother in new ways is interesting, but the novelty can only go so far. With a roster that only has 2 new characters, Ruby and Weiss from RWBY, and a promise of doubling the roster via DLC, it’s not hard to get uneasy about the game itself.
Another worrying factor is that when you look at the DLC, it’s highly likely that much of that will be brought over from the previous games as well. If you’re getting charged premium rates after already having bought the game for franchise veterans like Bang, Carmine or Naoto, it’s bound to leave a sour aftertaste.
To be clear, doubling a game’s roster via DLC is definitely not a bad thing at its core. It’s great to engage players and bring them more of their favorites as time goes on.
However, the handling of it has been abysmal. If Arc System Works want to keep DLC as a cornerstone for their fighting games moving forward, they need to be much smarter in how to go about it.
DLC is a tricky subject, and one we aren’t going to be rid of in the near future, but it’s important as consumers to take a stand against dishonest practices.
Hopefully Arc System Works put out an amazing game that makes it feel worth it at launch, and the DLC ends up only enhancing the game further. Even if this ideal scenario occurs, though, let’s try from now on to not announce any DLC half a year before the game is even out, okay?[/details]
For the most part, regardless if the pricing is actually lenient (which is nice and as it should be), the prices should of definitely be communicated accordingly to avoid controversy like this, especially when you have this much content to be released all in one go.
Says the nigga who only shows up in this thread when he runs out of midol and doesn’t feel like going to RiteAid.
I’m still getting this game, only to play Makoto/Chie to spite the aforementioned.
If I see a BBCTB Extend II Accent Core after this, I’m done trying with ASW.
Fun fact, the base game of Dragon Ball FighterZ (with no DLC) costs 12,300 yen on PS4 and 17,657 yen on XBox One (on Amazon.jp), more than this game’s limited edition.
That’s okay. I’m not exactly planning on buying DBFZ in any event.
The point was to show how different game pricing is in Japan and how BBTag isn’t exactly average price by their standards.
It’s okay, when people are trying to prove a point or rationalize things, it’s really amazing that they’ll overlook just about anything and everything just to be able to feel like they’re right.
They REALLY should have clarified that this was what they was aiming for…
Would have REALLY helped not cultivate the image they was making for themselves.
Indeed that should have been announced at the same time as"20 Char are DLC".
Either way, I’m glad that this stuff is getting cleared up now. Of course, this won’t stop people from still flipping their shit and overreacting about it, but those people would always bitch regardless of what’s going on.
It was pretty obvious just by seeing the price of the deluxe edition being lower than the price of a new retail game.
People now just look at an excuse to jump the gun at the 1st chance they get.
Oh totally agree. They don’t even get halfway finished reading or looking into something before they’re flipping tables and shouting bloody murder like somebody just started punting babies Snitsky-style.
Moved to the BlazBlue forum. :tup: