Squeenix stoops to a new low

[Carl the Llama]

So every day I have been checking out the DLC for this game and have even made a few purchases, but I have just gone in there today only to find that they have now started charging for the Japanese Voice Pack... £3.19 the same price as one of the outfits, when only yesterday they were giving it away free!

Very disappointing.

[Sephiroth]

That was said from the very beginning.

[Freya]

Yeah they stated that if you get it the first few weeks it will be free, after that it'd be priced.

[Carl the Llama]

That knowledge doesn't change my opinion, if its free for some then it should be free for all.

[Del Murder]

That's not how marketing works, though. Maybe they could have comminicated it better, but it's a common model to give something away for the first few weeks of a product and then charge for it later.

[Mirage]

SE were clear about how this would work. In addition to that, most gamers are aware how many games drop in price after not too long, especially sequels and remakes. You had the choice between buying it right away and getting the voiceovers for free, or waiting until the game became cheaper and buy the DLC with the money you saved.

[Carl the Llama]

Its now about whether or not I wanted it - I didn't, it's about the fact that I knew nothing about it, they should have publicized it better but tbh I still think it would have been bad form, I mean they could have easily done one of those messages across the bottom (the ones about the outworld post count) saying "Last day to download the Japanese Language Pack! Get yours today before time runs out!" but instead nothing.

Oh an as for the game lowering in price and about choices, well if that's the case then why don't they stop giving the language pack when retailers start to lower the price? No matter how many people say it's business standard I think that standard is a cheap tacky way to make money, either charge for something all the time or don't.

[Jessweeee♪]

Wasn't the DLC free at launch regardless of whether or not you bought the game? Couldn't you just go in and download it?

[Psychotic]

I was hoping for something more exciting with the thread title. Like Square have added a Nazi sidequest where Lightning must enact the Final Solution to the Moogle Problem or something.

...I'd play the hell out of that.

[Bubba]

I was hoping for something more exciting with the thread title.

Agreed.

Squeenix has again cut the food rations for all the slave children they force to make Final Fantasy merchandise.

[NeoCracker]

"Square Enix working on sequal to All the Bravest based on the same model as the first"

[WildRaubtier]

@jess yes, thats exactly what a lot of people did

anyway, this thread: whiny entitled gamer stereotypes

[Shauna]

either charge for something all the time or don't.

Developers should never offer any of their stuff for free again ever, then? All those times Valve offered Portal for free, they were completely in the wrong and should have just continued charging? Or is that sort of thing perfectly okay and it is just Squeenix that is in the wrong this time because you missed the notification about it being free for a portion of time? :3

Not saying that this sort of DLC is anything but money-grabbing and that developers are in the right when they do this, but they publicised that it was going to be free for a few weeks and they did exactly that.

[Mirage]

This DLC is actually not necessarily just money grabbing. While I am not sure if SE does the voicework themselves, I know that voice acting companies often charge in accordance with how big the potential audience is for whatever it is they're making.

It is actually entirely possible that a VA company would charge a lot more money to make japanese voices that would be available for the entire world rather than just japan. If they were included in the game, they might have to pay for every english-speaking customer who never are going to use the japanese voices. However, by making it DLC, they can easily see how many people bought the japanese voices outside of japan, and only have to pay the VA company for those who did. As an added bonus to "early adopters", they made it free for the customers the first few weeks, even if SE might have had to pay royalties for these downloads even if they were free for us.

In short, giving every customer access to every voice language can actually cost more money for the developer/publisher. It's not necessary "free" to do just because the voices have been recorded anyway.

[Aulayna]

Yeah this was communicated well in advance, we even had a news article about it on the front site back in November. (http://home.eyesonff.com/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/152860-japanese-voice-over-dlc-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii.html)

[Shauna]

This DLC is actually not necessarily just money grabbing. While I am not sure if SE does the voicework themselves, I know that voice acting companies often charge in accordance with how big the potential audience is for whatever it is they're making.

Fair enough. Never thought about it that way. :3

[Carl the Llama]

@jess yes, thats exactly what a lot of people did

anyway, this thread: whiny entitled gamer stereotypes

How am I a "whiny entitled gamer"? If I wanted the language dlc, I would have gotten it as soon as I saw it, I am arguing that they charge extra for a different language after giving it away, or not.

If anything I am arguing on behalf of the people who would want the laguage, when back in the day when DLC wasn't available you unlocked things like this by playing the game, and yet wonders will never cease: they didn't charge extra, for example, Disgaea or Ar Tonelico or (I think) Altelier Iris all have optional Japanese language and yet somehow they all were able to be sold at the standard £39.99 when they were released... Charging for a language however "well publicized" it was in my opinion is a new low, they took something that cam free back in the PS2 era and slapped a price tag on it, and yet when someone complains about they get slapped in the face with "whiny entitled gamer". Nice.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I'm failing to see how this is a new low for Squenix. You don't think the language pack should be charged DLC at all I guess, which is fine. Personally, though, I feel like they handled this DLC pretty well. They offered it for free for a few weeks as an incentive for people to get the game early, but you could still download the pack regardless of if you had the game at all. Yes, maybe they could have put a message out reminding that it's time to be downloaded for free was coming to an end, but they still were open about what they were doing well in advance before they started charging. XIII-2's DLC (with key story elements which expand upon the ending somewhat being relegated to Requiem of a Goddess, and mini games that probably should have been included in the main game like the card games in Serendipity and at least 1 or 2 Coliseum battles) seems much more offensive to me than this.

Honestly, they didn't have to provide the Japanese language option at all, and they didn't have to give it away for free for a time at all. When has Square EVER provided a Japanese language option for at least their FF games before now? The only game I can even think of outside of the FF series is Bravely Default. There are probably others, but that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

[Mirage]

@jess yes, thats exactly what a lot of people did

anyway, this thread: whiny entitled gamer stereotypes

How am I a "whiny entitled gamer"? If I wanted the language dlc, I would have gotten it as soon as I saw it, I am arguing that they charge extra for a different language after giving it away, or not.

If anything I am arguing on behalf of the people who would want the laguage, when back in the day when DLC wasn't available you unlocked things like this by playing the game, and yet wonders will never cease: they didn't charge extra, for example, Disgaea or Ar Tonelico or (I think) Altelier Iris all have optional Japanese language and yet somehow they all were able to be sold at the standard £39.99 when they were released... Charging for a language however "well publicized" it was in my opinion is a new low, they took something that cam free back in the PS2 era and slapped a price tag on it, and yet when someone complains about they get slapped in the face with "whiny entitled gamer". Nice.

I am pretty sure NIS does their voicework themselves and therefore do not have to pay extra in royalties in order to include it for all regions they release it in. They still do this for PS3 games so this has nothing to do with being on PS2 or PS3. I'm not going to call you a whiny gamer but I do think you aren't too informed about how this stuff works.

[Noctis Caelum]

Lol. You could have downloaded the voice pack for free the very first day, canceled the download, and then redownload it for free again at a later time.

It's not Square Enix's fault you didn't prepare. They warned people in advance. Sorry...

[Carl the Llama]

Lol. You could have downloaded the voice pack for free the very first day, canceled the download, and then redownload it for free again at a later time.

It's not Square Enix's fault you didn't prepare. They warned people in advance. Sorry...


Its not about whether or not I wanted it - I didn't.


If I wanted the language dlc, I would have gotten it as soon as I saw it.

>.>

[Skyblade]

So it is wrong to put a DLC on a temporary free sale? Tons of companies have done similar things, with DLC and even full games, all the time. Steam sales are notorious for having fantastic games available for free for a limited time. Fire Emblem Awakening offered its first DLC available for free for a limited time, and no one complained about that.

Sales are an extremely common practice. They aren't exactly limited to just the video game industry.

[Sephiroth]

I guess its okay now. Lama said he was dissatisfied about it even though he did not mean it as a missed opportunity and we told him it was announced before while he does not agree withthat marketing method. No necessity in cycle posting.

[Dat Matt]

@jess yes, thats exactly what a lot of people did

anyway, this thread: whiny entitled gamer stereotypes

How am I a "whiny entitled gamer"? If I wanted the language dlc, I would have gotten it as soon as I saw it, I am arguing that they charge extra for a different language after giving it away, or not.

It's designed to reward the loyal players who picked up the game in the first few weeks of release. For those players they are getting an additional extra at no cost, as they should for paying full retail for the game at launch. It's a reward incentive.

Players who 3 months down the line pick up the game when it is discounted by like £10, or 1 year down the line and we see the game in pre-owned bins everywhere for £10, Those players wouldn't be entitled to the free DLC as they are not the group who go out their way to buy the Square Enix Products when it's available. It's the latter group that complain that they don't get the same benifits as those that have paid full price for the game.

[Carl the Llama]

So it is wrong to put a DLC on a temporary free sale? Tons of companies have done similar things, with DLC and even full games, all the time. Steam sales are notorious for having fantastic games available for free for a limited time. Fire Emblem Awakening offered its first DLC available for free for a limited time, and no one complained about that.

Sales are an extremely common practice. They aren't exactly limited to just the video game industry.

Its not about giving DLC away its about that they are charging for a language when other games (which I have stated in previous posts) include the language for free... I have no problem with them giving away DLC, hell, I have even bought 3 of their DLC's for this game and 5 for XIII-2, I have no problem what so ever with paying for DLC, the problem I have lies only with the charging of a language.


Players who 3 months down the line pick up the game when it is discounted by like £10, or 1 year down the line and we see the game in pre-owned bins everywhere for £10, Those players wouldn't be entitled to the free DLC as they are not the group who go out their way to buy the Square Enix Products when it's available. It's the latter group that complain that they don't get the same benifits as those that have paid full price for the game.


well if that's the case then why don't they stop giving the language pack when retailers start to lower the price?

[WildRaubtier]

um

ok so first of all, they have stopped giving it out, and now they're selling it, so yes they have stopped giving it out in time for the price to drop

second, that some games include alternative languages for free is irrelevent: in this instance it's not

your problem seems to be that everything isn't 100% rigidly uniform, which is a dumb problem to have, qq more noob

You don't need three posts to say all of that dude. -Psychotic

[Noctis Caelum]

^ Posting three times to send your message across doesn't make you intelligent either.

[Carl the Llama]

ok so first of all, they have stopped giving it out, and now they're selling it, so yes they have stopped giving it out in time for the price to drop

Games take at least a month for the price to drop, and then that's only for really bad games, some games can take up to a year for the price to drop... I thought you would be able to figure that I meant that they should have waited a little bit longer, I thought that would have been obvious. >.>


second, that some games include alternative languages for free is irrelevent: in this instance it's not

http://i.imgur.com/xvAlXop.jpg


your problem seems to be that everything isn't 100% rigidly uniform, which is a dumb problem to have, qq more noob

My problem is that they are charging for something that other games give away free. Do I have a problem that I have a choice to pay for dlc like a new costume when other games don't require it? No. Did I have a problem paying for all the additional DLC story modes for FFXIII-2 modes even though back in the days before DLC came along they had the whole game? Nope, not a single fuck was given.

I also have a new problem now that you cant seem to form an intelligent response and have to resort to insulting someone who has a different opinion then you.

[WildRaubtier]

so your problem is that squeenix isn't rigidly conforming to the standard of including alternative languages with their games for free anymore as set by a sample cherry picked by yourself

which is exactly what i said but more specific to this scenario

like if this is your opinion on voice acting dlc which actually costs money to produce in order to be sold id hate to know what you think of bottled water

[Carl the Llama]

so your problem is that squeenix isn't rigidly conforming to the standard of including alternative languages with their games for free anymore as set by a sample cherry picked by yourself

I love how you call me a stereotype and then try your best to make me fit into some niche of self entitled assholes who expect everything for free, but when I state that isn't the case you say "oh he is just an uptight person who thinks "object of discussion" should be standard" I gave you 3 different games off of the top of my head, they all had voice actors, they all didn't charge for additional languages, and now squeenix who decided to include a language is going to charge for it after initially giving it away...


which is exactly what i said but more specific to this scenario

This isn't even remotely like what you said, you stereotyped me as someone who thinks everything should be free, then I proved this was not the case by saying x y and z argument so you have to come up with some other silly reason to try and demean me, its pathetic really.


like if this is your opinion on voice acting dlc which actually costs money to produce in order to be sold id hate to know what you think of bottled water

Wait, you mean they don't get paid through the sales of the game, smurf me what a selfish :bou::bou::bou::bou: I have been, damn me you are so right I had no idea they only get paid through the language pack dlc price, how stupid of me to think otherwise.

Oh btw, since shauna agrees with me about the dlc does that make her a self entitled person as well?


Not saying that this sort of DLC is anything but money-grabbing and that developers are in the right when they do this.

[WildRaubtier]

yes on the basis that that is exactly what a company is supposed to do

everyone else in this thread says "eh fair enough" which is the 100% correct answer

[Carl the Llama]

yes on the basis that that is exactly what a company is supposed to do

everyone else in this thread says "eh fair enough" which is the 100% correct answer

100% correct answer? I thought this was a discussion not a quiz, but you're wrong, not everyone has said "eh fair enough" they only stated that it was announced that it was squeenix' intention to do so and they followed through with it.

Btw on rereading the thread I realized that Jessweeee raised a completely valid point in that obtaining DLC doesn't require you to own the game, so anyone could have gone into Playstation Store and downloaded it, so it has absolutely nothing to do with rewarding people who bought the game earlier.

[Psychotic]

Let's be more respectful. That would be enjoyable. Thank you!

[Skyblade]

So the problem is that Square is charging for something that other companies give away for free?

I'm not sure that's a valid argument. Square games haven't ever had language options, as far as I know, and there is an investment to put them together. I fail to see the relevance of what the rest of the industry does. Most of the rest of the industry doesn't even have language options in their games. Should we cut them from every game that does? Language packs don't cost the same to make for every game. The more dialogue, and the higher quality dialogue is in the game, the more cost goes in to the language packs. Certain titles and companies may be able to offer it for free, because the value is a lot less.

The industry is not uniform, and we should be very thankful for that. Different companies offer and charge for different features.

If we were talking about core features, or features that we had come to expect from Square, I could see the problem. But for something that (as far as I know) they've never offered before? No, they can charge for it.

[WildRaubtier]

o, brave new world, that has such marketing in't

[Mirage]

Btw on rereading the thread I realized that Jessweeee raised a completely valid point in that obtaining DLC doesn't require you to own the game, so anyone could have gone into Playstation Store and downloaded it, so it has absolutely nothing to do with rewarding people who bought the game earlier.

Cool, then there is no problem as they haven't actually stooped to a low after all! Thread over :D