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THQ to Charge For Xbox Game Packs
Thanks to Eurogamer for the news that THQ is going to be charging for Full Spectrum Warrior mission packs. This additional content was originally supposed to be available for free (and indeed was shipped with the PC version of the game) via Xbox Live. Players are instead being charged $4.99 for the additional content.
Well we knew this was going to happen eventually.
I would rather spend $5 than $20-30 like PC expansion cost. As long as companies don't shorten the real version with the purpose of making expansions. If the fan support is there, I think it will actually motivate game companies to push more out, too.
I don't have a problem with paying for additional content, as long as it's worth the price. So far, most of the pay content has actually been pretty good, examples being car/track downloads for Project Gotham Racing 2, two new maps for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and new licensed courses for Links 2004. All of them worth five bucks, IMO. That being said, I don't think I'd want to pay for say, a single map for Rainbow Six, which wouldn't be worth five bucks, although a whole pack of maps would be.
And there's been plenty of patches released for Xbox games. Off the top of my head.... MotoGP2, Splinter Cell: PT, Star Wars Battlefront, ESPN 2K5, Rallisport Challenge 2, and an upcoming one for Rainbow Six: Black Arrow.
So, none of this paying or patching is anything new at all. If a developer has a bug or exploit that needs to be fixed, they need to patch it, and if they work extra to give us content, I have no problem paying for it it it's worth the extra cost.
I think they don't (normally?) allow patches/game updates/expansion modules *unless they pertain to online play*. As in, Live is not to become a patching mechanism for any and all XBox games; Live is how people play XBox games together, and can also improve/fix that multiplayer experience as necessary.
Didn't some game recently go through this, where they needed/wanted to patch SP badly but had to wait until they had some MP fixes to bundle the SP fixes along with? I can't remember the specifics.
As far as the concept of $5 expansion packs go, this is only news insomuch as a 3rd party company is doing it. MS charges for some expansion packs - PGR2 and Links2004 I know of first hand. Links has at least one free course for download, and at least one NON-free course for download. PGR2 has extra maps and cars - all players get access to one car, and the assets for all the cars (so they can race in races limited to that booster pack's set of cars, I suppose), but only players who buy the packs can race in races on that track and use the other cars.
Now, the *inevitable* consequence of this is that less people race on the new tracks, because you don't want to shut out players who are online and willing to race but don't have the packs. I'm dismayed by this, but it's sort of inevitable; the same goes on with expansion packs for Mass Multi's, I'm sure, though I imagine the number of people with a given pack approaches 100% over time.
I wouldn't be surprised if Halo2 has downloadable maps/new game modes/etc. - the question'll be whether it's all free, partly free, or all pay-only. I hope it's all free - you just won't see many people playing on maps that only some of the playerbase is willing to pay for.
Xentax
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