The game everybody is talking about this year is, well, Mass Effect 2.
I loved the first Mass Effect but I admit I didn’t get much from the DLC which they offered after registering your game with a Bioware account. But DLC has come a long way since the first Mass Effect. For me, the best DLC ever was the Gears Of War 2 extra chapter. That’s what I want. Not just some in-game item or whatever.
I purchased the regular version of Mass Effect 2 for PC at a rather amazingly low price from a local online retailer and got the Gamestop pre-order bonus, the Terminus armor. But that’s not what matters.
I will not bore any potential reader with my opinions on the game – we have plenty of reliable reviewers out there that gave it the thumbs up, Adam Sessler from X-Play even called it Bioware’s Magnus Opus.
What interests me is the economical impact of DLC. Downloadable content they call it but, it is more than that.
Let’s face it, we like extras stuff, we like to get as much as possible from a product even if we might not need it. It’s embedded in our nature. So, publishers figured that they can actually increase the sales for the base product by introducing DLC as early as the launch day. Why DLC something and not just include it in the game if it is available at launch? Well, they probably say that it was developed after the original game was completed but I suspect another reason. DLC helps selling the base game. It’s that simple. Add some mostly irrelevant in-game item with pre-order and you boost pre-orders – you get buyers even before the game is released, what a deal. Oh, and Bioware is going all the way with their Cerberus Network. Now, I assume nothing too impressive will come out of it. But just having it increases sales. I, for one, am annoyed with their 15$ fee to get into their Cerberus Network if you don’t get a code with the game package.
Well, I love Bioware and what they are doing but I am not loving these marketing tricks. They really don’t need it. That game can sell by itself. I assume EA used Bioware to squeeze as much income from this product as they could.
I was going to go a bit in the details of the game but I got lost in material issues. Just get it, you will see what I mean.
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