Sonic Frontiers Thread - PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC

I'd bet on it. They already did it for Colours Ultimate by withholding some of the skins and even music from standard editions of the game. Plus the Digital Deluxe version of Colours Ultimate released 4 days early (or rather, the standard edition was release 4 days late). And I'm pretty sure it has been the case with other big SEGA titles in the last few years.

 

In 2021, from what I can recall:

Persona 5 Strikers
Shin Megami Tensei III HD
Sonic Colors Ultimate
Super Monkeyball Banana Mania

 

Yeah it's 200% happening. Hopefully it won't be too obnoxious but expect to see some content exclusive to the "premium" version.

....do y'all remember Episodes From Liberty City? I 'member.
Maybe I'm getting old, but paying premium for 3 remixes cut from the base game or camera control in the main menu doesn't particularly excites me.
It's pretty clear these games didn't have any kind of dlc planned at all and they had to figure out some random shit to lock behind a paywall at the last minute.

 

That's arguably the AAA gaming industry since the mid 2010's (not all of it, of course).

 

Yeah, if they pull this shit again, they can get stuffed. Colours Ultimate and Origins' """"DLC"""" is pretty much a pastiche of complaints about DLC a *decade* ago and it's simply not acceptable.

 

You're absolutely right, doesn't mean I have to like it tho

 

Some people wanted Sega to go AAA...welp, there you go lol.

 

You know you can just not buy the DLC, right? It's always just shitty cosmetic stuff anyway. Enjoy getting cheaper games.

 

You know you can just not respond to criticism you don't have good arguments against, right?

 

I’m thinking I’m gonna do it but it ain’t gonna stop me from talking about how inane and greedy it is.

 

I'm sure they'll be some kind of pre order/micro transaction stuff gong on with frontiers. Easy way to make money unfortunately.

 

It goes back even further unfortunately - the original release of Persona 5 had a ton of just, completely unnecessary DLC.

 

I don't see why it even matters if it's "just shitty cosmetic stuff". Clearly Sega thinks it's valuable enough to charge money for it, and clearly people find it valuable enough (or have their FOMO manipulated enough) to buy it even if it's against their own best interests. I'd rather they just give us a feature- and content-complete game and not employ predatory tactics for a little bit of extra cash. They come up with the most absurd, specific things to make DLC, too. "We finished polishing up the menus" should simply be in the game by default, just like the rest of this stuff.
I'm not going to buy and support that DLC. If Frontiers pulls this day-one DLC crap, I'll refuse that too.

 

The way I see it, there are two options:

a) It doesn't have DLC. I have to buy the game for (say) $60.
b) It has DLC. I can choose to buy the part of the game I'm interested in for (say) $50, with $10 of DLC.

I'm supposed to believe that a) is the better option? Since when was consumer choice a bad thing? Why is giving me the option to spend less money "silly"?

This is the issue. People think "it's $50, with $10 DLC when it should just be $50 with DLC included", but you forget that it won't be $50 with DLC included. It'll be $60. The DLC is budgeted and the prices are worked out accordingly.

Yes, they'll be getting more money this way. But it's because more people will buy a $50 game than a $60 game.

The correct response.

 

Is it really tho?
Since when did gaming companies started locking shit behind a paywall to be "nice to the pwayers owo" and give them the option to pay less for their games?
If Sonic Origins released before the dlc era, the unlockable sound test tracks would've been in the game by default.
If Sonic Colours Ultimate released before the dlc era, the remixed tracks for Planet Wisp would've been in the game by default.
And both these games would've absolutely cost the same the standards editions are nowadays.
As I said earlier, this isn't meaningful content that couldn't have been made without extra budget, thus justifying charging extra for it. It's stuff that was always part of the game but got cut out because hey, technically the game is still playable without it right? We can totally ask the players to pay five bucks to get the complete version of the game they already payed for.

DLC has NEVER been about "player choice" lol

 

The thing I'm happy with on the Sonic Origin's spreadsheet (though poorly presented) is that there is a "just buy the fkking game" option, even if it is obfuscated by the fact a couple of columns are just preorder making it seem like it isn't included with the others. Past preorder most people aren't going to care about DLC as much

 

I remember seeing an headline somewhere a couple of years ago, about Sega learning to release quality games with Atlus.

So they meant the bullshit DLC models I see.

 

Nobody is getting cheaper games, and we all know there is a "don't buy the DLC if you don't want it" choice. That isn't really the issue though.

You are literally shining a spotlight on the two big issues we're talking about:

1: The games ARE NOT cheaper. A lot of major gaming news outlets are shitting on SEGA for the choice to lock Origins content behind a paywall when the base game is already a pretty standard price. SEGA isn't going "ah we'll go ahead and take some features out of the game so you can pay a little less for it". They are selling it at FULL retail price anyway, with content being explicitly OMITTED for the purpose of farming DLC sales. The argument that the game will be cheaper is absolutely absurd when Origins is more than full price for the game's content, and all SEGA's talk about wanting to charge more for Sonic games points to Frontiers being standard AAA price.

Which leads directly into point #2: It's not like Mario Kart 8, where the full base game is included at one flat price, and then later on down the line they release a wave of DLC that adds to the base game. They are releasing this content at launch, surgically cut from the base game and repackaged as bonus content. It would be fine if Frontiers didn't go the Origins route, and instead just offered shitty cosmetics like a funny hat or different colored shoes or something, but that's not really the route they've been going lately, which is why people are getting pretty irked - and rightfully nervous - about it. We all know we can just choose not to buy DLC, but there's a good chance they make the DLC shit that was integral to the base game anyway, and they KNOW they can't sell a game for $70 so instead they lock some content behind a paywall and ask you to fork it over.