MS forces Valve to charge for L4D DLC
Valve is apparently being forced to charge for the upcoming Crash Course campaign for L4D on the Xbox 360.
The Crash Course campaign will be just two levels long and will bridge the gap between the No Mercy and Death Toll campaign. The short length of the campaign is apparently due to a decision to focus on the Versus mode. It's the second DLC released for the game, with the first one adding in the Survival Mode and being released for free. That won't be the case this time though.
"We own our platform, Steam. Microsoft owns their platform. They wanted to make sure there's an economy of value there," said Faliszek to Eurogamer.
"Microsoft helped us get the first one out for free," explained Faliszek. "We had the one DLC out for free. And I think... they have to look and say, wow, we're kind of being unfair to everybody else if these guys can do that."
"It's not like we're looking at this as, 'Oh my god, we need some money, we're going to charge,' obviously, or we'd do it on the PC too. So it's just kind of the way the system works right now."
Valve has revealed it will also be forced to charge for the upcoming DLC for Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360.
"On the consoles, they want us to charge money for [DLC], because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates," said Valve president Gabe Newell last year.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyIt sounds rather arbitrary but it makes some sort of whole dollar value. A few things cost that much.
We have known about MS's demand that developers charge for their DLC for a long time.
Think of it as an update. The interview was only given the other day, and it reinforces what Valve hinted at before.
that's what you get.
Since the console versions usually sell more, lets just hope they discount the sequel on the PC comparably to give them a break since it wasn't that plattform's "fault", so to speak.
I meant, why charge 560ms points? They clearly didn't intend to sell it on the PC, rather offering it free, so what's wrong with 100ms points? That ought to cover any arbitrary admin fees, especially in the (probably) vast number of downloads/purchases/whatever, and it doesn't sound quite so much like everyone involved is money grubbing consolers (Not that I mind, really, being a PC gamer at heart..).
MS probably has price banding that devs have to slot into.
yeh i dont agree with this when it happens. if its ready within a month of release it should have been included in the original or just as an update
+1
Probably, yeah.
same here, the biggest offender I can name to date would be capcom with the RE5 'vs Mode' DLC. It wasn't even DLC! The code was already on the disc, they were charging for an unlockable.
That's it actually.
And perhaps FO3 but I was never a fan of that game..