It’s just bad optics at the moment, since it’s a big focal point of this generational transition. Most people who bought the deluxe edition recently would probably not object to a $10 troll toll for an upgrade, I don’t think the negative PR was worth the few potential people who will begrudgingly rebuy.
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The whole thing reminds me of why Steam Machines was a great idea and how the loss of them as a real competitor in stores to consoles is a bummer.
Consoles at this point might as well be PCs. I get that real work goes into these ports but at the same time can’t help but feel like console players just keep getting the short end of the stick more and more.
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I hear you and hope my post didn’t come off as falling in that entitled camp. I tried to be careful with my language cause yeah nearly every other site I visit aside from here def sees people falling into that. Fwiw I was def a current gen player that was looking forward to playing the game again next generation in the same way I might want to upgrade a fav movie from a worn out vhs to Blu-ray; its a game that hit at a rough spot in my life and meant a lot to me and while I enjoyed it a ton on ps4 I had pretty significant performance issues, revisiting a version that runs better would be really nice.
Again I really hear you on entitlement, but I think there needs to be room to push back against what feels like shitty business practices especially when there’s little evidence this extra money will benefit the actual developers. I think there’s a difference between that and making entitled demands of the writers, programmers, actors etc of a game / studio.
More than anything though I think it’s interesting how this further shakes up the smart delivery promise of this console generation. I’m interested to see how or if other studios and publishers work around it going forward
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Is it entitlement when the publisher is crowing about a FREE* NEXT GEN UPGRADE? They’re the ones who created the expectation, because they wanted to brag about how GENEROUS they’re being, even though they’re not actually being generous at all.
*(with $40 purchase)
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Yes, it is entitlement, because the publisher has been explicit about what will and will not receive the upgrade.
This is just like when a popular game that was previously sold outside of Steam gets onto Steam: everyone who previously purchased the game suddenly expects to get a Steam key, even if that was never promised on the initial purchase. It is an expectation of being entitled to something just because newer customers will also Get A Thing.
It is definitely a bit cheeky, but besides the Free* part, it doesn’t really bother me in the grand scheme of ways publishers fuck over the people who buy games on launch. I’m still salty that I couldn’t upgrade my copy of Dragon Age: Inquisition to the GOTY edition and to this day buying the season pass/all the DLC is like twice the price (when it’s not on sale, which tbf it often is) of just getting it again in GOTY form.
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I cannot imagine buying a bioware game at launch. The DLC is always so expensive so I wait. I wait on everything. And since Nintendo are basically the only publishers who resist the race to the bottom pricewise you really don’t have to wait long on a lot of games. Especially single player games.
I really don’t get hand wringing on game pricing from people who want the hottest shit. If you are willing to spend multiple hundreds of dollars on a new box at launch but balk at $10 increase in a game price then what is even your problem? I’m not pro business. I do just find people’s astonishment over games being a little more expensive to be overwrought. Especially when you can just wait. Not even a year anymore. Often less than six months gets you to half off.
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Games are only getting more complicated and involved, if a $10 price hike is going to cover the additional resources and hours needed to make them so be it. But ultimately, observing the culture games are made in for the last twenty yearse, I feel this absolutely won’t be where that extra money goes.
In which case, I have full confidence that if you wait around a few months, it’ll cost less of a third of the original price anyway or come out on games pass or any other services. All these big corporations marketing towards me really don’t get that I’ve developed a real pleasure in saying no and waiting for a price that suits.
