Is NRS purposely saving their most requested MK characters for DLC? How ethical is this practice?

[Espio]

No, it isn't unethical.

Jade and Noob are base roster characters, two of the most requested characters that were not in MKX and could have EASILY been made DLC instead of base. We have the MK1 crew and a large portion of the MK2 crew alongside other fan favorites like Shao Kahn, Kabal and others people clamored to return like Skarlet.

The base rosters for games are built to include less popular characters, it's just common sense. If NRS made DLC with Jacqui and some other less popular characters, people would be mad and consider it a waste and it would likely not sell as well.

If they make a pack with Nightwolf, Sindel, Fujin, Takeda, Spawn, and Reptile people are likely to buy that cause it has heavily requested characters people have been clamoring for quite a bit.

I'm not buying the Kombat Pack till I see what NRS has for us and I advise anyone with any misgivings to do the same.

 

[aj1701]

It's their game, they can do whatever they want. However they want to sell/package characters is fair, and there wouldn't be any ethical problems pretty much whatever they did.

You can complain that you think its too expensive, but if you buy it (and the DLC), you're saying you don't think its too expensive.

That's what happened with MKX for me; I bought the game, didn't like the roster, and ended up bailing I think right after they released Jason.

 

[Vslayer]

No I don't agree, they choose the roster and make a story around it. Creating a roster is created in a way to appeal the audience. If the roster was decided according to the story, then the Joker would never have been part of the Injustice 2 roster (we fight him only once in the story in a flashback/hallucination).
Why do you think they chose the idea of Kronika merging different timelines in MK11 ? Obviously to justify the return of dead characters and adding younger versions of characters that were old.

---

Saving requested characters for DLC is a common practice, it always generate big money. But for me the ethical part of those DLCs is not about who they add as DLC but how they release the game and its DLCs. Capcom did an awful job with SFV : Releasing an empty fighting game with no story mode and only 16 characters, and relying on DLCs to make it feel complete is unethical. NRS always shipped complete games with ton of content, so as long as the DLCs are as complete as the old ones, I don't find this unethical.

Well MOST of them I believe are chosen based on story relevance/involvement, the rest are chosen depending on popularity and how their move set would fit in with the rest of them, and then there's always a small percentage that goes to guest characters.

Very, very good points friend!

 

[ZATA]

IDGAF, everytime we ended paying for the whole thing

 

[xenogorgeous]

yeah yeah, sucks having your favorite character behind a paywall, and having to spend some extra bucks to have that acessible and playable, but .... , in the end, we ending doing what we hate the most and pay ($$) for this .... that's life, and life is not always fair .... anyway, the DLC strategy from NRS is way more ligtht easy-going and more or less fair than what agressively occur in games from EA, Activision , Epic etc .... so, we do that business with NRS : give me my character and I give you a little more coins in exchange, that's it

 

[Krankk]

My issue with NRS is the Shao Khan thing. He is clearly an important character in the story and has been ready and playable for quite a while. Him being a pre-order bonus is clear Corporate Commander greed. There is no denying that. They want you to pre-order the game and they want you to buy the game new at day one. No option to buy it used in their eyes, if you want daddy Shao Khan. It's a scummy, anti-consumer practice.

For pretty much any other developer except NRS and CD Project, I would have showed them the middle finger. But since it is NRS, I do expect a high quality product with tons of content, which more than justifies the 60-100 bucks price tag... So I will buy it on day one and I will buy the Premium Edition, once it's available in my country.
The shady business practices still leave a bad taste in my mouth, because so many other publishers do it as well... And these don't back their stuff up like NRS does it. I mean, just look at shit games like 'Battlefield 5' or 'Anthem'.

And yes, they will make sure to implement a bunch of DLC characters, who will sell like hotcakes. Because that's how you make money. You end up charging 60 additional bucks for 12 characters down the line.

 

[Immortal]

This thread is another gem.

Imagine being upset a company wants to make money.

 

[zerosebaz]

It looks like most of the MK1-MKII cast are in the game, minus Reptile, who is not likely to be DLC. They are bringing back Noob Saibot and Shang Tsung, who are probably the most popular characters to miss MKX, along with the most popular characters that game introduced. So, in short, No. I honestly don't think they are keeping the most popular characters hostage to release them as DLC.


Well, unless you count pre order bonuses as DLC, in that case they have been doing it since MKX.

 

[DragonofDadashov24]

This thread is another gem.

Imagine being upset a company wants to make money.

Bad point

 

[Corruption100]

I really wish theyd work on making a full roster with maybe unlockable characters. Then have purely cosmetic dlc. Id support that strongly. I guess characters sell better but I think weve gotten to the point where dlc roster is majority of fighting games and that doesnt seem right

 

[Evil Canadian]

The most requested characters would be scorpion and sub zero

people like fujin and rain do not come anywhere close to these, they are not popular characters. Anyone who already isn't in the main roster is not a popular character in comparison to the truly popular characters, they are edge case fan favourites.

 

[Marlow]

I really wish theyd work on making a full roster with maybe unlockable characters. Then have purely cosmetic dlc.

If they did that, would you be ok with them charging more than the standard $60?

 

[HellblazerHawkman]

I don't blame them, it's good business (which sucks for the consumer). Believe me, I doubt it was a coincidence that Starfire and Red Hood were DLC in I2

 

[Corruption100]

Yes. But not 120 unless its like 40+ characters. 70-85 for base game and dlc for costumes, emotes, etc. Noone wants to be the company to up the prices though which is why dlc is the way it is now. If u get kombat pack 1 6 characters and 7 skins cost almost the same as the base game. It's a little much. Ill be dissappointed if theres a pack 2 for the same price(im basing current pricing off the premium edition. It could be higher)

 

[Rice]

Jade and Noob made the base roster so they deserve to have some of the others to be DLC.

The two could have easily made DLC for big bucks.

 

[Briggsfan]

Not really? Jade and Noob Saibot were maybe the two most requested characters, and they're base roster. Kabal would also have been huge DLC money.

Yeah, the base roster clearly has a lot of requested changes.

And Cassie and Jacqui do have fans and both reveals had people excited for them.

Ultimately the fandom isn't a hive mind and there will always be someone complaining that their favorite character didn't make it in.

 

[Blizer]

https://giphy.com/gifs/donald-shang-tsung-t0sEMJhSoYatO

if this is how they introduce Shang Tsung

I would instantly get him.

 

[Rearawt]

No, I don't think it's unethical, or shady, or immoral, or even particularly greedy. Their moral responsibility ends at creating and shipping a product that looks and functions as advertised.

You're welcome to be disappointed in the decisions taken during that process, but to call it "unethical" is absurd.

 

[trufenix]

You ask for miracles, Theo? I give you T.Y.M.
\

 

[Eddy Wang]

Bad point

Not really, this might be just a another game, but to NRS eyes you're still a consumer so this is still a business, NRS doesn't just do games because they want to, they also have bills to pay and Ed Boon still has a boss he answers to.

 

[Lun]

Most requested according to whom? Unless they surprise me with a brand new character I will like, or with Bo'Rai Cho or Kenshi, I have every character I wanted in the base roster (assuming Shang Tsung really is confirmed).

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

I wouldn't say it's unethical. That's like implying NRS preserving hype is immoral!

It's safe to say they will save the highly requested characters for last, it's only natural for a company to want to make money off every reveal.

I'm sure they have cleared 60m all ready by now but I imagine WB wants more. I remember seeing a video with Ed Boon saying he wanted to reveal all the characters. This leads me to believe WB is asking them to space it out until April 22.

 

[MKF30]

Think you mean sorcerers not so much wizards, though some have debated they're similar but anyway as long as they put more favs in I'm fine with it even if they have a few characters in there as wasted slots IMO, if they have at least 3 Kombat packs and hopefully 4 this time around if we're lucky I'm confident more people will get their favs in like Ermac, Fujin, Smoke, Kitana, Sindel and Nightwolf. Not saying all at once but periodically over the Kombat Packs cause you know Spawn and probably one horror character will get in there at some point. I don't think it's unethical though, they just want to create hype and tease the fans with speculation.

 

[MrWarMachine]

If you don't like it, show some restraint and don't buy the DLC. It's really that simple.

In fact, it's always been that simple, but gamers/geeks in general have zero restraint in that regard, and they blame the devs or creators for it.

 

[DingusDanglers]

Shit, I don't care who's DLC (besides Kira, fuck her), I'm still buying the DLC characters