Jim Sterling: "Why Some Fans Feel Cheated by Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath"

[theotherguy]

As an early adopter you get the privilege of paying top dollar.

Paying market rate AND, most importantly, playing the game.

 

[xKMMx]

Id never pay for this. But I don't like any of the characters and I can watch the story mode cinematics on YouTube within two hours of it being released so no sweat off my sack. But I have to agree with anyone that does want the stuff but cant just drop 40 bucks on an expansion to a game they have already paid minimum 60 bucks for at release. Hopefully any one that does cough it up enjoys what they get.
As a capitalist though I don't see this as predatory by any means. It is additional content and anyone who creates anything deserves to get paid for their product .. 40 bucks is just to steep and it should all be available a la carte.

 

[stokedAF]

Paying market rate AND, most importantly, playing the game.

You crossed out what I said just to say the things you deleted out of my post lol.

 

[Swindle]

In any other consumer transaction in your lives, this isn’t a big deal to you. Video games are a LUXURY entertainment product, that costs millions to produce. People will fork over $$ to go see a big budget flick in the theater. You see it once, can’t see it again without paying the exact same price over again, and still can’t watch it at home until they put it out months later for another $20-$30.
You accept that, but somehow this is some kind of an abomination?
You’re cheap, childish and don’t even deserve all the FREE shit that they’ve given you over the release of the game.
Y’all basic.

 

[Pterodactyl]

1. All the ranting about what edition of the game you got, that was your decision. You were never promised more when you got whatever edition you got. You bought what they sold you at the time, that was the price of what you were offered at release date. Not for infinite future content for free (you are actually getting some content for free, the stages, the stage fatalities, and friendships).

Honestly though.

I think it so insane that people would pay for something and then go "that thing I didn't pay for should also be given to me".

 

[ticklebandit!]

I'm on the fence. That movie ticket post was a good comparison. But still, 3 characters, 1 of which i will never in a million years touch (robocop), and a couple hours of story for 40 bucks??? After already getting duped for $100 for a game that turned out to have half the dlc as guests? And I'm not super hype for Sheeva or Fujin. They look more awesome than ever before and at some point I'd like to try them but c'mon. If it was Smoke and Ermac I would have bought it in a heart beat. The DLC for this game for the most part has been lame as fuck, just my opinion I know.

The real shitty thing to me tho is that I feel pressured to buy it because this game can sometimes get to feeling soooooooo unbelievably stale and I'm desperate for something NEW to discover and be excited about. But then by purchasing it I don't feel like I'm supporting my favorite franchise anymore I feel like I'm rewarding NRS for making a shallow game. With this trend MK12 will play like atari pong, but the paddles are faces of MK characters.

And I don't wanna support anymore guests, not that it matters money wise at this point alf would sell like hot cakes and be top tier it seems. Imagine the uproar if a Star Wars movie came out and replaced Han Solo with fucking robocop, there'd be rioting in the streets. But with MK its like woaaaaah lets watch Arnold fight Stalone!!!1 But I dunno, I'm rambling, sorry to sound so negative. If Robocop's your jam good for you.

 

[Art Lean]

In any other consumer transaction in your lives, this isn’t a big deal to you. Video games are a LUXURY entertainment product, that costs millions to produce. People will fork over $$ to go see a big budget flick in the theater. You see it once, can’t see it again without paying the exact same price over again, and still can’t watch it at home until they put it out months later for another $20-$30.
You accept that, but somehow this is some kind of an abomination?
You’re cheap, childish and don’t even deserve all the FREE shit that they’ve given you over the release of the game.
Y’all basic.

Absolutely agree. Round my way there’s only one cinema, Cineworld (I live on an island there’s literally no other choice either). Adult tickets I believe are £13 and children’s are £11, then add in the fact that my son always wants the snack box or popcorn which is easily around £6.00, plus it’s around £1.00 an hour parking there, that’s an easy £30 down the drain just to see a film once... that might end up being shit!

By comparison I’m far happier to have months of fun and content for a game I love, for a franchise that’s been a big part of my life for 28 years, for the same price.

 

[kabelfritz]

Did he lie??

i dont feel cheated, but ripped off. 40 bucks is too expensive for the amount of content imo, especially for a digital-only product. i might not purchase it for full price even though im excited for it. the price might not even make a sense in terms of revenue as it drives many people away.

 

[Robb]

The whole "buying games early is bad value" thing is only true if you actually see value in the content that's added later. I think the problem with a lot of people is that they feel obligated to own absolutely everything regardless of whether or not they'll enjoy it.

 

[Swindle]

Absolutely agree. Round my way there’s only one cinema, Cineworld (I live on an island there’s literally no other choice either). Adult tickets I believe are £13 and children’s are £11, then add in the fact that my son always wants the snack box or popcorn which is easily around £6.00, plus it’s around £1.00 an hour parking there, that’s an easy £30 down the drain just to see a film once... that might end up being shit!

By comparison I’m far happier to have months of fun and content for a game I love, for a franchise that’s been a big part of my life for 28 years, for the same price.

That’s why we root for you, Mr. Lean.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

I don't understand how anyone feels screwed by this. The game came out over a year ago, so of course anything involving the base game is going to be less expensive than what you paid for it. That's not getting screwed, that's just how reality works. You could have waited a year for the price to drop, but you decided you would rather pay the launch price for the privelege of playing the game for a year. The lowered cost of the full bundle also increases the chances of new players picking up the game, which is good for everyone.

If you don't want to pay $40 for the dlc upgrade then you still get to enjoy a ton of free content. I imagine they're relying on the sales of the Aftermath paid dlc to help offset the development cost of all that free content. They could have easily just locked everything behind a paywall. But instead, they're giving everyone free content and letting those who are interested in the additional DLC pay extra to get it.

Want to know why shit like microtransactions and season passes are becoming the norm in full-priced games? Because the cost of games hasn't kept up with inflation. A $50 n64 game would cost $84.12 today. A $60 Xbox game in 2005 would cost $78.77 today. But god knows if they tried charging $78 for a base game, people would lose their minds, even if it had no microtransactions or season pass. I'm no fan of that nonsense in my full-priced games, but I also understand that the developer has to make a profit, and so I'm happy to support a season pass or paid dlc over the gambling microtransaction bullshit EA puts in their games.

I imagine this anger and entitlement is a big reason these games aren't supported for very long. Development costs a ton and there has to be some way to recoup those costs. But anytime they try to charge for that content, people lose their minds. Would I prefer to be able to just pay a tiny bit to download a character and ignore the story dlc? Absolutely. But I'm also happy to support NRS while they continue to support the game. If you're hoping for a KP3, additional story content, or even ongoing balance patches, then the best thing you can do is suck it up and support the game with your wallet.

 

[Afk Skinny]

Coincidentally, another Sterling video on games being $60

 

[Eji1700]

Oh for the love of god, it's market based.

Yes a product can't exist if the price people are willing to pay is less than the price to produce the product, but news flash, 90% of what you buy has obscene margins when looked at like that, because the market supports a much higher price level because demand is high enough. The main exception to this is food/resturants which can have razor thin margins.

So yes, the price of a AAA game these days is somewhere between 60-100 on launch. The games get cheaper overtime because you are, in one way or another, paying for the privilege of earlier access. Sometimes that makes some sense (a dark souls game on launch when the community is new and thriving is very different than even 6 months later), and sometimes it doesn't (basically anything single player), but the market accepts it so that's how it is. "New" is a thing that you can sell even when it has no tangible value and that's in any market.

This stuff annoys me to no end because there's absolutely disgusting marketing practices going on, but WB, while maybe pricey, seems pretty damn fair in the scheme of it. There might be some things worth complaining about here (bundling for example) but people can fuck right off with this "well i bought it on launch and paid more than the people getting in now. " nonsense.

 

[ShadyHeart]

Defending these practices and/or the "eh I'm buying it anyways" attitude is why they do this in the first place and why companies are getting worse with their pricing models.

1 year does not devalue a 60 dollar base game + 40 dollars for the dlc to a total of 20. Only games that have died and are desperate for buyers do that so quickly, which this game hasn't. I'd be fine with a 60 dollar bundle, but premium owners should have gotten it for at MOST 20 dollars, and even then it'd be overpriced considering most companies that aren't greedy money hogs like EA would have included it in the premium version anyways.

 

[Black Chapters]

don't buy it then

 

[zHawken]

I think many of yall are missing the point. If it were MKX where all we got were characters and stages, then yes the price would be ludicrous. But we're essentially getting another story mode with this. That shit ain't cheap considering all of the in-house work involved in creating it in addition to paying the voice actors, mocap, etc. It gets expensive and I dont see it as anything other than reasonable to ask for fair compensation for the work. Bottom line is, game companies don't owe you shit. They put out what they want to put out, and it's our choice whether we want to give money for the product or not. If it doesnt turn out the way you wanted it, then you have nobody but yourself to blame for buying into it without doing research.

 

[wotnografix]

I'm someone who bought the Premium Edition for release date last year. I pre-ordered the Aftermath update.
Yes I wish it was cheaper. It would be nice if a lot of things were cheaper but that's life.

 

[Popegina]

Man I spent $70+ on the special edition, about $20 on time crystals for original skins, $40 on Aftermath, and the game's filter still won't let me name Johnny Cage's variation Hymen Holocaust. Literally unplayable

 

[Denny]

Didn't watch because Random People Rambling on about Shit for ten minutes on YouTube tends to give me a Headache.
Here's what I'll do and what I recommend everyone does:
If you Want ANY of it, Buy it if you can Afford To.

Otherwise just wait for Steam Sales. Guaranteed 50% off by Christmas.

 

[Metin]

i paid less than Aftermaht Upgrade price in total for Read Dead Redemption 2 Special Edition and Street Fighter 5 Champion Edition on PS4. Give me a reason to buy that rip-off DLC? To support Nrs or WB? Fuck'em all. They are already richer than any of us here. i will never pre-order any of the future WB games.

 

[Eji1700]

1 year does not devalue a 60 dollar base game + 40 dollars for the dlc to a total of 20

See the thing is you don't actually decide this.

 

[Vagrant]

Yeah, no. 40 dollars with no option for the characters in a competitive game where you need to be able to lab the characters, is pretty shitty.

I'll defend the balance and the engine all day but I don't feel that these practices are consumer friendly, nor do I feel that people are out of line in objecting to the price, and acting as if this is the standard among all games is silly.

 

[ShadyHeart]

don't buy it then

I'm not, precisely because of aforementioned reasons. You say it like I'm not allowed to criticize practices that I find scummy. This is another reason why people get complacent and just accept whatever price gets thrown in their face (looking at you, The Sims devs).

 

[theotherguy]

1 year does not devalue a 60 dollar base game + 40 dollars for the dlc to a total of 20.

Correct.

but premium owners should have gotten it for at MOST 20 dollars

No. Premium got you all the KP stuff and whatever else it came with. That's why premium owners paid whatever it was at the time. Not for a cheaper cost of DLC 1 or 2 years down the track.

I don't understand where this idea came from that people need to be rewarded for paying more money for something, even though they made the choice at that time based on what was known then?

I'm not, precisely because of aforementioned reasons. You say it like I'm not allowed to criticize practices that I find scummy.

Which is exactly what everyone who doesn't like it should do. While there may be a lot of backlash against it, actual sales numbers is what will ultimately make them look at the pricing/bundling options.

 

[Black Chapters]

I'm not, precisely because of aforementioned reasons. You say it like I'm not allowed to criticize practices that I find scummy. This is another reason why people get complacent and just accept whatever price gets thrown in their face (looking at you, The Sims devs).

Naw, thats just my response to the topic