The Checkpoint 5.26.08: 3 Reasons Certain Genres Should Only Have Downloadable Sequels

Posted by John Curry on 05.26.2008

With gas at $4 a gallon, food costs increasing, and the rest of the day to day necessities going up in cost, the funds available for luxuries (or in my case necessities) such as purchasing video games is becoming difficult. In order to make this easier on gamers everywhere, The Checkpoint looks at the reasons that some game genres should provide their sequels as downloadable content rather than newly packaged games.




Let's face the facts. The cost of everything in America is going up. I am sure it is the same the world over but I live in America so I will only speak on what I know. Gas prices are now $4.00 a gallon here, all of our food has been hit with inflation and simple necessities are now hammering many of us in ways we never imagined. But we as game fans continue to fuel our desires for gaming entertainment by shelling out the $300 or more dollars for a game system and then willfully buy games at upwards of $60 a piece. Is it the game company's fault that we buy what they make? Of course not. The problem comes from games that really do not need a sequel putting just a couple add-ons into the game and charging us $60 dollars to buy them. This is not a necessity in this day and age of downloadable content. Entire upgrades and levels can easily be downloaded from their respective networks that are of high enough quality to warrant their own game system. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of a game that was essentially a quality sequel was the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles upgrades for the Elder Scrolls Oblivion. This is what I will be evaluating. I will present MY 3 reasons game producers should not produce sequels if they can be downloaded on their respective network.

1. The Production and Distribution Costs

I do not claim to be an economist at any level. However, it does not take a genius to look at how the production and distribution costs could be minimized by providing upgrades and sequels to certain games on one of the downloadable content areas. Take for example the Madden series, or any other sport series. Rather than simply create a new Madden 09 which will be full of the same ol' same ol'. It's true logically, there are no new stadiums, and the rules of football are the same as they were last year so there really isn't a need to upgrade the entire system. Rather than force us multitude of gamers to go out and buy a whole new game why not simply provide a download for a roster update for say 15 bucks or so. This is true with a multitude of games including almost all sports games, 95% of all racing games, rhythm music games such as Guitar Hero and Rockband.

If the company's made the sequels and upgrades available as downloads the distribution costs would not be anywhere as high as they are when you formulate the costs of producing the packaging, cover art, the disc itself, shipping to stores that will sell your merchandise and everything else that is included in distributing the game. If you are to download the game itself to the internet at a cost of say 15 bucks then the profits will increase.

Second, the cost of producing only a roster, new cars, songs or levels would be much less than producing the entire game from scratch. Lower costs of production mean higher profits and more incentive to make more levels and add-ons for the game.

2. It gives gamers a choice.

One of the largest issues I have with having to buy a completely new game for a rehash of the previous title with little to no additions to the actual gameplay. Every year another freaking Madden or Guitar Hero comes out and brings nothing that warrants the sixty dollar or more price tag to the game. The fact is that gamers enjoy having the choice of selecting what they want at a smaller cost than being stuck with crap at a high cost. When I first bought Rockband I was relatively happy with the song selections, however it was the ability to download certain songs that really made me rock out like CCR's "Fortunate Son." It only cost me 160 Microsoft Points but it was worth it. Do I download every song that comes out, no. And that's the point. I have the ability to download things that interest me without being forced to buy a whole game. If the song had been on the next game would I have bought the 60 dollar game. No. So in a way the company is assured of at least the cost of one song that I wouldn't pay the full cost of the game to purchase. I am sure there are many games that gamers enjoy playing but really don't want to fork over the sixty dollars for the sequel but would rather simply download an add-on.

3. Because half of the sequels companies make today are CRAP!

Look I know that certain aspects of this audience are going to be jumping up and down in their little I hate Microsoft shirts because I tend to cite what I know best, Microsoft's Xbox 360. The fact is that most of the sequels put out by game companies that could benefit from just offering them as a download. Take the Guitar Hero series for instance. The only thing that is new to the genre is the songs. Every time the game comes out people rush to the store to pick up the same freaking graphics and some redesigned guitar that sucks ass, with the only new thing being the songs. Why not just allow us to download the songs or the updated character's we want. What about first person shooters. Could the company who brought us F.E.A.R. allowed us to download F.E.A.R. Files add on and avoided creating a hard version? Yes. I am sure there are a hundred games that you can think of that would benefit from this. I believe that more people are likely to hate a shitty sequel if it cost them sixty dollars as opposed to if it cost them 15 bucks.


Now before all of you start writing in about how no game company would ever stop making hard copies of games because they wouldn't sacrifice their profits for the sake of gamers everywhere, I understand that. However, I am not some game company lackey who will write what makes game companies happy or excited to hear. I just want to present my opinion about stuff that pisses me off. If you like it great, if you don't like it too bad you still read the article. I just believe that the world of gaming would be better if companies that produce these games realized at what point releasing a hard copy sequel is necessary and when releasing the sequel on the respectable downloadable networks. I mean we can't all be as dumb as Rod Oracheski's Mom on a binge. Why shouldn't we demand our sequels and add-ons for games that we know really don't warrant a sequel?