The Last Smash Bros Direct

[Crash32]

I feel like it shouldn't be DLC at all. There should have been some sort of loyalty system where you can get the additional content for free (or even 50% off or something). As someone who hasn't bought any Smash DLC I feel really screwed over having to pay $60+ AUD to complete the game. I'm never going to pay that much for some random characters, some of which I've never heard of before. After all these years giving Nintendo my cash this is how we're repaid?

Nintendo are really out of touch. I could get two AAA games on PC for that price. I feel it's unjustified pricing it so high for nothing more than characters and stage skins.

I bought the MK8 DLC day 1 for ~$15 and it added so much great content. I'd happily pay $15 for all the Smash DLC, but not $60 for just the Wii U characters.

They can expand MK8 by a third for $15, but I need to shell out $60 for half a dozen characters?

If I wanted all the DLC it'd cost at least $100. Ridiculous, it's reminiscent of Payday 2 at this point. Greedy. This isn't the Nintendo that I know... my Wii U has been nothing more than a Netflix machine for 6 months, go back to making decent games at a decent price!

[EvilPinkamina]

@ Pink: That really isn't a very great way to justify a price, as it doesn't make any sense in context with what I'm talking about.

"If you want a character, buy it" is just... wrong. It's wrong to fall back on, as it means you can't justify the price in itself. Your only justification is that it's a price and you have to either pay it or don't because the price isn't wrong, you must be for thinking it's wrong.

Again, as I stated earlier, I'm not saying the DLC should be free. It just should've been priced more reasonably considering Mario Kart 8's DLC was also made post-launch for the game and costs a fraction of the price.

If you don't want to spend the money, that's fine. I'm not trying to convince you that a smash bros character is worth the same as a cup of coffee. Honestly I don't see $5 as that much money, but maybe you're in a situation where $5 is way too expensive to just spend on a character in a video game. It really just comes down to if you're willing to pay for it. I mean, I could go into the specifics and the theoretical situations based on

Also, the price of a character in smash bros isn't equal to the price it takes to make a stage in Mario Kart. There's a lot more that goes into a smash character mechanically than there is a race track.

I'm never going to pay that much for some random characters, some of which I've never heard of before. After all these years giving Nintendo my cash this is how we're repaid?

Then don't? I mean, you can play vanilla smash 4 entirely fine. You just won't have the 6 characters that were created after the game already launched.

Nintendo are really out of touch. I could get two AAA games on PC for that price. I feel it's unjustified pricing it so high for nothing more than characters and stage skins.

The only clone stage was free. Every other stage is different. Also characters are kinda expensive to make and balance in fighting games. Nintendo is far from out of touch though, considering fans were begging for more characters after Sakurai had said that Mew2 was going to be the only DLC they had planned.

I bought the MK8 DLC day 1 for ~$15 and it added so much great content. I'd happily pay $15 for all the Smash DLC, but not $60 for just the Wii U characters.

Then don't? Again, its all optional content, and if you've got an issue with the pricing then speak with your wallet.

They can expand MK8 by a third for $15, but I need to shell out $60 for half a dozen characters?

Tracks are easier to create, since a lot of assets created in DLC stages are created by the art team, who usually don't have anything to do and usually get laid off at the end of a game's development cycle since the programming and coding takes so much longer than the art.

Ridiculous, it's reminiscent of Payday 2 at this point.

Payday 2 literally sold power. Nintendo is selling optional characters that aren't even as good as a vanilla character that doesn't even need to be unlocked.

[Rajikaru]

I feel like it shouldn't be DLC at all. There should have been some sort of loyalty system where you can get the additional content for free (or even 50% off or something). As someone who hasn't bought any Smash DLC I feel really screwed over having to pay $60+ AUD to complete the game. I'm never going to pay that much for some random characters, some of which I've never heard of before. After all these years giving Nintendo my cash this is how we're repaid?

Nintendo are really out of touch. I could get two AAA games on PC for that price. I feel it's unjustified pricing it so high for nothing more than characters and stage skins.

I bought the MK8 DLC day 1 for ~$15 and it added so much great content. I'd happily pay $15 for all the Smash DLC, but not $60 for just the Wii U characters.

They can expand MK8 by a third for $15, but I need to shell out $60 for half a dozen characters?

If I wanted all the DLC it'd cost at least $100. Ridiculous, it's reminiscent of Payday 2 at this point. Greedy. This isn't the Nintendo that I know... my Wii U has been nothing more than a Netflix machine for 6 months, go back to making decent games at a decent price!

If you don't want the characters, don't buy them. There's absolutely no reason to other than wanting them. You aren't being scammed out of anything, and to say "Nintendo is out of touch" by offering DLC makes it seem like you're out of touch.

Also you could use the argument "I could buy multiple triple-A titles with the money I spend on x" on literally anything on consoles. That's the point. You can resell your console games, DLC included. You can't do that with your downloaded PC games. That's why they're always on sale.

If I wanted all the DLC it'd cost at least $100. Ridiculous, it's reminiscent of Payday 2 at this point. Greedy. This isn't the Nintendo that I know... my Wii U has been nothing more than a Netflix machine for 6 months, go back to making decent games at a decent price!

People hate the Payday 2 developers because they made the game pay to win, where you had to pay to get any good gear. Sm4sh doesn't work like that. Even in competitive, the highest tier DLC character so far is either Roy or Ryu, and neither of them are close to being top tier, and that's assuming Nintendo is focusing on the competitive scene, which they obviously aren't doing.

It's one thing to be upset with Nintendo about DLC. It's another to make exaggerated claims and flat out lie to get your point and anger across.

[Crash32]

My entire point is that I'd like to have the complete game without paying ~$210 for it (Wii U + 3DS)

Saying "well don't buy them" is redundant because that's what I've already said I'm doing.
I also meant to compare it to Star Wars Battlefront, I was talking about PD2 while writing the previous post and mentioned it by accident.

One of the main reasons I liked Smash was because you unlocked characters by winning in the game, not spending $9 for each one. Hell they could have charged $2.49 for each and I would have bought them. But the price of a brand new Nintendo game for 6 characters is a joke. I'm not even angry, just disappointed that I'm missing out on content because of the price.

"Tracks are easier to create"
None of this stuff is easier than the other stuff really, all of it would have to be well balanced

You can defend it all you want but you're getting suckered in if you're paying that much.

Guess I'm done with Nintendo anyway :(

[Pufflehugs]

Citrus wants me to tell you that I am now aware that my assumption he wanted K Rool was incorrect. I apologize for not saying this sooner, for I only recently became aware he wanted me to confirm this.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

I don't own a WiiU, either version of Smash 4, almost never buy DLC, and with my blindness, have no incentive to change these.

That said, regardless of the effort that goes into making DLC, I think it a reasonable standard of fairness that DLC be comparable in price to content included with the game.

I forget what the retail price of WII U games is and the exact number of characters included with the game, but for making the calculations easy:
If there are 40 characters in a 60USD game, that makes each character 1.50 USD each.
Based on that calculation alone, a 5USD DLC Character is already selling for more than 3 times what you paid for characters included with the game.
Any value you attach to the core engine, game play modes, stages, etc. included with the original game lowers the price per included character and thus increases this discrepancy.
Going in the opposite direction, if the main game cost as much as the DLC, 40 characters at 5 USD per character would make the main game 200 USD before figuring in the cost of the core engine, the price of individual game modes, and the cost of each stage.
The last time a Smash character was as expensive as Smash 4 DLC was when Smash 64 was new, and even then, only if you count characters as the only thing of worth in the 60USD a new N64 game typically cost(Granted, this is ignoring inflation).

As for the comparison to Mario Kart 8:
As I understand it, you can buy all the MK8 DLC for about a quarter of the retail price of the game and get about a third of the content included with the original game.
As I understand it, buying all the Smash DLC would cost more than the original game, but only add about a fifth of the content included in the original game.

Maybe fighting games are more costly to develop content for compared with Racing games(I have no experience making either, so I have no idea), but I'd say it's pretty self-evident that MK8 DLC is priced fairly compared to content included in the game, while Smash DLC is ridiculously expensive compared to included content.

Though, considering that Mortal Kombat X has a DLC subscription that costs 30USD and totals 4 DLC Characters along with 15 DLC Costumes, maybe Smash isn't doing too bad in comparison to its genre contemporaries.

[Mamkute]

Mewtamer puts up some good points, as have everyone else.

However, as a whole, it seems this conversation has taken a pretty considerable detour to news topics. While Smash DLC and policy on fair DLC in general are close together, I think we should probably try to return this thread a bit more to its original topic.

I am not saying "no more discussion on DLC prices ever" but that this has reached a point where any content from the direct has long been irrelevant.