I’m not a huge fan of used games. Not that I have any ethical opposition to them specifically, but I think that the stores selling the used games are making out like bandits while the folks buying the games are usually only saving 5-10 dollars in the end and in my mind that is not enough to insure that the game that I have purchased is fully functional and in new condition. (That’s also the reason that I never really bothered to sell my textbooks back to the bookstore rather than selling them to other students myself). And with Gamestop promising to provide Catwoman DLC with all of its used game sales makes you really think about how much a profit they are making that will allow them to buy DLC for each copy and still make enough of a profit to make it worthwhile. That being said I know that there are folks out there who can only buy games if they buy them used and those who refuse to even consider used games because designers and producers don’t get any part of the second sale. And if you are renting the game you are duck out of luck and have to buy your own DLC for $9.99 (on the XBox 360) or go without the additional content.
For a while now game companies have been pulling out all of the stops to make sure that gamers did buy new. At first it was as simple as giving extra cases, levels, or costumes with new copies that could only be redeemed once. And in the grand scheme of things that was fine. Then it accelerated to having to activate copies of games online to make sure they had only been installed once, but it was also harder to control used console game sales.
Now Warner Brothers Interactive/Rocksteady Studio has really thrown some $!*# in the game with Batman: Arkham City. Arkham City came new with a code for Catwoman DLC. The Catwoman DLC gives you the ability to play through sections of the game as Catwoman. Now, it’s really not a huge deal that DLC adds a playable character or even adds content, we are all used to this at this point. The big deal about it this time is that not only is the Catwoman content purported to at least 10% of content to the game but there is also a narrative element. And I won’t even touch the fact that they are making the assumption that we are all playing on internet connected consoles or computers to begin with.
Here is the opening of Batman: Arkham City with the DLC installed (N.B. I skipped some climbing and dressing before the last 1:30 minutes of the video for the sake of time)
And here is the opening on the game without the Catwoman DLC added.
The most obvious thing here is that without the Catwoman cinematic, we’re not exactly sure of what is going on with Catwoman. Why has she been captured? How?
What does it say about the future of the industry that not having the DLC not only changes the opening of the game but deprives you of a good bit of the game play experience? I know that people are positing that this is just DLC, but is it really? It comes with every new copy of the game, so technically it is a part of the game that those who buy a used copy or don’t have a way of redeeming the code are not going to have access to. And goodness knows it hasn’t been a seamless process with some copies of the game that were purchased new missing their code cards or having invalid codes and all.
Regardless of whether or not we support the sale of used games (and the rental of them) is this the way to go?
6 thoughts on “The Cat’s Out of the Bag: Catwoman and the Future of Games?”
On the plus side of avoiding the DLC all together, it might make the game 10% less sexist. How come every time Catwoman comes up, I have to hear the villains call her a “bitch” or talk about wanting to “see you out of that pretty outfit?” I get that they’re evil thugs, but come on.
I had a fun conversation about this with a friend last night. It is interesting to see where we draw the line of what is “acceptable” bad behavior for a villain. We probably would say that showing the joker raping a woman would not be ok, but it’s apparently ok to say he is going to let his friends have at her without her knowledge. There would probably be a huge outcry if the joker sold children into sex slavery. So how bad is too bad? NOT TO MENTION– kids still dress up as villains, buy their action figures, and in a sense, revere them. Ok, that’s it, I’m writing a blog post on this.
That was almost as radically offensive as the Joker’s conversation with the thugs in Arkham Asylum. Where he says the first one to catch Batman got a “date” with Harley Quinn for the night and then said to himself “I might even tell her….nah that would take all of the fun out of it”. It was definitely a rape reference.
I really don’t care about this. It represents developers adapting to the activities of teh brick-n-mortar’s that serve as a distributor for this form of market transaction. It’s seems a reasonable way to ensure their development costs will be recouped w/out having to resort to expensive litigation against distributors that can be a waste of taxpayer money or even potentially rent-seeking activity that can screw up the efficiency of the market. I’de rather have these costs internalized to the participants in question then dispersed in some nebulous unquantifiable mess to external parties.
I dunno what we are supposed to expect of developers today when the costs of copying data is so cheap, and piracy can expose developers to significant risks. These inconveniences are the price of living in a world where we have the ability to transmit and receive information with relatively zero costs.
I am not so concerned with folks who lose the content because they bought the game used. My biggest concern is folks who buy the game new and can’t access the content because of a lack of/poor internet connection. There has to be a better way of going about it. Other games have left locked content on the disc and then unlocked it with a code. Why not go that route? Folks who buy the game new shouldn’t lose out on 10% of the game because they can’t download it.
You mean like you have 1 shot to unlock it and if you have a power failure or just really crappy service you’ve exceeded your allowance? That seems like a bad business model to me. I know when bought Half life 2 ages ago and went through the hell htat was steam verification it was not pleasant, but after all that time my steam still displays i own half life 2 and is ready to download it to my new computer despite not having any interest in teh game for years.
I believe apple’s model is similar, as long as you have an account you can download the songs or apps you have bought at any time.