On the return of the "year pass" system.

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

I will say it out the gate: I'm very disappointed that with Expeditions, there will once again be yearly season passes. This is the sort of thing that other games, say, No Man's Sky, would just add for free as an update, or maybe split up into smaller cheapish DLC chunks, but I honestly fail to see why I should pay an amount of money for which one could buy a whole other game just for what amounts to content updates.

Looking at SnowRunner now, it now costs about £90 to get the complete experience - considerably more than it cost at launch. For me personally it's a huge turn-off to see that there's not only a season pass. but an explicit plan for there to be yearly season passes. At least with battle passes you know what you're getting and they're like, £12 every few months and buyable with ingame currency.

If the devs feel that what the Year Passes are adding is worth the additional cost to the player, then they're entitled to that opinion, but respectfully I disagree. Even other live service games add some modicum of their new content for free. New maps and such are the sort of thing that should, in a live service game, be added in updates - not locked behind a paywall when the initial game is already £34.99. I would much rather pay a higher entry fee and all those content updates be free than have to pay through the nose if i'm late to the party.

These are my personal reasons for avoiding this game, though I respect that if other people buy into this, there's nothing I can do. I'll be voting with my wallet - it remains to be seen if enough people share this view.

[Realmonster]

im remember horse armor and how effed that was for the gaming industry, but at the same time, im not going to expect companies to make content for free after release. i dont know how no mans sky pulls it off, but usually additional content is for games that have a subscription model

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by xXrealmonsterXx:

im remember horse armor and how effed that was for the gaming industry, but at the same time, im not going to expect companies to make content for free after release. i dont know how no mans sky pulls it off, but usually additional content is for games that have a subscription model

I'm not wholly opposed to the idea of expansions, I just have to raise an eyebrow when it doesn't feel like an expansion. SnowRunner's content was dropped in what they called "seasons" - a term usually reserved for live service games that drop content for free alongside the paid pass. It feels like the core game experience has been chunked up and is being sold in bits, like a burger where you're charged a premium for anything besides the beef and the bun.

Usually with content updates like this, either the updates are free or the base game is. I'd have more truck with it if the latter was the case.

That having been said, I will put my hand on my heart and say that I haven't actually played any of SnowRunner's year-pass content on account of my misgivings. If the concensus is that they do feel more like proper expansions rather than the game being chunked up, then so be it.

[Archerodees]

I agree, but let's be honest.....of course they were gonna do it like that. They're just the kind of company that does. Yes, properly done DLC is good, but when you carve up your game to sell it piecemeal, then I have problems with that.

So there's two choices, don't buy it, or wait for a sale. Personally I think it best to just pick and choose what you feel is worth it. And on sale, as I won't reward behaviour like that.

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by Archerodees:

I agree, but let's be honest.....of course they were gonna do it like that. They're just the kind of company that does. Yes, properly done DLC is good, but when you carve up your game to sell it piecemeal, then I have problems with that.

So there's two choices, don't buy it, or wait for a sale. Personally I think it best to just pick and choose what you feel is worth it. And on sale, as I won't reward behaviour like that.

If I pick SnowRunner's year passes up, or Expeditions, I'm gonna be doing so when they're on a deep discount. There's DLC and then there's selling you a quarter of a pizza and charging for the other 3 quarters after the fact.

[Archerodees]

True.

Edit: Just noticed there's already "packs" and maps and cars already. Jeez, it's like they couldn't wait.....

[Nite69]

given the choice though the year pass is much better then the credit system games like gta 5 and skyrim, and fallout 4 have and stuff

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by Nite69:

given the choice though the year pass is much better then the credit system games like gta 5 and skyrim, and fallout 4 have and stuff

The difference there is that Fallout 4 and Skyrim have 2-3 reasonably-priced expansions per head, and the credits are for little mini-DLCs that aren't necessary for the complete game experience.

[chopper [FD]]

I think the yearly passes are comparable to the old "expansion packs". The base game has 12 maps and each annual pass adds 9-10 maps. They also add trucks (would like to see more), new mechanics or mission types and some cosmetics.
They are fair value in my opinion

[joridiculous]

If you buy, get the normal edition, and then MODS for all the content you need. For Free.

[Vault Traveler]

I am not against the season pass but honestly the game has enough content to play the base game wait for Year X to get on sale and play that when time is right.

[Realmonster]

theres some scummy stuff that has happened with snowrunner, like epic game store exclusivity, and a truck being shown in a promo for a season when that truck was actually a separate paid dlc, but for $12/dlc there is a pretty solid amount of content added in with each season

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by Furzkissen Macher:

I am not against the season pass but honestly the game has enough content to play the base game wait for Year X to get on sale and play that when time is right.

I have it on EGS already so I'd have to go back in and see.

Originally posted by xXrealmonsterXx:

theres some scummy stuff that has happened with snowrunner, like epic game store exclusivity, and a truck being shown in a promo for a season when that truck was actually a separate paid dlc, but for $12/dlc there is a pretty solid amount of content added in with each season

Honestly the EGS exclusivity period didn't really offend me any. It's just the pricey "seasonal" DLC that turns me off.

Originally posted by Furzkissen Macher:

I am not against the season pass but honestly the game has enough content to play the base game wait for Year X to get on sale and play that when time is right.

Fair enough - though for me, the gripe is with the wording. Call me nitpicky but a "season" of content in a GAAS shouldn't be wholly locked behind a paywall. The entire point of "seasons" is to keep the game going, so to speak, through new content drops. If it's not a "season", why call it one?

[Vault Traveler]

Originally posted by Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

Originally posted by Furzkissen Macher:

I am not against the season pass but honestly the game has enough content to play the base game wait for Year X to get on sale and play that when time is right.

Fair enough - though for me, the gripe is with the wording. Call me nitpicky but a "season" of content in a GAAS shouldn't be wholly locked behind a paywall. The entire point of "seasons" is to keep the game going, so to speak, through new content drops. If it's not a "season", why call it one?

I mean if you want to be nitpicky the game isnt even Game as a Service to begin with.

Dont get me wrong I understand you but this is just common marketing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and we shouldnt take this ♥♥♥♥ or else they screw us over and over.

ALso they nearly copied snowrunner and still struggle with this game on release imagine them doing seasonal, monthly or heck even weekly content updates how buggy and unfinished that would end up.

[Courier Sex]

I DON'T advocate the use of creaminstaller for such things

[Rragar]

Originally posted by Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

I honestly fail to see why I should pay an amount of money for which one could buy a whole other game just for what amounts to content updates.

New maps and such are the sort of thing that should, in a live service game, be added in updates - not locked behind a paywall when the initial game is already £34.99. I would much rather pay a higher entry fee and all those content updates be free than have to pay through the nose if i'm late to the party.

Your entry fee pays for the base game, which is by itself a full game. The year pass pays for the continued development of the game, in much the same way that a subscription to NatGeo magazine funds their continuous issue releases to be delivered to you for the duration. You're free to either subscribe for the full package, or just buy the individual issues that you want.

It's not free to you because that's dev time, personnel and resources that it takes to produce, and if they don't charge you for it in some way, they end up being the ones to pay for what you consume.

That you say that it should be free or that others have given equivalent things as free doesn't paint the full picture of the business decisions behind those choices: if you do in fact not get to pay anything, that just means somebody figured a way to ensure that you pay in another manner; sometimes a free boon can lure in enough people who will then spend enough on things associated to the product or the developing company, to allow it to cover the "free" release costs (that the company pays for) with a nice profit margin.