Confusion about purchase options

[Steve-O]

So I'm considering buying the new Tomb Raider games (TR 2013 and ROTTR) during this Squeenix publisher weekend, since the prices look really good. Regarding ROTTR, though, I'm a little bit confused about my options. I see two purchase options:

Buy Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (includes Season Pass)
Buy Rise of the Tomb Raider - Season Pass

And then DLCs below that. For the time being at least, I'm not interested in any DLCs.
So, do I want the second option? It appears to be cheaper, so I'm thinking yes. My confusion stems from the fact that they both appear to include "Season Pass" - there doesn't appear to be a basic "just the game" option anywhere.

Am I getting any DLCs bundled with either or both of these options? What is the actual difference? What is the best option if my primary goal is just to get the base game?

To be clear: I don't necessarily mind getting some DLCs bundled in, I'm just not particularly interested in them right now, so I'd like the most "bare bones" option I can get.

[Artoriaz]

You can only buy Rise of the Tomb Raider with the season pass now (the 20 year celebration edition). The seperate season pass purchase is for people who bought the game before the 20 year celeb came out who didn't get the season pass with the game and want to buy it seperatly now.

And FYI the season pass contains all DLC for the game. So basically the only way to get the game now is with all DLC.

[Artoriaz]

I know it kinda sucks if you don't want the DLC, but its because square enix want to keep the $60 price tag when its not on sale.

[Steve-O]

Interesting.
So, if I tried to buy the cheaper of the two options, I'd be stuck without a playable game? Or, hopefully, Steam would warn me that I can't buy that without owning the base game?

Will I get any new DLC as they come out? (That's what "season pass" implies to me, anyway)
Are there any new DLCs in the pipeline, or is the game all done?

[Artoriaz]

Originally posted by Steve-O:

Interesting.
So, if I tried to buy the cheaper of the two options, I'd be stuck without a playable game? Or, hopefully, Steam would warn me that I can't buy that without owning the base game?

Will I get any new DLC as they come out? (That's what "season pass" implies to me, anyway)
Are there any new DLCs in the pipeline, or is the game all done?

If you try to just buy the season pass then I would assume steam is smart enough to block the purchase and warn you that you don't own the game, but if it didn't then yes, you would be stuck without a playable game.

And all the DLC has been released now, since the next TR game is due this year, but if they were to release anything new then it would be included in the season pass.

I mean they said all the DLC was done after the first 3 expansions came out, and then out of nowhere they announced a tonne more DLC for the 20 year anniversary of TR (which is when they removed the base game without all the DLC) and all that new DLC was free to season pass holders, but its pretty safe to assume that now the game is 2 years old and the next TR is due this year that they are finnished with this game.

[Steve-O]

OK, thanks a bunch! You've been most helpful :)

[Artoriaz]

No Problem :D

[Joe Cool]

Gonna bump this because I was confused over the same issue and was about to make a thread about it myself.. very helpful... this is the kind of info that should be stickied.

It's total crap that they basically "force" you to buy the garbage season pass if you want the game now. Guess this is one TR game I'll never be playing :(

[Gilder The Squidslinger]

Yeah it sucks. I've been waiting and waiting for a decent price break on this because I don't care about the DLC right away. Hate that Square decided to be ♥♥♥♥♥ and slap that stupid anniversary content on as mandatory.

Sure it's only $20 and not out of reason for a nice game. Unfortunately like the prior one, I only really ever play them once. Never invest more than one playthrough. Same as the Uncharted series. Enjoy it a lot, never play more than once. Adding multiplayer doesn't help. Just more of the same, run around in 3P doing the same gameplay that has been done many times before in other games. Just not a fan of 3P multiplayer games unless it's an MMO.

[Steve-O]

Originally posted by Joe Cool:

It's total crap that they basically "force" you to buy the garbage season pass if you want the game now. Guess this is one TR game I'll never be playing :(

I've been considering the idea of looking around in physical stores for an old copy of the game with no DLC. Does anyone know if physical copies were distributed with Steam keys for this game? I gather that's fairly common these days, but honestly I haven't goen shopping for PC games in physical stores for probably 3-4 years now... :P

[lucasj1210]

Originally posted by Steve-O:

Does anyone know if physical copies were distributed with Steam keys for this game? I gather that's fairly common these days, but honestly I haven't been shopping for PC games in physical stores for probably 3-4 years now... :P

Yes...there were physical DVD copies for both version(base game and anniversary editions)
https://s10.postimg.org/9obfq4und/rottr.jpg
....there's one on Amazon now for around $1,000.00
whether stores hang on to any copies...no one knows.
---
the DVD copies are useless anyway because you have to download the game anyway.
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You'd be better off just using a 'legit' key site if you just want the base game only.

[Steve-O]

Originally posted by lucasj1210:

....there's one on Amazon now for around $1,000.00
whether stores hang on to any copies...no one knows.

$1000 for a 2 year old game that isn't the anniversary edition? Wow. I can only assume it's not selling at that price.

Originally posted by lucasj1210:

the DVD copies are useless anyway because you have to download the game anyway.
You'd be better off just using a 'legit' key site if you just want the base game only.

The very fact that you need to put "legit" in quotes is precisely why I'm not considering that option. I'm aware that I'd have to download the game anyway when buying the DVD, but that's okay. Bandwidth is not the issue for me - ensuring I get an actually legit key is really the only motivation.

If it doesn't pan out, I can just wait until the anniversary edition is on sale here for a price that's cheap enough to justify ignoring most of the DLCs. (There are probably a couple in there that I would've bought eventually anyway.)

Truthfully, it's not that far off at ~$20.00 right now, but given this whole "you can't buy just the base game" nonsense, I think I'll wait a bit longer on principle.