Quoting: JarmerSorry, but nope: day 1 dlc included a $8 in-game character. Which of course means it was developed as part of the game pre-release and then they chopped it out and tried charging extra for it on day 1. That's predatory, and a blatant scam.

This is interesting, as it made me realise that I don't think of Paradox as owning Lamplighter. While I've been defending the Paradox DLC model, I despise day 1 DLC and yep, I agree it's both undesirable and pretty predatory, not a great look at all. It's not a scam - dunno what you makes you think that? Where's the scam in this?

The only defence for Paradox here, I think, is that this isn't normal for them as far as I know. When I'm defending their DLC model, it's because it extends a favoured franchise long after the initial launch, and does so in ways that you can choose which expansion is the best fit for you.

I think of it like buying the D&D ruleset (the base game), then buying campaign modules afterwards (the DLC). I love this model, as it gives the customer freedom to tailor what they get out of their initial purchase. I think most of the criticism about it derives from the mindset that you HAVE TO BUY ALL THE DLC. MUST... BUY... IT ALL! Obviously, that's not realistic or feasible (unless you're rich and/or have hundreds of hours to spend in the same game). I suppose Paradox would love it if all their customers did, but given that they typically release around 3 expansions a year, that's extremely unlikely.

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Quoting: anewsonI also find their DLC system a turnoff. In CK2, for example, you just don't feel you're playing the full game unless you buy a bunch of DLC. Charging 5$/month or a 280$ for access to the full version of your game is a bit rich for a single-player game.

Christ dude - CK2 is over a decade old. It's AMAZING that you can still pick and chose how to play the game today. It's ridiculous to think you need to pay £110+ to buy ALL the dlc for this now-free game. Yes, it would be nice if they wrapped a couple of these older items into the base game. Yes, it would be nice if Steam made DLC clearer when there's overlap (many of the "expansion" DLC for CK2 are now in bundles called "collections", but with such an old game and so many expansions, good luck figuring it all out).

But it must still be selling, I suppose, despite the success of CK3.

Honestly, some of the replies in this thread are really odd. Publisher and Developers need to make money. These comments give me the impression that they resent them for doing so! We shouldn't resent people making a living by giving us entertainment, except in those cases of predatory practices designed to take advantage of vulnerable or susceptible people - e.g. lootboxes, or in Blizzard's case, auction-places for "desirable" high-end gear.

Goddam, I'm so glad I'm not in this industry.

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Quoting: anewsonCompare CK2 or Stellaris with games that have seen constant content updates without paid DLC (Project Zomboid, Valheim, Caves of Qud, NMS, ...), constant content updates with much more gamer-friendly DLC releases (eg, Deep Rock Galactic, Don't Starve, ...), or, dare I say it, even F2P games like Apex or PoE which see constant content updates without locking gameplay mechanics behind paywalls, and make their money off of cosmetics

So you prefer microtransactions then. That's fine, I don't. I prefer, as I said earlier, well thought out DLC expansions.

There are some exceptions, such as Hello Games NMS, who just do free content, somehow. It's been suggested that they only do all those free updates because of the shit-show of a launch they had, but I don't believe that, at least not any more. It's been years and they're still releasing content for free, riding on the sales of the base game. Impressive.

So there are exceptions, definitely. But normally after release if you want continuity you have to accept either DLC, or microtransactions. Paradox do DLC, which is increasingly rare these days. Deep Rock Galactic, Apex, PoE, Diablo, and most other do mtx. They're both viable, but I definitely have my preferences.

Calling Paradox a cash-grab publisher for doing DLC? Insultingly petty and wholly disingenuous.

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Quoting: JarmerFunny enough, it was Paradox's predatory scam dlc behavior

What what? Predatory how? A scam??

Paradox are one of the few publisher's with a well established, regular, value add DLC regime. They support their games YEARS after release. Stellaris, for example, released over 7 years ago, but some of the DLC modules released are just £9 yet add swathes of content.

I wish other publishers would take note instead of trying monetise micro-transactions.

I'll take properly thought out DLC any day over cosmetic shite, Battle passes and "Seasons".

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Quoting: Lachu

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: LachuAnd what about Lutris and Proton?

What about them? I'm not sure what you're getting at - the article is about Diablo 4 coming to steam, which will use Proton and has been proven to work. Not sure where Lutris comes into this.

Lutris allow to install proton and use it to non-Steam games/programs.

Well, yeah. You can still do that to install Battle.net and Diablo 4 from the Blizzard store, definitely. Still an option. But as the article points out, if you've already bought it on the Blizzard store, you'll have to buy it again on Steam if you want to play with Steam friends, sadly.

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Quoting: LachuAnd what about Lutris and Proton?

What about them? I'm not sure what you're getting at - the article is about Diablo 4 coming to steam, which will use Proton and has been proven to work. Not sure where Lutris comes into this.

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They broke $50K/month! Lovely. Lemme just grab the full graphic - it gives me a nice warm feeling every time I see it!

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Quoting: kaimanit's relying on a "xbox game services" component, which it tries to download from the Windows App Store

Microsoft gonna Microsoft.

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Man, the Indie term is as useless as AAA these days! I still think of it as meaning "four, maybe five or less on the dev team, no publisher", or vaguely along those lines. But then you see "Indie hit" bandied about and the team is like 20+ and decade long publishing deals!

Doesn't help that having a big hit will change the landscape. I think Megacrit (Slay the Spire) only had around 4 staff when they launched StS, but their web page lists nearly 10 now, and there are media reports of the team hitting 25 staff! Obviously a huge influx of money will change the studio, but they still hang on to that "indie" tag.

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Quoting: poke86Forza Horizon 5 is broken as well after yesterday's update :(

Yep, as noted in the article.

Sceptic in me notes that these are XBOX/Microsoft titles. Hmmm.

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