Has Sega Pulled a Capcom?
DLC can be a very touchy subject in games; on-disc DLC even more so. Capcom learned that the hard way when the company endured plenty of scrutiny by including a ton of locked characters and content on the disc for Street Fighter x Tekken–making players in effect pay for the unlock key months later.
While there has been news of extra characters being found in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, that was simply in data, with little else to support the idea. That has changed tonight; it turns out that image of Team Fortress 2′s Pyro racing in Seaside Hill was not a random fluke.
What you see above is the Shogun: Total War themed character, assembled and apparently racing in Seaside Hill, again courtesy of Sonic Retro forumer Melpontro. Should the trend continue, we may see all the hidden characters found, including possibly Alex Kidd, assembled at some point through community hacking.
“On-Disk DLC is my favorite character,” Melpontro quipped when posting this image.
He may have a point. It’s one thing to find character names in data files and speculate whether it’s DLC or just leftover data, but it’s another to see the characters assembled and part of the race via some trickery but not accessible otherwise. Now, it’s a question of not just on which platform these characters will race, but how. At least some–the TF2 set in particular–appears to be a PC bonus, but what about the rest? Has Sega decided to pursue the on-disc DLC route? If so, it’s a stark difference from the original ASR when grabbing Metal Sonic and the Death Egg was a full, extra download.
What are your thoughts on the possibility–especially given the fact some characters that may never see the light of day on XBOX 360 officially appear accessible with some tech know-how? Share your opinion below in the comments.
UPDATED: Melpontro published a video of “shogun” running in game, and also a video of Alex Kidd in action.
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Eh, SSART is pretty cheap for an XBOX game in the first place. I personally don’t think on-disc or brand new DLC is that different if it’s just an extra character or track. If it’s a whole portion of the story mode, that would be a different story.
Ah Hell nah…
Please SEGA, stay fair to your fans, don’t take Capcom’s way …
Editors should really stop this fuckin’ business about On Disc DLC, or even Day1 DLC … You made something that can be in the game at it’s launch? So give it to the customer! Games are already expensives… Adding new content via DLC , for free or not, after fans feedback to satisfy them is one good thing. But thinking ” oh, wait, let’s cut it off from the game, will sell it later as a DLC, so we’ll get more money (from customers)” is just bitching…
Eh, I can’t stay mad at Sega.
What? WHAT?! You have got to be kidding me.
Sega, I know you’re desperate for money but there are better ways than…this.
And that’s why I’m going to wait for the PC version, where mods will make these characters playable without taking my money.
Extra Credits has a video that explains that there are very good reasons why Day 1 DLC exists:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/mass-effect-3-dlc
That being said, they ARE against the DLC already being on the game where you pay to unlocj the content.
It’s not so much on-disc DLC that bothers me, as it is the fact that DLC gets decided prior to a game’s release, as opposed to being additional content created post-release.
ie. still butthurt about no playable Ristar. That and lack of Opa Opa.
I agree. I’m not happy with the roster so far either. This is a response to the general complaints that Day 1 DLC exists for this game. (Wasn’t Day 1 DLC the only DLC for the first All-Stars Racing too?)
Yes, there are reasons for on-disc DLC. It’s probably the same as Capcom’s reasoning – to help smooth out online stuff so that people who don’t own the DLC can match up online with people that do without having to download “compatibility packs” or anything. Mortal Kombat 9 did it the hard way, where DLC characters really were post-release downloads, and that was apparently a huge mess if you tried to play online with the DLC. ASR had a similar scenario with Metal Sonic – you basically couldn’t use him online at all.
DLC for online multiplayer is always a hairy scenario because of fractured user bases, where only some people have the DLC but most do not. The only place it currently makes sense is on the PC, where a service like Steam silently patches all of your games in the background so if there’s a DLC “compatibility pack” for online, you’ll be guaranteed to have it. Unfortunately, Sony and ESPECIALLY Microsoft are not as progressive with their patching/DLC policies.
In that light, it’s not hard to see a benefit to on-disc DLC; but it’s more like a sloppy, aggravating work-around for a problem that shouldn’t exist. It also creates scenarios like this, where basically all of the game’s DLC is known before it is even announced. And given the reasons why this DLC was created in he first place, this is likely all the DLC the game will ever get. If they’re so worried about fracturing their userbase over who does or does not have the DLC data then chances are there won’t be any real, actual DLC for the game beyond what we see here.
Which is kind of a bummer, to put it mildly. This is a bad situation for developers AND consumers alike.
But “why” aside, I really don’t like it when a game is pitched as, “Here’s our $60 retail product” but the grand plan is to actually make me spend $80 or $100, and it especially rubs me the wrong way when their way to make that $60 turn in to $100 is already present on the disc. There needs to be a better way to do multiplayer DLC, or, dare I say it… just don’t do it at all.
SHOGUN? WWWHHHYYYYYYY?
There are so many better Sega franchises to pull from. Shogun is based on real historical figures. What about that screams “Mascot kart-racing”?
where the hell is Ryo dammit
Marketing 101, people.
I swear. Alex Kidd sounds like Kath Soice! XD
@Ryan Bloom
Just Alex Kidd, Shogun and Football Manager is too bizarre to be the only DLC, perhaps they’re from a botched retailer exclusive deal?
Sony has been progressive you can make patches as big as you want the LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted games put every piece of DLC content into patches so you never have to worry about it, of course 3rd party developers ignore this because they only focus on the 360. Microsoft is the sole problem here I’m tired of mainstream gaming sites like Giant Bomb ignoring the fact that Sony has no problem with big patches to avoid multiplayer conflicts
@darkgomugomu
Nothing about some guy from Total War says marketable to me.
@Funkyjeremi
Jim Sterling (yeah I know) work up a great piece about how this stuff isn’t about games being too expensive
http://www.gamefront.com/fueled-by-mountain-dew/
I have to point out that in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Shuma-Gorath and Jill exist on the disc only as reserved spaces on the roster, and they load just fine for online play against people who don’t have them.
Meteos Wars is almost half DLC as far as playable characters go. In online matches, you can see your opponent’s select screens, and they load the DLC stuff just fine. There are bigger issues with online play in this game, but the ability to load DLC for online matches is not one of them.
On-disc DLC is really silly, but this game also has an MSRP of 40 bucks right out the gate. If they need to make some extra money on DLC, go for it. I won’t be biting though.
So I should complain about the Disc Locked Content but I won’t instead, I’ll complain about other things.
1) The announcer reminds me of the MvC 3 announcer (this is neither a complaint nor a compliment, just sorta came to mind)
2) Wow, you can still shoot items with the glove out? I guess Sumo has never heard of item balance. (Like that’s a shock.)
3) The stages are still wide as fuck for no reason. Your character is tiny and there’s only 8 of them, why so much breathing room on even the straightest pathways?
Sega/Sumo sure is doing a bang-up job with this game! Emphasis on bang-up.
Guys! There is threat on SEGA Forum, where you can vote on 3 characters for DLC! Just click on this site -> http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?426663-S0L-s-Challenge-Stage-1-Attempt
@SSJSonicXX14
Alex Kidd was in the original ASR, and showed up in Sega Superstars Tennis, too. It’s not weird to see him here as DLC. He was Sega’s original mascot before Sonic, you know.
Football Manager and Shogun aren’t that weird, either. Sega mentioned back in June or whatever that Sonic, Football Manager, and Shogun were their most profitable franchises.
Is that true that Team Fortress going to be in this game? If they are, then can you please how to unlock him.