Following on the announcement of all the pre-order DLC packs and digital deluxe editions of Evolve, developer Turtle Rock Studios received a lot of push-back from the community who felt like the game was setting itself up to be nothing more than a ripoff. Well, now Turtle Rock has had to come out and explain exactly what's going on with the DLC.
If you weren't keeping track of what's been going on with the first-person, asymmetrical multiplayer shooter, Evolve, a quick rundown is that 2K Games and Turtle Rock recently published news explaining all the post-launch DLC the game is expected to receive throughout the year. Quite naturally, fans were a bit peeved at high-prices for pre-orders on content that's being sold for a game not even out yet. I mean, really?
Well, Turtle Rock Studios co-founder Phil Robb dropped down into the comment section of the site's forum and discussed the situation involving the high-priced DLC, saying...
“A lot of folks seem to be under the impression that we've got all this content done and we shave off a hunk to sell separately. That just isn't the case. When Evolve hits the shelves, none of the DLC will be done. Behemoth won't be done. None of the planned DLC hunters or monsters will be done. The only exception to this might be some skins that were working on now while we wait for all the final stages of packaging, manufacturing etc. to finish.”
According to Robb, the entire act of making DLC such as hunters and monsters is a huge undertaking, so much so that it apparently costs a lot of time and money. I can't speak to the truth of this because I have no idea how the game is structured or how the characters or monsters work. Some games are easier to design assets for than others, and some are more expensive than others.
Robb makes it known that the team is working hard on content and that if it were finished before ship date then it would be included in the final package.
It's further stated that Evolve has a lot of potential content but it's all dependent on a separate budget...
“As we got closer to finishing Evolve we ended up with designs for a bunch of monster and hunters that we just didn't have the time and money to make. Instead of throw them all out, why not put together a budget to make them as DLC? Means more content for the people who love the game and want more. It also means all those ideas get to see the light of day. Oh yeah, and it means more work for TRS and we can keep paying our bills and making cool stuff!”
Where have we heard that before about the DLC being on a separate budget? Oh right, that was Street Fighter X Tekken and the disc-locked content. How did that work out for Capcom again? Well, it did have an effect on their rating at the Better Business Bureau.
The post over on Turtle Rock's forum further explains that they aren't under Valve anymore and this isn't the Counter-Strike or Left 4 Dead days. They have deadlines and DLC to deliver under the publishing banner of 2K Games and that's the rules they have to play by.
Even with Robb's well-reasoned post and explanation, I'm still not sold on the over-priced, pre-order DLC. As a gamer, as a consumer, I wouldn't pay for it. But that's just me. For those of you who don't mind you can pre-order the deluxe DLC packs for Evolve right now. The game is set to release February 10th for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
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