Is There a Fair Approach to Selling Games to Early Adopters?

A couple of hours age we learned, that Star Wars Battlefront season pass is going to cost you $50, while the Ultimate Edition of the game will go for $119.99. Electronic Arts seems to be very happy with this “deal” that will hopefully bring a lot of money for the publisher and their partners at Disney.

We’re also excited to announce the Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass, which extends the game with four expansion packs coming at a later date, filled with new content that will take you to new locations across a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass owners will also secure two-week early access to each expansion pack and an exclusive “Shoot First” emote, – the official press-release says.

It’s a nice package for fans, but the price for a product is huge. This announcement was met with quite a reaction from the community and some developers. Here’s what George Broussard thinks about the whole thing.

Interestingly enough, this offer doesn’t seem that bad if you compare it to the prices of paid DLC for Destiny. Activision so far has released three expansions for Destiny. The Dark Below and House of Wolves cost $19.99 per piece, or $34.99 together. The Taken King expansion, which gathered rave reviews, costs $39.99. Not to mention that you had to buy the original game in the first place. However, Activision is working on making all their DLC free in the nearest future (it’s a rumor, so take it with a pinch of salt).

This doesn’t seem all that fair for the players, who are required to pay much more money, than you originally expect from the game.

There are of course other approaches to DLC distribution. For example, From Software and Sony Computer Entertainment are selling the The Old Hunters DLC for critically acclaimed game Bloodborne for $19.99 with no strings attached. Plus if you haven’t bought the title yet, you can get Bloodborne: Game of The Year Edition for the same price as the original game.

It’s a little bit corny to compare EA’s work with Souls series, but there’s still a lesson to learn from this situation. I think, some of the doubts as to the value of the Star Wars Battlefront season pass, come from the questioning of the general quality of the provided material. If these materials were really just as cool as you’d expect, people would love to pay for it no questions asked. Bloodborne fans seem to be happy to pay extra to get their hands on game.

What doesn’t seem fair here, is that the whole financial burden of these packages and season passes fall on the shoulders of early adopters. Gamers, who will buy Star Wars Battlefront next year during a big sale, will most probably have all the content at a much lower price. So the main question is why do fans have to pay extra? This just seems wrong. Instead of providing long-time fans with extra bills to pay, I guess it would be wiser just to give them a nice discount or maybe, just maybe, give the whole season pass for free? But in the modern realities of game publishing I don’t think this will ever happen.