I don't know whether this has been posted, but I think it's fairly important either way: BBC - Newsbeat - Game says it will not stock EA title Mass Effect 3 So yeah, people of the UK should start searching for alternative retailers. I think the EA site contains sites which still stock the game. I know for a fact that Play.com and Amazon still do.
This is bullshit. Im Canadian ao it doesnt affect me, but I still believe this is wrong. Im not talking about the lack of supporting EA, but rather if someone pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 from GAME, they will only get a store credit back. So if that was all your money ans tou wanted Mass Effect 3 or another EA title, youre now ****ed. I'd sue
also, the n7 edition was exclusive to game. now they cant manage it the number in circulation is only enough for one retailer spread among around 6 retailers making it even more impossible to get.
Good. The slimy money-grabbing bastards over at EA deserve it. For those purchasing the game, they should find solace in the fact that they have been given the oppertunity to purchase something else. I personally have nothing against the Mass Effect series, I just feel that developers and publishers that release vital story-based day 1 DLC shouldn't earn the money they most certainly will.
I agree with that ... having to purchase DLC in order to just make sense of the story is a proper ****ing disgrace.
Yeah. Fallout 3 released story DLC in the form of Broken Steel, but the main idea is that they did so 2 years after Fallout 3 came out. Releasing story-based DLC (especially game transition storyline) on the first day is nothing but a way to cheaply scam $10 out of the mindless buffoons who are going to purchase it. The worst part is, if the gaming community does nothing about it and buys into the scam, then the green light turns on and day 1 DLC becomes an "ok" marketing strategy for devs and their publishers.
For the record, gamers should never have to wait 2 years for the ability to keep playing an rpg after the last mission.
I haven't heard anything definitive stating that the refund for pre-order money will be store credit. The £5 worth of points obviously is (or basically another form of store credit) but that's on top of the refund, and everywhere I've seen referencing the store credit issue has only done so based on rumours (afaik). Well that depends on how you look at it, that's essentially like saying that IW made Black Ops. The engine (a large part of the work in technical terms) was made by Bethesda, and obviously they reused a lot of models, but everything new in visual terms was done by Obsidian, as was all writing, so in terms of fixing the issue of playing past the final mission, that was nothing to do with Bethesda.
What? So you continue with the DLC... does that not then become the last mission? I don't understand why some gamer's believe they have some sort of entitlement to never ending content but at the same time there are gamers who ***** and moan about all the DLC that could have been shipped on-disc. On topic though; this is a really weird strategy. ME3 is undoubtedly going to be one of the years biggest sellers. I personally don't care for it, I found the first game dull and the trailers just leave me thinking "this looks like an awesome movie... oh wait its a game" but I still see its going to sell a lot. I think I see what they're trying to do: I think they're betting their money on pre-owned copies. Mass Effect has limited replay value, the game itself doesn't present much reason to keep playing once you finished it. Hence lots of DLC. So lots of gamers trade in their copies of ME3 to their local game shop. Seeing as GAME isn't stocking it (yet) and the best alternatives for a new copy probably don't do trade-ins, they suddenly go from having no new copies to having lots of nearly-new copies and the difference in selling price will be far smaller than the difference in buying price (buying new from publishers vs buying nearly-new from gamers), for the first few months at least. So perhaps not weird, but interesting if that is what they're doing. EDIT: and I don't mean to give the impression that GAME will lie and sell the used copies as new. I mean a used pre-owned copy of a big title like Mass Effect can sell for almost as much as new copy. They probably will have new copies but a small amount.
...what? The last DLC for Fallout 3 gave the ability to keep playing even if you completed all the main story missions. Before that all gameplay had to be done before the last mission or else you would have to revert to an older save file. This semi-rant is so scattered around so many different issues its hard to keep it straight. First of all no one said anything about "never ending content". The point was the ability to keep playing the game (as in side missions, just to explore for the fun of it, etc) after the last story mission is complete. Second the DLC shipped on disc is an entirely different topic. The criticism there is that games are expensive. People expect to have as much content as possible on the disc they buy. To then be told that they have to pay another 10-15 dollars for content that was already on the disc but needed to be unlocked pisses a lot of people off. This is not the same scenario as when a developer works on extra content between when the game is finalized and packaged on discs for retail and the final release day and decides to do day 1 DLC because the extra content couldn't be put on the retail disc. That scenario is annoying but acceptable. ...so because it looks like a movie it can't be a good game? Again...what? ME3 will have multiplayer and I don't know about you but I had to replay ME1 and ME2 4 or 5 times to get everything out of it. That also doesn't make any sense why certain retailers wouldn't sell the game. What would the business strategy be? "Well people will get the game from other people but will return it to us?" While you would think this works in theory...just no. Publishers PAY retailers to stock their games and advertise their games. One of the largest reasons for DLC or live access dependent of getting a new game is to combat the preowned sale advantage game stores get. If anything that might be the reason GAME isn't stocking them but its still a poor business decision.