Recently,Bethesda Game Studios (one of my favorite developers), announced that there would be 2 new DLCs (in addition to the three already out for Xbox 360 and Windows) will be released later this year. In addition to that, they finally announced that the current 3 DLCs will finally be released onto the PS3 and that PS3 versions of the upcoming 2 DLCs will be released after their Windows and Xbox 360 counterparts have been released.
First of all, I would like to share the joy that many PS3 owners of Fallout 3 are undoubtedly having. It is good to see that they are finally getting some love on big title multi-platform games side of DLCs (say that 3 times quick!). But then, I just have to question, why must PS3 owners wait? Now before you people on the internets start screaming 'PS3 fanboi' at me, please know that I have all three current consoles and I game heavily on the PC (I am a proud Fallout 3 Windows version owner). But is it true? I doubt that there is any of the "Company MS gives you $50 million to make exclusive content" involved in this (more on that later). I trully admire Bethesda and am willing to give them the benefit of a doubt due to possible coding differences with the PS3 (they do have to port it over right). But the question still stands? Why does a segment of your customers have to wait?
There are quite multi-platform games that I own. Among them are Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2, Army of Two (not exactly a favorite), Rockband 1 & 2, Battlefield: Bad Company, etc. But what do these games have? Simultaneous DLC releases across their platforms. Bad Company released a big download pack (that was free) a while back that added maps and fixes and the Xbox 360 & PS3 versions were made available at the same time. Same with Army of Two (free episode).
A while back, it was announced that Microsoft paid Take Two (owner of Rockstar Games and publisher of GTA IV) a stunning $50 million USD for 2 exclusive episodes for Xbox 360. To put things into perspective, GTA IV was estimated to have cost around $100 Million to develop. So Microsoft paid $25 Million per exclusive episode.
Where does that leave the PS3 customers? I can understand Sony/Microsoft backing a developer for a game to be released exclusive to their respective platforms (LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Halo series, Gran Turismo to name a few) but how can you offer games on other platforms (aka have honest customers) and yet turn around and alienate them?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not barking up, Take Two's tree (as far as I'm concerned, that was last year's news). I am just wondering why some companies choose to seemingly marginalize (whether unintentional or otherwise) their customers on another platform over another. Though I have to say, exclusive DLCs for a certain platform due to 'bribery' is just upsetting. I along with various other gamers out there share the anger with this. It really has to stop. If you have content to release, release it to your customers as a whole. Not as a platform. Back to Fallout 3. For the longest time, PS3 owners of the game were left out in the cold. The DLCs were pretty much announced last year when the game went gold. But only now have the PS3 owners discovered that they will get delayed releases of the DLCs. Again, I fully understand that the PS3 can be difficult to code (according to them). But still, how come only a select few has to wait?
Please stop marginalizing and dividing your customer base. They all paid the same amount of good hard earned money and they all deserve at the very lease, your equal undivided attention.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go steal a few more cars via text message so I can complete GTA IV to 100% on my PS3 so that I can go buy the DLC for my Xbox 360 copy (that I have already finished to 100%).
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