In case you missed the news yesterday, Dragon Ball FighterZ now has a Western release date. The game actually launches in North America and Europe before it even hits Japan, on the 26th January, 2018. Naturally, fans are over the moon that it's arriving sooner than many anticipated, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
Alongside the release date announcement, Bandai Namco also revealed that the game will be getting a total of eight additional playable characters after launch. All eight downloadable content combatants will be part of the title's newly announced season pass, and their identities will remain a mystery until they're revealed one by one.
It's a content plan that's left some fans disgruntled and asking questions. It's now common practice for DLC to be outlined before the base game is even released, but it's still something that doesn't sit well with a lot of people. After all, we don't actually know who these additional characters are, and the season pass ain't cheap.
Then there's the argument that eight characters make up a large chunk of the playable roster. If the company's adding that many new faces down the line, surely some of them should be in the game to begin with? Again, some fans aren't overly happy with how this is being handled, while others are simply looking forward to seeing which Dragon Ball warriors end up in the game.
Where do you stand on this? Whatever your opinion, power it up in the comments section below.
Comments 21
par for the course it seems now a days still at least they aint locked behind a stupid loot crate system
I don't have an issue with Season Passes or a pre-determined DLC path after launch. Of course it varies on a game by game basis but Games like CoD and BF are not removing Maps before launch with the idea that they will sell them as 'extras'. The map content hasn't decreased in number as the DLC has become more prevalent. Maybe some of the Maps are 'remakes', reimaginated versions or even some they were considering for the main game that didn't make the cut - much like a recording artist may record 20 tracks and pick 12 for the Album and those '8' are then released as 'B-sides' later on. The Witcher 3 had a Season Pass before the game released too but I never felt these were 'cut' from the game - even though the first took place in areas we had from the main game.
Its relative of course. If this game only came with 8 fighters and drip fed others through a 'season' then maybe it will feel like they are cutting content to sell on. I don't know enough about fighting games any way but I would look at the likes of SF or MK and their 'rosta'. If they both launched with 24 fighters - which was the 'norm' for those and added 8 additional fighters down the line in a Season Pass, I wouldn't be 'upset'. But if they released with 16, 8 fewer than normal and then announced 8 as a Season Pass, I think I would be annoyed.
Again, its like the Music industry - you wouldn't complain if an Album released with 12 tracks and was the same length as an artists other Albums - even if they then sold the 8 other tracks as an EP and B-sides post launch. Why should gaming be different? Devs have the same right to determine what content makes the grade and goes on that 'launch' disc - the same as a music artist determines which tracks make the Album.
Seems okay for me. Buy the game, if you like it support it more by buying the DLC. Or don't and get it down the line for under a tenner.
Have they confirmed the number of fighters that'll be in it from the start?
It'd be nice if gamers were to realize that video games cost way more than they used to to make and yet their prices haven't increased since the NES days.
With companies going under left and right and studios being closed by publishers, it's evident that selling one or a few million copies isn't enough to cover costs/make a decent profit. They need to find other ways to make money off of the games. One way is dlc/season passes. They are not for everyone, just for those who want more from the game they bought and have no problem paying for them. It's thanks to those people that the industry survives and not people like myself who buy games when they cost around 10 quid.
As long as the game feels complete as it is, there is no real issue. If they remove Goku or Vegeta and make one of them a DLC character, then yes, you have every reason to complain. The only legitimate time I've seen people complain about this was with Asura's Wrath. An incomplete game with no conclusion, because they decided to make that DLC. THAT was a problem. This is just people being unreasonable.
Also keep in mind that for every successful game, most companies have several flops. If they don't want to go under, they need to make as much profit from the successful ones as possible. And that money comes from people willing to pay extra to get more enjoyment from a game they like.
The Witcher 3 is one of the exceptions. Not everyone can do that and even if they did, they wouldn't be equally successful.
@SuperSilverback That's the other thing. Some are disappointed that the announcement of a release date and season pass could mean the current roster is final. I believe we have... 18 or 19 including Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta.
I miss the days of unlocking characters by playing the game.
Announcing DLC before the game is even out always makes me wait for the complete/GOTY edition instead. But I often forget about them after a few months or so...
I find it pretty annoying when I think back to the days when games like SFA3 or MvC2 included tons of characters at no extra cost. There's probably a lot more work that goes into individual characters these days, but it's still annoying.
@johncalmc Yeah, those were the days. Really made it way more fun.
Do Bandai Namco usually release complete editions later down the line for their fighting games?
@WanderingBullet some times i think the last one was Road to Boruto: Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
it was basically UNS4 with all the DLC included
I could wait for the complete edition later or buy it when discounted on psn.
@FullbringIchigo Hmm... I have already pre-ordered the CE but I might cancel that if the statue doesn't look good and maybe get the Ultimate Edition instead. Just waiting for them to release a final product image or footage of the statue.
To be honest, with MHW releasing on the same day I'll be playing that mostly so I might just wait for a price drop or a complete edition.
Xenoverse 2 had tons of DLC characters, so we all knew FigherZ would have some. Price seems a little on the higher side for the season pass.
@ShogunRok I thought it was less than that to be fair. Even still 18 fighters from the amount of characters DBZ has is awful :/
So wait for the inevitable complete 'ultimate' edition down the road... gotcha.
@naruball This. According to inflation, games now should actually be $90-something for the US. And all the most popular characters are included - Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks, Teen Gohan, Tienshinhan, Yamucha, Krillin, Piccolo, Frieza, Perfect Cell, Majin Buu, plus other characters. I can imagine the DLC characters are possibly from GT or Super - maybe Adult or Future Gohan also, but at this point, these characters are either mechanical (for hardcore players) or extra fan favorites (for fans who like the game and want more, like you mentioned). That aside, I will say that while I don't care for how Capcom does their DLCs (the infamous content-lock of Marvel vs Capcom 3), I'll note that in the case of Asura's Wrath, I think the game was meant to have a sequel, but because sales didn't do well enough, it was released as a "Final Chapter" DLC instead. It's fine for me.
@Lenkubustank Are you sure about Asura's Wrath? Because the game ended abruptly (if memory serves). And then you get a message saying basically 'if you wanna see what happened, buy the epilogue'. I could be wrong, though.
This is par for course for both ASW and Bamco so yeah...
@naruball During Asura's Wrath's initial release, there was no word of any Final Chapter DLC, and when you got to the end, it said something like, "The truth has yet to be revealed, Asura's anger continues. His quest continues on, but that's a story for another time." After the DLC released and the game updated, you get a message prompt for the True Ending DLC. I don't know for sure that poor sales was what led to the True Ending DLC as opposed to a sequel as I have no concrete proof, other than that I know the game barely sold over 150k between both PS3 and Xbox 360, but I'm fairly sure that was the reason.
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