Gamasutra has posted an interview with Pete Hines from Bethesda. They cover various topics including what the folks at Bethsoft have learned about DLC after several releases for Oblivion and Fallout 3.
Quote:
With Oblivion, you obviously tried a number of different things. There was some backlash with the horse armor and all of that, which at this point I guess has been discussed to death, but you also went to the other extreme in terms of volume of content. Did you learn some big lessons from that experience?
PH: Definitely, because we did the entire spectrum for the most part. We did small things and then we did the really huge thing [with The Shivering Isles]. We did what I think was the first ever full expansion on a console for download. We looked at what we liked and what we didn't, and what the people liked.
What we discovered was that we want to be able to do stuff that doesn't take a year to come out.
All these people are out there playing our game by the hundreds of thousands on a daily basis and we want to be able to bring those folks something they could do in a much shorter time frame, rather than just saying, "See you next year." That instantly ruled out doing a big expansion because those things just take so damn long to do.
So we started looking at the biggest stuff we'd done that people really liked, but that we could do in smaller, digestible chunks.
That's where we came to the Knights of the Nine model -- it's substantive and it adds multiple hours of game play and new items, but we can do it in a time frame that allows us to get it out without waiting forever. That's what we've gone for with Fallout 3.
I just think that Pete Hines really is saying is that 'we bethesda need to make more money on a short term basis so we just release DLC through download to be able to this.'
Expansions cost (much) money, too - so it is clear that Bethesda wants to do some DLC for Fallout 3 as well - in the scope of Knights of the Nine - to make money. That's OK - they are a business after all. But please don't pretend that is US that want this.
Most Oblivion players as well as most Fallout 3 players would be happy to see a full fledged expansion, I find (or think).
I don't understand the need for the DLC only to come out through windows live - not only do the save games migrate to a new place, but windows live seem sometimes to be broken as well...
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Flogging a dead horse here I know; pardon me while I rant a little...
On their forums, even in their official blog, people are still asking them to fix the VATS and perk bugs that were introduced in one of the initial patches. To that end, they have said and done absolutely nothing about it. They won't even admit they are aware of it.
This blatant disregard of legit. PC issues means I won't be touching anything else coming from Bethesda again. Not only that, but ignoring the PS3 when it comes to DLC? What the fuck is that? Maybe they should take MS's cock out of their mouth?
I like the Knights of Nine scope of DLC. I would rather play some new content every month or so then wait a year or more. 10 bones for 3-5 hours of gameplay is ok in my book if its fun content. Yeah I wish it was 5 bucks but makeing money isn't a crime.
I loved Oblivion but by the time TSI came out I had burned out on the game. I had over 150 hours in it by that point. Intsead of spending a year to make an full expantion I would prefer a year of KoN stlye of DLC.
Last edited by EL CABONG; 04-10-2009 at 04:26 PM..
I disagree with what they are saying. I prefer having bigger expansions then having small ones like kotn . I've yet to purchase kotl but I was more than happy to buy shivering isles. The GTA lost and the damned expansion is also a great example of what should be done with dlc .
