Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 Exceeds One Million Downloads
DLC for the win! Activision sends along word that the second Call of Duty: World at War expansion pack has sold over 1 Million units in less than 4 days.
Quote:
Stalwart defenders of freedom and Call of Duty fans everywhere have answered the call with more than one million downloads of the Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 from Activision Publishing, Inc. and developer Treyarch, during its first weekend of availability (June 11-14) on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network.
The map pack contains four maps (Bonsai, Corrosion, Sub Pens and Shi No Numa) and is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 800 Microsoft Points and on the PlayStation Store for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system for $9.99. Call of Duty: World at War is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Intense Violence, Strong Language, Blood and Gore.
For more information and exclusive updates about Call of Duty: World at War, visit www.callofduty.com.
Wow. $10 Million in profit for four maps. That is probably more money than Activision spent to develop the game.
DLCs have to be insanely profitable, but they aren't all profit. Remember they still have to pay the employees and keep the lights on while they are making it.
Wow. $10 Million in profit for four maps. That is probably more money than Activision spent to develop the game.
1) They probably spent more than 10 million. It was a multi-year project with a somewhat big dev team.
2) MS and Sony take a nice chunk of the DLC price.
3) They still have to pay the dev team that works on the maps.
I've downloaded all the map packs for both COD4 and WaW, Halo 3, and just about every other game in my library. I've absolutely gotten my money's worth out of most of them. But dropping a $10 bill, even on a substandard product, isn't the end of the world. If it's that big of a deal, you may be involved in the wrong hobby. My previous assistant has been trying to break in to game development for the last several years - he's been going to school for 7 years, and is probably one of the most artistically creative and talented people I've ever met. If Activision, EA, or any of these companies employ even a few people like him (which they obviously do), the money I spend on a new game or DLC, in my opinion, they've earned.
I tend to look at buying DLC another way. Developers use it as a tool for market research. If I truly love a game, I'll pay to experience more of it. If they notice that a large percentage of Live users purchase additional content 6 month, a year after release, I think that's a damn good indicator that they should think about expanding the franchise.
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I've absolutely gotten my money's worth out of most of them. But dropping a $10 bill, even on a substandard product, isn't the end of the world. If it's that big of a deal, you may be involved in the wrong hobby.
It's not so much that $10 is considered a lot, it's what you can get for the same or similar amount of money. There are a fair number of complete games released in the $10-$20 range. When you compare getting a full game to getting a few maps, it doesn't really seem evenly priced.
heh Compare it to food. You can go to one place and get a great meal for $60, and add on a dessert for $10. You can also get a decent meal at another restaurant for $10-$20. One has to ask if the price of dessert tonight is really worth the price of what could be tomorrow's dinner (heh it better be at that price, right?). It's definitely worth it from time to time, and numbers would suggest that Activision made it worth it here.
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