10 Manipulative Gaming Tactics You Fall For Every Time
3. Season Passes & DLC
Season Passes are a bane on the industry and game companies abuse them in stride.
Every year the worst offender is Call of Duty. They're selling you 60% of the game at full price, then hiding the other 40% behind a season pass that you're paying extra for. But it doesn't stop there. Star Wars Battlefront was released in 2015, and their season pass was the same price as the full game. Worse, we were only sold 40% of the full game, and they locked the other 60% behind the season pass.
The whole point behind the season pass is to bundle all the DLC behind a slightly cheaper paywall, allowing players to buy all the said DLC before we even know what we're getting. DLC should never be front and center, it should always be an afterthought. Give your fans the game we want and if we want more, give us the DLC. When pre-launch DLC is announced, just delay the game and add it to the main package that we pay for upfront.
If game companies truly are the modern-day snake oil salesmen, then Season Passes and DLC are their wares.