1mo ago

Steam is getting proper season passes support, all DLCs must be listed with expected release dates. If DLC is cancelled, refund for the value of unreleased DLC will be offered.

Steam is getting proper season passes support, all DLCs must be listed with expected release dates. If DLC is cancelled, refund for the value of unreleased DLC will be offered. More here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/seasonpass

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https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/seasonpass
- Interesting:
  A Season Pass must include at least one released DLC when it is made available for purchase*
  .*with the exception of Season Passes included in a Pre-Purchase of a deluxe edition.
  [...]
  You may include a Season Pass as part of a game's pre-purchase. [...]
  When a Season Pass DLC is in pre-purchase mode, you are not required to release at least one DLC in the Season Pass at the time it goes on sale (as you are usually required to do when you launch a Season Pass). However, when the game launches, you will need to release the Season Pass out of pre-purchase--this will entail releasing at least one of the DLCs included in the Season Pass.
  My reading of this is that deluxe/gold/ultimate editions will need to include some "day one" DLC content. Many of them already do but publishers are now further incentivised to include something small like a bonus skin if they want to sell the season pass before its major content is ready.
  
  I think that is already a requirement? As a dev I hated that we had to make what is essentially a day one DLC, which isn’t a good look. ”Look, they lock content behind DLC, which they already have, it cost them nothing”. Players extrapolate from that to other content we release later, content we actually haven’t even designed yet. Ugh.
  Well, making a season pass is crap too, but there was no way to talk the publishing department out of that.
  
  This seems reasonable, if you are selling something the expectation should be that something is actually available when it's not labeled as a preorder.
  
  Do devs need dlc when releasing a season pass or when the game drops.?If a company is releasing day 1 dlc with a season pass because “we have to” it’s a dev choice as day 1 dlc is. I think it’s more or less so devs can’t put up a season pass at launch and wait 8 months to drop 1 thing people paid for almost a year ago

I fully expect companies would switch to releasing some bullshit and call the DLC released.
- That already happens. They often have a legal requirement to release what was promised, so they just get it out the door so the requirement is fulfilled. That's the problem with pre-ordering.
  
  Preordering digital shit remains king of stupidty.

I reject the presupposition that season passes can ever be "proper." What's "proper" is buying a game once, receiving a game that's finished and complete, and owning the whole thing forever.
- A game can both be complete and have expansions later. While it is true that many games strip what seems like core content off the main purchase to sell it separately as DLC, there are many examples of DLCs expanding upon an already finished game.
  
  Exactly. There were a ton of these in the 90s, like StarCraft Brood War, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, and my personal favorite Lords of the Realm II: Seige Pack.
  Even today, there are plenty of great examples, like the new DLC for Factorio, Space Age. Good DLC isn't a problem, MTX and DLC acting like MTX are the real problems.
  
  A recent example is Owlcat's Rouge Trader. Full game on release, season pass is just a bundle of their two big expansion DLCs which offer full story additions and party members. Season passes work when they are lower cost bundles of high quality DLC, they are awful when they are incoherent slapped together offerings of cosmetics, random content, and stuff which should be base game.
- The way I read it the "proper" in the title refers to "proper support", not "proper season passes"
- What a silly take. Game expansions have existed nearly as long as games themselves. The expansions for Anno 1800 have given it hundreds of hours of new play for me.
  
  I don't preorder games and I'm not subscribing to DLC. I would be willing to buy DLC after it's released(and reviewed), but I'm not whatever the fuck Live Service shit is.
- What about paying for online functionality?
- Yea I don't understand what a "season pass" is in reference to video games. And I dont really care either. Can I just buy the game normally and play it whenever I want, please?
  
  Season pass means you get all the dlc / expansions for a discounted price since you are buying "in bulk". So it is about as "buying it normally" as it gets. The difference Steam introduces now is that they need to state what will be in the pass and when it can be expected.

I can't wait for companies to not use the system that way they can get around the requirement of having a partial refund if they don't go through with their commitment
- I imagine Valve would give them a pretty strong slap on the back of the head if they didn't.

Gotta get it ready for the deadlock full release.
- FR. If there's one thing I actually hate about Valve, it's that they were the ones to popularize some of the most predatory practices seen in gaming today.
  
  Maybe, but I'd still rather buy from steam than any of the other stores right now. Steam at least makes an effort to look like they have your back.

It’s insane to me that people support companies that do these predatory practices. Even worse that steam allows companies that steal from their customers to be listed.

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