Honestly, I hope that 343i can create a profitable system for DLC that does NOT involve charging specifically for the maps themselves.
People may call it Pay to Win, but I’d honestly rather just see 343i charge for “Spartan Points” or whatever that currency is that you use to unlock stuff. With each DLC would release new cosmetics and new tactical packages/armor mods, perhaps even new guns or AAs. If all of the guns and kits are truly balanced, this shouldn’t do anything other than let players who don’t play as much create the kits they prefer to play with earlier.
DO NOT CHARGE FOR THE MAPS THEMSELVES. That leads to fragmentation of the player base or stagnation of content as players rarely see new content that everyone in the game had to have payed for to play.
Perhaps 343i can charge for new Spartan Ops episodes and the MP maps can come free? I don’t know. Whatever happens, do not charge for the maps themselves. That’s one of the causes of the downfall of Reach both by players in general and by MLG.
1.) Spartan Points are for armor mods/weapons only, not armor. From what I understand, if they (343i) set it up like previous Halo’s then they cannot do that, otherwise everybody would have to redownload the base maps and map pack maps every time they add something. Buying Spartan Points, I wouldn’t mind, as long as I can still actually earn it through games. Plus, I don’t see this going for much sales-wise.
2.) The first season of Spartan Ops is free, they already announced it would be. That would include the first 50 missions. Other seasons, if they decide to make another season for Halo 4, may be DLC.
3.) If they don’t charge for maps, then I see a problem on funding for many map packs. But, I see maps being charged for anyway, despite how many people want it for free.
The traditional Halo DLC format will probably be the way to go. Although i’d like to see MW3’s DLC system mirrored in Halo 4’s(New Maps bundled with Co-Op content/Spartan Ops passes).
> 1.) Spartan Points are for armor mods/weapons only, not armor. From what I understand, if they (343i) set it up like previous Halo’s then they cannot do that, otherwise everybody would have to redownload the base maps and map pack maps every time they add something. Buying Spartan Points, I wouldn’t mind, as long as I can still actually earn it through games. Plus, I don’t see this going for much sales-wise.
>
> 2.) The first season of Spartan Ops is free, they already announced it would be. That would include the first 50 missions. Other seasons, if they decide to make another season for Halo 4, may be DLC.
>
> 3.) If they don’t charge for maps, then I see a problem on funding for many map packs. But, I see maps being charged for anyway, despite how many people want it for free.
I understand that the first season of Spartan Ops is free. I’m saying that later down the line may they charge for new seasons.
As for having to redownload everythnig, yeah the assumption would be that you have to download the latest map pack to play MP. No reason not to if it is free.
As for whether it would be profitable… Mass Effect 3 runs the system that I’ve described and they’re apparently raking in money, having launched 3 fairly bulky MP DLCs in the last 5 months.
> Simple answer:
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> Microsoft is in charge of pricing the DLC.
So basically, it is going to be horribly botched and might hurt Halo 4’s long-term viability?
> I’m pretty sure the DLC will be the same as Halo 2, 3 and Reach.
DLC was different from the first two you listed compared to Reach. In Halo 3, if a playlist had a map, and you didn’t have that map, you couldn’t play that playlist. In Reach, you could play any playlist, but the specific maps just wouldn’t be drawn. Basically, buying a DLC could be generally worthless to you because the maps would rarely be drawn up. Also, MLG didn’t support the DLC maps.
> > 1.) Spartan Points are for armor mods/weapons only, not armor. From what I understand, if they (343i) set it up like previous Halo’s then they cannot do that, otherwise everybody would have to redownload the base maps and map pack maps every time they add something. Buying Spartan Points, I wouldn’t mind, as long as I can still actually earn it through games. Plus, I don’t see this going for much sales-wise.
> >
> > 2.) The first season of Spartan Ops is free, they already announced it would be. That would include the first 50 missions. Other seasons, if they decide to make another season for Halo 4, may be DLC.
> >
> > 3.) If they don’t charge for maps, then I see a problem on funding for many map packs. But, I see maps being charged for anyway, despite how many people want it for free.
>
> I understand that the first season of Spartan Ops is free. I’m saying that later down the line may they charge for new seasons.
>
> As for having to redownload everythnig, yeah the assumption would be that you have to download the latest map pack to play MP. No reason not to if it is free.
>
> As for whether it would be profitable… Mass Effect 3 runs the system that I’ve described and they’re apparently raking in money, having launched 3 fairly bulky MP DLCs in the last 5 months.
The only reason that ME3’s multiplayer map packs are free are because of micro transactions, and I’m pretty sure Halo 4 isn’t going to have those.
> The only reason that ME3’s multiplayer map packs are free are because of micro transactions, and I’m pretty sure Halo 4 isn’t going to have those.
You’re probably right, we likely would have heard something by now about it.
I honestly liked ME3’s system a lot. I’m a lot more willing to spend money if it is my choice rather than having to spend money to continue enjoying the game in the case of Halo. It is especially bad in the case of Halo that only very slowly gets content updates for some reason. Not really sure why Halo is so f’ing slow to get content updates when the content isn’t that amazing (Palaven’s Moon vs Rat’s Nest enough said, honestly I haven’t disliked any of the DLC maps that have been introduced into ME3).
> > The only reason that ME3’s multiplayer map packs are free are because of micro transactions, and I’m pretty sure Halo 4 isn’t going to have those.
>
> You’re probably right, we likely would have heard something by now about it.
>
> I honestly liked ME3’s system a lot. I’m a lot more willing to spend money if it is my choice rather than having to spend money to continue enjoying the game in the case of Halo. It is especially bad in the case of Halo that only very slowly gets content updates for some reason. Not really sure why Halo is so f’ing slow to get content updates when the content isn’t that amazing (Palaven’s Moon vs Rat’s Nest enough said, honestly I haven’t disliked any of the DLC maps that have been introduced into ME3).
I think Halo takes longer to push out maps because they are harder to make. In ME3 all Bioware needs to worry about is Enemy spawn, objective spawn, scenery, and level design. In Halo 343 needs to make weapon spawn, kill zones, scenery, level design, ordinance drops, vehicles, etc.
Halo maps also tend to be larger in some cases than Mass Effect maps. It might be due to ME3 being cooperative while Halo is Competetive.