Ripoff Report: BioShock 2 DLC Confirmed Already on the Disc

GFB writes: "Gamers who have paid for the "downloadable content" for BioShock 2 are pretty upset after finding out it's not really downloadable content since it is already on the disc. While many sites have reported their suspicions about the ripoff, users from 2K's official forums are posting proof today.

Many Go Fanboy members posted concerns about the possibility of this happening after 2K announced the DLC well before the release of the title. Why companies do this is beyond us. Even more disconcerting is that the console companies allow it to happen. They are getting a cut of this. So who do you blame? We say you blame both the publisher and the console you're downloading on. "

[GunShotEddy]

The companies need to be told with our wallets that we won't keep paying extra. If it's on the disc, we already bought it.

[charlescox4]

Are we just suppose to go without the content. We complained to EA and they didn't stop. Samething for Katamari Damacy on 360.

[TheHater]

The contents is suppose to be ours to begin with because its already on the disk

[DavidMacDougall]

Didn't they pull all that "Pay for weapons" in BFBC cause we told them to **** off?

[buzzie24]

wE ARE NOW PAYING 65-70 FOR MOST GAMES NOW AND THEY STILL WANT MORE. THAT'S SCANDLIST AND A TOTAL RIP OFF.and besides the sequel is much shorter than the first bioshock so why do they want more money??????

[Blaze929]

I saw this the other day on Marketplace and just laughed at the download size then looked at the price. It's sickening. What they, and other publishers need to do, is now stop trying to rip people off and just go the EA/Microsoft route and make these DLCs for people who buy their game new. Buy it second-hand, rent, or borrow then you pay to make up the loss the developer and publisher will suffer.

Sad part is there are people out there who actually buy this crap and lead developers into thinking that's cool to do.

[beans]

This is a shame and I'm not buying Bioshock 2 ever after renting it. It's a step back rather than forward in every area except multiplayer. There's no honor for these company's and rather than making a huge improved sequel they go for the con man approach to try and rake in as much cash as possible.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

DLC could be planned and implemented in advance as it probably has better profit margins than say when the game goes budget.

I'm not advocating overpriced DLC, but if you consider that a game that cost around $25-50 million to make and you sell anywhere from 2.5-5 million copies. That means about $5-10 of each game sold is development cost without even considering marketing, support, the risk and etc.

If you don't like it, vote with your wallet! The problem is, people have been voting with their wallet and they don't mind it seems.

Besides would it make you feel better if the publisher held the content and released it as download only?

Fact of the matter is, perhaps most companies already do this and you don't even know it and have been supporting this practice all along!

[Sm0k3y_Bac0n]

You know what. If Take2 had actually made a game better than it's predecessor then maybe I would have thought differently about this. But the fact is they took a three year old game added a story worse than the original and lost the atmosphere and epic characters. They don't deserve any more money.

[VG_Releaser]

Exactly. If it's on the disc. We already paid for it. To say "Should we go without" is stupid. We ALREADY PAID!. It becomes our possession if it's on the disc we bought.

Would you buy a console that you when you got it home you had to pay more for a combination to unlock the controller?

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

Do you own the Ultimate version of Windows 7 when you paid for Basic? I mean the ultimate version is on the disc. So is Office 2007 and a host of other software from Adobe and many other vendors. They all for the most part work the same way.

What about shareware, I mean after all they gave you the software for free. Does it mean you own the right to unlock it without the vendors permission?

Bottom line is, software is a license not ownership. You don't own the software, but you buy a license to use it in accordance with what the manufacturer stipulates.

I hate this practice as much as you do, but it is part of business and you agreed to it when you bought it!

[-MD-]

I'm not paying a cent.

[DJKGBYF]

Except there are a lot of people that are not smart enough to realize what is wrong with doing things like this.

[Silly gameAr]

Me either. This felt like a rip off when it was first announced.

[sloth3395]

its pretty much no different then paying to play an MMO you buy the disc but you cant play unless you pay for the service

[VG_Releaser]

It's very different. For the simple fact that at least MMOs are honest about pay for play. This isn't pay for play, it's paying for content you already got.

[tripewire]

I posted this in a related topic pending approval but Ill repost it here.

"Im waiting for someone to kick up a legal stink over this due to its frequency. I can see them at some stage having to put labels on cases such as "Some included content requires an unlocking fee" as labeling it as Downloadable Content is outright False advertising. The content is not downloadable, but is locked.

In other news, F*** you and the horse you rode in on 2K.

Game industry is turning to sh!t. Kinda makes me sad"

[Eamon]

This has become interesting.

It is true: That you have already paid for the content since it is already on the disc.

But they can argue saying, "you've only purchased the right to play the main game and not the DLC. The only difference this time is that you don't have to spend 20 minutes downloading."

This is why I think licensing rights and copyright is full of BS.

It should be this simple: If you purchase a product, it completely belongs with you and you can do whatever you want with it.

It's ironic how companies complain about piracy and do sh1t like this. Shows how full of double standards they have.

[narked]

the tons of updates and sheer scale of an mmo, it's longetivity and the constant need to expand the universe in one single game requires the pay to play.

this is just a single player experience and imo it should have been included at first disk purchase.

[MysticStrummer]

I intended to buy this game eventually just because I loved the first so much, but now I think I'll borrow it from someone. I don't want to give these bastids a dime. This is wrong and anyone who buys this "DLC" is part of the problem.

[ardivt]

that's why I completely ignore any priced downloadable content/addons.

ok, there was one exception:
pixel junk monsters, just too brilliant

[militant07]

the whole game was rip-off it feel like a big DLC for BIOSHOCK 1.

PS. I own the game.

[mrv321]

I don't mind if there's stuff on disk that used copies require you to purchase, nothing major. I like the idea of project $10 and THQ thing. Game companies NEED to make money, there's no other way about it. Used games are destroying the industry. I don't believe big mods should be cut out such as CO-OP HOARDE or anything... but the smaller ones are ok. Why no offer a beta code or 1 week early access code.

As for

It's on disk ... it's ours argument is stupid. Yes you paid for the disk, but you BOUGHT what you knew was on it. You know it'd feature a bioshock 2 multiplayer and singleplayer experience and you got that. You did not buy the disk on the basis of DLC. I am not saying it's not a valid argument, it's the only argument there is at the moment.

If the download size is too small it's on disk and don't buy it... but what would you rather.

A disk with the DLC already on it just need the unlock code to unlock the held back content
A disk without the DLC on it BUT they did hold back content and you have to pay to download it the full 100+MB file

They are both as evil if you ask me. If DLC comes out in the first month then it's more than likely has been held back and usually I wouldn't buy it.

This is a problem, it's not the biggest in gaming but if we want this industry to survive WE must compromise. We cannot demand games stay at $60, no held back content and the ability to trade-in and buy used. So you have the option

Pay more like $80
Developers charge used copies so that gamestop MUST keep their prices down
Don't moan about DLC

Personally I'd rather the second, because I buy my games new I won't loose out much while heavy weights which have kinda screwed us over (gamestop and game) will be treated fairly. After all... we buy code, surely the money we use to buy it should go to who ever wrote the code and not the people who decided to buy the code off someone and resell it for $5 less than the new copy and make like $20 profit. While I understand some of you are low on funds prehaps it's better to cut down on gaming or find a new solution rather than blaming the publishers/developers

There's no simple answer.... or one soltuion, just keep and open mind because next time you play BC2 or Bioshock 2 there was some guy or 'gal much like me or you sitting behind the desk for the best part of a year trying to make this experience fun, surely it's our duty if it is fun to held them stay employed?

Sorry if I offended you, I honestly don't have much of an idea on this I'm no game developer or a game store worker and I had to base that of what I know and experience and I must say it isn't much but for me atleast it did seems logical.

[Lionsguard]

"Yes you paid for the disk, but you BOUGHT what you knew was on it."

Stopped there.

[mrv321]

Why if you don't mind me asking?

If you read the back of the box, watch the trailers, read the review, watch a quick look, the first 60 minutes... which most of us do for games we are about to buy and if we don't we should it'll save money. You'll know WHAT your getting, this add-on may be on disk but so long as it isn't adbertised as something free then what's the problem?

If I buy a DVD I know there's a film on there, if the film is on their I'm happy. If it turns out hypothetically that there's a £1 unlock fee for some EXTRA content like another film so long as that film isn't advertised to be free with the disk I will be ok with it.

[jack_burt0n]

How many reviews mentioned the campaign for bioshock 2 lasted 4.5 hours!? thats something to get really angry about.

[iamgoatman]

Really? I got bored of it after about 3 hours on and off, didn't realize I was nearly finished!

I'm glad I didn't buy it, I've played demos for longer periods of time.

[ultramoot]

Back before MW2 came out, IW made it pretty clear early on that they don't give a s**t about their PC crowd. It even sparked that big petition. Yet, MW2 still sold very well on PC. That is how much crap devs and publishers can pull and still get away with it.

Now, assuming that percentage of ignorant people can be found across all three platforms, just think of how little 2K Games is gonna care about us complaining about this.

No, I don't have a solution. I'm just reminding us of the cold, hard facts. :(

[respn]

they pretty much don't give a damn. the person i talked to said, "you pay for a windows dvd and have to pay to unlock different features on it too". I didn't know bioshock 2 was on the same scale as windows 7. i guess i should have went with bioshock 2 ultimate edition instead of just limited! maybe it comes with content unlocked! bottom line is, i will not play another 2k game.

they did take my name down to forward it to a manager. he said they wanted to keep up with how many people are pissed about this.

[FanBoy Advance]

I loled at this comment from ianbenoir at vg247:

" 2k!!! I HAVE AN IDEA / SUGESTION!!!!!!

next time try locking the content of the end of the game, And when we get there we will have to buy the endind part! I bet no one will frustrated or disappointed!!

Cool idea Huh? Easy money for you guys!
If u decide to use it, remember my share.

Oh i love your company so much more now!
*sarcastic! "

LOL !!

[jeezuz]

the only DLC i've ever shelled out money for are individual tracks in Rock Band, everything else is worthless.

Not much talked about in these pages but hats off to Bioware releasing their Dragon Age expansion, its actually a full blown expansion that's longer than most full games according to their own words.

Old school expansion packs on physical discs, now that's something worth paying for.

[dirthurts]

Now I never full.

[kagon01]

>=(

[Vortex3D]

There are simply too many gamers that will buy DLC. So more games in the future will lock up part of the contents to be sold later as DLC key. It's a simply business logic. More profit.

It doesn't matter the few of us who complain but more games contents will be sold as DLC.

[shikwan]

that if 'it's on the disc u already own it' but this has been going on for years and isn't new. Let's look at it from a different angle, shall we;

This game is out for the 3 unique platforms (PC/PS3/360). This means that had it not been on the disc, they would have to find a means to distribute the content on these different platforms.

So basically, you'd have to have a dedicated $$$ server and someone to operate/maintain it for each platform (3 servers & 3 operators = $$$) and for those who don't have internet access, they would perhaps have to acquire the content on disc (another seperate production cost $$$), at their local game store.

This may not be 100% accurate but it's just to give an idea on the cost to distribute after-production content of games which is perhaps why devs choose to store the content on disc prior to shipping.

And BTW the theory of 'it's already on the disc, so I own it' can be shot down by trying to 'apply' it to the games' locked levels, which you don't have access to, until you beat the one before it.

A game will never ship with everything unlocked.

[Vortex3D]

You could compare it to locked levels, characters and weapons until you have beaten the previous level or earned enough in-game points to unlock them.

I had a friend who was mad because his son couldn't play all the advertised items in the game because he couldn't beat the game to unlock them.

Only difference now is you want the extra level or mission, pay with real money to unlock them.

[shikwan]

What if this type of DLC is offered (on disc) in two ways; either u play to unlock it...or u PAY to unlock it??!!

I wonder how many people (losers) would actually PAY...?

[Vortex3D]

I'm waiting to see how many future games will lock up more of the contents on the disc to be sold as DLC. As long the game doesn't advertise (or advertised) on the box about the extra contents, the game publishers can lock them up. Gamers are often too ignorance anyway to ask what contents on the disc are locked and happy to pay $60 to buy them.

Once the game is out for a few weeks, the game publishers can announce more DLC for the game. By now, too many gamers of the game want more contents and plenty will buy the DLC.

Game publishers can come up with all kind of excuses why part of the game contents must be purchased as DLC because they know a few may complain but more will buy the DLC. Why? For the low price of $5 or $10, you can have X amount of "new" contents to play.

[squeeb]

I enjoyed this one just as much as the first one...maybe even more, the Drill is bad ass. And I had fun exploring new parts of rapture.

Very disappointed to hear this about the DLC though..