Game Expansions

"expansion packs" would probly be bad for business....

for this type of game thats like charging for mods basicly...

i feel that would be a mistake...

 

Actually, I was in the middle of that, and the dev's wife got cancer so he took off a ton of time to deal with that. And I think there were only a couple of people working on it, so that's what really killed it.

 

Right, because that developer needed the funds of such sales to be able to eat. That's not the case here.

CF have been pretty clear about continuing to do content after release, and they haven't put any conditions on doing so - i.e. even if they didn't get a single sale more, they would still do post release updates. That blog post shows that there isn't any financial pressure that would stop that from happening.

 

this.

Also, nothing against the OP or anyone else, but I think it's a little bit early to talk about expansion packs (DLCs etc) ...

 

If you mean official DLC's or content packs. Definitely not, I can't find the exact quote atm.
But I remembered the group decided it was a No in a landslide vote.
They said if they did it would be a free addition.
Darn I wish I could find the quote. ;\

 

Oh god please no. Didn't they say that this 1.0 they are talking about is just the next phase of beta? Also, isn't it damn early to talk about expansions? What is this? The sims? Do people actually accept the Electronic Arts method of marketing? Making a dumbed down game then making a zillion insignificant content packs for it? Please no. I would not mind an expansion pack if it was something important and was like, half a year later after release at least.

 

last i heard the next update wont be 1.0 but it was said it will then wont then will again so idk and i will ask you this lora... if you play minecraft have you bought realms? just saying

 

Expansion packs were originally a good idea. They filled a conspicuous gap before Steam really took off and brought digital distribution to the masses (sure, there was the EA download manager - now Origin - but that never really caught on). For example, you can't say that Throne of Bhaal for BG2 or Bloodmoon for Morrowind were insignificant content packs for half-ed games.

It's true that these days, companies like EA and Bethesda (who, ironically, are the copyright holders for the games I mentioned earlier) have gutted the system and turned it into a method of maximizing profits while producing sub-par content. That's why I tend to see a distinction between EPs and DLCs; the former were generally fairly robust and sold as physical copies, while the latter tend to be smaller in scale, distributed digitally, and cost much less. There is of course some crossover in almost all of those areas, though.

I'd be more than willing to embrace expansion packs for most of my games, if they were held up to the same standard they used to be. However, I'm not going to shell out $20 for Dawnguard (again - I already made that mistake once), Sims 4: Toddlers and Pools, or even Starbound: Starboundier.

 

Legit expansions i have no problem with when done right. Expansions that bother me are the kind where the original game had a bunch of content cut and then sell that content later as if it was brand new. I hate that. It's bullshit. And i hope Starbound never does something like this, or anything related to somehow scamming us with an expansion that should really not exist in the first place.

 

Agreed.

At least, as others have mentioned, there's little fear of that in Starbound's future.

 

I feel like what we'd most likely be seeing is a stream of smaller things, auto-updated free. New structures (be they small outposts/homes to dungeons and villages), new decor items, new Vanity Armors, new recipes, new minor quests, maybe new weapons here and there, etc.

Nothing universe-shattering (at least, not on a regular basis), just... more stuff for your sandbox.

 

This game is already successful. All that money in the bank? That's from sales of this game. They don't need post 1.0 sales to determine the success of the game, it already passed that bar. That's why I'm so confident of post release content, even if we didn't already have statements from Tiy directly answering this exact question. He said there will be updates after release. He didn't add 'if it sells well enough', because that has already happened.

 

Fair enough, I wasn't understanding what you were saying. That said, I still don't think you're right about the amount of post release content depending on post release sales. Remember, Tiy said that they could run for another 9 years on the funds that they have now. I'm unaware of any game in history (apart from non-commercial ones like DF) being updated on a regular basis for anything like that long, and I'd be surprised if many people would expect them to. I strongly suspect that CF would have a list containing long-term post release features that they want to implement, and it's likely that by the time that list is finished, that most people will be champing at the bit for Starbound 2 anyway.

Once again, *9 years* of money in the bank, without considering possible future sales. Plus, CF are clearly focusing on the future with that second team working on Wayward Tide, leaving the Starbound team able to focus exclusively on Starbound for as long as they need to.

 

They stated they have 9 years of funding to continue to keep working on it.

 

Um… Chucklefish said they currently have enough money to run everything they need at Chucklefish for 9 years, without selling a single copy of the game in those 9 years. I think they can do some free updates for funsies.

 

1. They said that they could (with their current funds) continue to work on starbound for 9 years, but thats likely if they ONLY did starbound (no other publishing or development work).

2. They never said that the money currently in their bank was from starbound sales (that money could have allredy run out by now for all we know).