I don't know if it's been suggested yet, but "Twits or GTFO" would be a sweet name for the Twitter segment.

First of all great Cagcast as usual. I have been hearing week after week how you think paid content is a bad idea. I think it is smarter than you give them credit for. Its like the mmo concept, the more you invest, the least likely you are to walk away from it. Its like this, if i bought a game and then bought a map pack or 2, then I am far less likely to trade this game in than if i got free maps or add-ons. No one wants to throw away an investment. Just my 2 cents.

Xninja

I second the "Twits or GTFO" suggestion.

What the hell Wombat, as much as I like you on the podcast, I'm a little disappointed that you won't admit that your British accent is from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. To be specific, your accent is John Lennon's one.

Cheapy and Wombat, I've never asked you for anything -- anything! -- in the past, but now I have a request; please call your monthly exploration of the subtle intricacies of the NPD numbers "Down With NPD." I will even make the intro music myself if necessary.

i would like to add since u guys where on the discussion of dlc ripoffs and namco is buy far the worse people in history in terms of dlc due to Soul Calibur 4 and Beautiful katamari- In the essence of soul calibur 4 they were charging basically for unlock keys to costumes and to even darth vader on 360 (yoda for ps3) and vader was around 10 bucks. then the dlc content for katamari was the same thing except they were 3 bucks a piece for new levels (the way they catch you is if your trying to get the super huge katamari achievement u have to get all dlc to get it). I personally think if developers want fans to be a lil more satisfied stop the practice of dlc keys and actually make real dlc. Burnout paradise is the best example of free dlc in terms of the bikes and time switch dlc which was not only free but added even more replay value to an already great game. I also feel your pain for the street fighter 4 dlc because i got the collectors edition as a gift from my friend and when i saw they added dlc costumes only to realize the free one was for the grapplers in the game i felt ripped off because the purpose of the collectors edition is to either a: get a bad ass bonus like in the instance of mortal kombat: deception u got mk 1 free or b: you got 1st access to premium dlc before it is available to everyone else. I don't mind dlc as a tool to expanding the gameplay but when all it does is add a simple mode or expand the game for less then 1 min it should just be an update.

glad that this one wasn't a repeat of the previous one (ranting on and on)

however, there was one thing that bothered me cheapy. you did not mention anything about Japan winning the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Is it not as big of a deal as I thought it would be in Japan? I watched the game on tv and it seemed that there were a lot more Korean fans than there were Japanese. perhaps Korea cares more about defeating Japan in anything than Japan does? Also, have you witnessed any tensions between other Asian groups and the local Japanese since living in Japan?

with the economy the way it as and Wombat's claim of there being very little in his checking account, I wonder if we listeners can hope to hear more of Wombat spending money on games or 9 lb lobsters thanks to the Netflix/CagCast signup.

Just want to put in a comment that you should move that search bar up top where the old navigation is right now. It's kinda small right now and just pushed to the side, plus there's no need for two navigation bars.

A nine pound lobster? Are you kidding me? All I can say is any sympathy I had for Wombat and his financial issues went out the window when I heard that.

Also, I think CheapyD is partially right about DLC potentially deterring people from trading in all games and I would take it a step further. I think that is another reason beyond simple greed for this trend of publishers nickle and diming gamers with DLC. Since you can't trade in DLC or resell it, it becomes a sunk cost that you can't recoup when you trade in the original game and the DLC is otherwise useless. At least, I would be less inclined to trade in a game that I spent extra for DLC that will just take up space if I don't have the original game.

Two things really urked me about this episode.
1. The description of why wombat really liked the RE 5 weapon upgrade system....
I remember a time when he said the complete opposite about Devil May cry and why he hated its weapon upgrade system. He said quote "I never feel like I know what to upgrade, and if it will be good at the end of the game".
2. Cheapy's GTA DLC calculations...
I know they where on the fly, but that just didn't make sense at all. You failed to figure in how much extra in sales that version made due to the promised DLC over the PS3 version. (Xbox poking Sony in the eye, Priceless)

For the record I didn't buy the Lobster, and it was split three ways, actually making it less expensive then buying 3 separate 3lb lobsters

Did anyone suggest 'Show us your Twits'? yet?

Great Caddyshack quote, though I'll agree with Wombat - probably not the best ("Hey Whitey! Where's your hat!?!?!" is one of my personal favorites).

Have either of you ever seen Caddyshack on TV? They change the infamous, "Hey everybody, we're all going to get laid!!" line into something that I think is infinitely more offensive...

wait for it...

ready?

"Hey everybody! Lets all take a shower!"

so awesome...

I wanted to chime in about the DLC rants of the last two CAGCasts as two of my favorite franchises over the years have been Resident Evil and Metal Gear.

Adding new modes POST-development is nothing new for Capcom or Konami, and hasn't been for the entire lifetime of both series since the original PlayStation.

Pre-DLC, we had to purchase an entirely new disc that would cost between $29.99 all the way up to $59.99 in some cases for either the same content or additional content (VR missions) that one could argue "should have been in the game from day 1".

Examples:
Resident Evil: Director's Cut - Easy / Hard Modes, DualShock enabled, RE2 demo
Resident Evil 2: DualShock Version - Extreme Battle Mode, DualShock enabled
Resident Evil: Code Veronica, PS2 Edition - Nine additional minutes of cutscenes in-game
Resident Evil 4: PS2 / Wii Edition - "Separate Ways" game mode, additional costumes, additional weapon, Easy mode

Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions - training missions
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance - Boss Survival Mode, Casting Theater Mode, VR Missions, Snake Tales, Skateboarding Mode
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence - *Metal Gear Online*, original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 games, 1st-person camera mode

As a fan, I bought them all. I estimate my purchases for the above discs to be at around $250 (I got the limited edition Subsistence), and that is OVER the costs incurred for the initial releases of each game.

Putting that in perspective, I will happily pay $5 and not a $60 re-release in order to get the additional RE5 multiplayer mode. Metal Gear Online on PS2? Minimum cost of entry was $60 as part of Subsistence.


I don't agree with all DLC offerings out there, like Street Fighter IV costume DLC or Horse Armor. However, if you look at Capcom's history with the Resident Evil franchise, they have always been working on added or improved content for each major release in the series since Day 1.

With that, $5 DLC is actually the cheapest way they've *ever* gotten us a new Resident Evil game mode, and judging from the latest delay, I'd say it's probably not done and "on the disc" yet. Even if it is, apparently it's "not ready", and I'm really glad they didn't delay the release of RE5 to accommodate it.


I'll add a question in for good measure. Wombat, are you playing RE5 on PS3 or 360?

The super search bar doesn't work. I just typed in "cheapyd poop" and nothing comes back.

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I heard of the controversy about RE5 along time ago and it still makes me laugh. Ok in the first RE and through all of the rest, you shot many many zombies, correct? Well is it not true then that you would have shot many white, black, asian, mexican and other zombies? In RE4 you shot alot and I mean alot of white people, so where is the complaining there? Shouildn't the white people of the world have united against this abomination of a game since it was racist? There is no racism involved, it's just a game. I didn't hear people complaining that GTA3 was racist as you played an African American character that was you know... ghetto. Wouldn't that have been a little racist in that not all african americans are Gangsters and drug dealers? It is not racist just a game. People just can't leave that alone. Plus 90% or more of those complaining about the game and racism are those who wouldn't pick up a game controller if their life depended on it. People need a reason to b**** and they found their calling that is all.

As for the new trend with DLC, Capcom did what they thought would bring them insane amounts of money. GTA, Fable 2 and all of the others come out with DLC. Some more than others, but they all realized especially with RockBand and Guitar Hero that a little something for 5 or 10 bucks can equal out to enormous revenue. How much has GH made off purchasing new tracks? Capcom knew that people love to play FPS against friends and unknown people, it is a very widely known fact. Who doesn't love to beat someone they don't know and let them know they just got pnwned? So at a typical business stand point sure sell it at $5 bucks make a shit ton of money and call it a day. As long as people continue to purchase it, the will do it. Soon enough, we are going to get moderate games with $5-$10 content turning it into a semi good game. If they really want to dominate there is a better plan, (from someone in sales for the last 20 years) make a game like RE and sell it for $45-$50 bucks, then sell the DLC at $5 or $10. This way the consumer thinks they are getting a deal and is more willing to purchase DLC without as much question. (Sad but true) When the consumer sees a lower price mentally $10 DLC doesn't seem like much anymore.

Go a step further, how many people would purchase a game at $60 like RE? 400000 in the first week translates to $24 mil. (What Capcom recieves is smaller obviously) not all of those people who purchased the game will get the DLC. Say roughly 60% do, that is 240000 rougly translating to around 1.2 mil in revenue. Now what is the game was $45 or $50. You would have sold more copies, standard economics and human nature. Even if they sold 600000 copies at $45 for the game that is $27 mil, more than 60% would purchase the DLC as it doesn't seem like it costs as much now for nothing. (People are gullible) Just simple business goes a long way. Play to the consumer if you want to sell. You can can sell anything and a lot of it if you are willing to play to the consumer.

Originally Posted by Super_Cholo Go a step further, how many people would purchase a game at $60 like RE? 400000 in the first week translates to $24 mil. (What Capcom recieves is smaller obviously) not all of those people who purchased the game will get the DLC. Say roughly 60% do, that is 240000 rougly translating to around 1.2 mil in revenue. Now what is the game was $45 or $50. You would have sold more copies, standard economics and human nature. Even if they sold 600000 copies at $45 for the game that is $27 mil, more than 60% would purchase the DLC as it doesn't seem like it costs as much now for nothing. (People are gullible) Just simple business goes a long way. Play to the consumer if you want to sell. You can can sell anything and a lot of it if you are willing to play to the consumer.

The math doesn't quite work out that way. It's not a 1:1 correlation between sales price and gross margin because there are a fixed costs associated with disk production and licensing along with unit variable costs in distribution throughout the chain. If you drop price X% you have to increase sales X + Y% where Y is based on the percentage of X that was fixed. And a 60% tie rate for DLC is way, way too high.

There was a decent aticle in the NY Times yesterday that supports a lot of what I've been saying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/te...game.html?_r=1

I was never saying that was exactly what they would take home, I was merely pointing out what can be done in that instance and was using an example. But the costs are still fixed variables and the end result still winds up with more money in the long run. A game that is cheaper and yet still good will sell a little bit longer as well. (Not proven)

Is this the place for Cag Bag feedback to go? I'll assume it is and post away. This is about you Bioshock 2 concerns.

It's true the Ken Levine does not appear to be involved in Bioshock 2, however many key players from the Bioshock team have moved on to Bioshock 2. Bioshock's producer Alyssa Finley is working on Bioshock 2. The creative director is Jordan Thomas who was in a senior creative role on Bioshock. The lead programmer and lead designer were also in senior roles on Bioshock.

I'm not saying this guarantees Bioshock 2 will be great, but many people tend to look at Bioshock and see only Ken Levine. He was a huge part in it's success no doubt, but he didn't build the game solo, given he's not involved 2k appears to have done everything they can to guarantee as much creativity and experience from Bioshock has been carried over to Bioshock 2.

I've also met Alyssa, Jordan, etc. personally and I can say they really know what they're doing. They're a smart bunch, give them a chance!

i can't add this to my iPod for some reason....

I remember when I was younger, my mom would always want to get rid of the old chips we had around the house. She would then buy tuna to make tuna chip pizza, a combination of cheese, tuna, chips, and sometimes peas. There were many different flavors of chips interwoven throughout the pizza, making it a delicious suprise. You should try it sometime...