Dark Messiah content hits Live days before release [Update]
by Xav de Matos 
{ Feb 8th 2008 at 12:30PM }
Update: Our original tipster is at it again letting us know that since the release of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements the content that was originally offered for download has now vanished from the Xbox Live Marketplace. We wonder if there was an issue with the content, it dropped too soon or the pricing was wrong. Only time will tell.
The upcoming Source engine first-person roleplaying game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements, is hitting retail shelves on February 12. However, one of our eagle-eyed readers noticed downloadable content was already made available over Xbox Live Marketplace. At a cost of 400MS space-bucks you can add new maps, classes and weapons. While we're all about being proactive here at X3F, we wonder why this content isn't on the disc. We don't imagine the 151MB download would have filled a standard DVD to bursting and considering Dark Messiah was originally released on the PC in 2006, you'd imagine Ubisoft would find the time to toss it on the retail disc.
[Thanks, ccc]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
HazyCloud @ Feb 8th 2008 12:40PM
That sure is nice of Ubisoft offering us content for a game that hasn't been released. I don't feel like we are getting screwed at all.
Josh @ Feb 8th 2008 3:23PM
Sweet! I'm never going to buy an Ubisoft game again.
Hey EA, you have a friend now!
Edog Lost @ Feb 8th 2008 12:40PM
It's bad enough when they have DLC on the day of launch. Now they are offering it prior to the release?
JUST PUT IT ON THE DISC
you blood suckers
Big Filth @ Feb 8th 2008 12:41PM
this is not a good thing. I dont know who would buy this game anyway, but it def looks like they are trying to rip people off. THey should have at least waitind till the game came out, just for the sake of not looking like a blatant rip off at least.
there is no reason that shouldnt be on the disc!
Fuck this game and the people who make it!
SadisticHam @ Feb 8th 2008 12:45PM
Fuck the game, Fuck ubisoft not like i was going to buy this crap fest in the first place but anyone who puts DLC out before the game is never getting my money.
dan stabbingworth @ Feb 8th 2008 1:31PM
I agree. I refuse to buy DLC, just on principle. Most of the time, it's just stupid shit anyway, not nearly worth the cost. And it's not that I'm poor or anything; I make good money. I just don't see the value, especially when I feel like I'm getting screwed if I buy it.
I'm a huge Halo fan, and I won't even buy the new maps.
Tony @ Feb 8th 2008 1:59PM
I should preface this by saying that I have zero interest in this content and my DLC purchases are EXTREMELY rare. I bought the Forza 2 tracks, I bought the great Crackdown pack... that's about it.
Half of me is bothered by this because it definitely seems like jumping the gun and just an obnoxious way of trying to get even more on top of $60 for the "full" experience.
The other half of me wonders at what point would everyone be fine with DLC coming out? If it comes out the next week people freak out, if it comes out the same day people freak out, if it comes out a full month later people freak out. No one has really established this exact time frame in which this is OK to do and, honestly, we can't always expect them to wait until 6 months later.
At some point these games have to ship and be determined as "finished". This is done WELL before the game goes gold because all of this stuff has to be controlled and bug tested. They can't simply keep adding content until the day before the game is manufactured. Point being that they probably had to completely finalize what was in this title over two months ago.
So what happens after that? Do the people who were in charge of building things just go home and have nothing new to do? I'd imagine these people are moved over to putting together new DLC... and certainly the release date of that seems odd, but they're basically being given a month extension to add upon this title separate from the finalized version of what's on the disc.
So, really, how do we know that wasn't the case here? Should we expect them to hold on another month (potentially more given any related testing) for release and include this content on the disc? Where does this stop? Some of these titles would never come out.
I suppose the rest of my potential annoyance rests on how long this game is to begin with and just how many content packs they release. Beautiful Katamari, for example, was ridiculously short (not to mention uninspired compared to the PS2 versions) and Namco quickly release like a dozen additional, nearly pointless DLC packages. I feel like that's almost another situation entirely.
James @ Feb 8th 2008 3:48PM
I'm not saying this is "fair", which if course doesn't mean anything anyway, but I think if the content isn't ready at ship-time, but *is* ready before the street date, it should be released ASAP as a free download. There are some games/genres that get away with selling expansions/add-ons alongside the initial retail launch (like CCGs), but they're few and far between. For better or for worse, if the expansion is ready before people are done with the initial release, they're going to feel ripped off.
petersjov @ Feb 8th 2008 2:38PM
Im going to buy this game for the singleplayer game, i like playing at my owb pace, exploring the wolrd. But i will wait and buy it cheap/used... - And no, dont put up download content within the first 2 weeks of release, thats......stupid
ccc @ Feb 8th 2008 5:07PM
If I had to guess I would say the release of this content was a mix up. Since its not in the form of KB you can see that this is in fact added content to the game and for 5 dollars looks like good content at that. If you played the demo you will see at the end of it that this game was supposed to be out last month. It was most likley a miscomunication between departments and I am willing to bet if a big enough stink is made about it and UBI soft gets wind of it, they will just give us this content for free, they did after all give us the red and black Rainbow6 Vegas map packs free remember?
DM is a good game with a surprisingly enjoyable online deversion that will be enjoyable to the gamers that like this kind of game. Ease your rage fanboys it's not what it looks like.
Stranger @ Feb 9th 2008 3:36PM
This is endemic of everything wrong with how developers are using add-on DLC.
What's going to be interesting is to find out if the DLC pack contains things found in the original PC retail release. Either way this is shady...
Gamers will only stand for being bilked with cash-in DLC (that should've been on the freakin' disc!) for so long.
Maybe if the game was cheaper at retail, like $40, and then offered things that were obviously capable of being put on the disc post pos... then maybe... but this just seems to be bad business.