Licensing and DLC

[Pandamonium]

I've spent the greater part of this evening trying to figure out how to get DLC for playable Magneto/Juggernaut/Psylocke onto Marvel Ultimate Alliance for my PS3. It does not seem possible.

And it doesn't make sense to me. AFAIK, I can't buy the DLC from the PS3 store because Activision lost the license to sell additional copies of the game, so they pulled the DLC.

But if Activision produced and sold 1000 physical games and 900 users bought the DLC, why shouldn't an additional 100 users be able to buy the DLC at any time? i.e.: why the hell did they cut it off on some arbitrary date? Somehow I doubt that everyone who bought MUA: 2 also bought the DLC.

And if you can legally sell your used game (I assume this is still legal unless we have total f*cktards in Washington), how is someone supposed to legally transfer the DLC that's associated with the game? It wasn't the consumer's idea to parcel out a game into pieces that were download-only. So it shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to ensure resale ability. If Activision wanted to make extra money by selling DLC, Activision should figure out the mess of reselling. Or at the very least, allow secondhand purchasers to buy the DLC.

I'm more than willing to buy the goddamn game from a legal supplier. I could give two flying f*cks who licenses what characters from what company. All I want to do is play a game the way it was meant to be played. I'm willing to pay for it. Shouldn't that be enough?

Because the more I look into this, the more it looks like I should jailbreak my PS3, download a pirated version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and install pirated DLC. That seems like the *only* way for me to play the game that I legally bought but am unable to fully enjoy on my presently fully legal/stock PS3. And that's a damn shame.

 

[BoberFett]

Welcome to the world of digital content. I hope you brought plenty of lube.

 

[Anteaus]

I'm going to get some popcorn before the party starts.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm more than willing to buy the goddamn Blu Ray from a legal supplier. I could give two flying f*cks who licenses what DRM from what company. All I want to do is play a Blu Ray the way it was meant to be played. I'm willing to pay for it, I put it in my first generation Blu Ray player and hit play. Shouldn't that be enough?

Just a re-quote FIFY to point out this isn't so much an issue specific to gaming as much as just modern distribution methods overall. The current systems in place punishes those who are legitimate and rewards pirates.

 

[zerocool84]

Welcome to the world of digital content. I hope you brought plenty of lube.

This

It's how it is. Any extra content, you're stuck with it. Even if you buy an edition that includes the DLC, it's just comes with a card that has the downloadable codes on it so it's tied too your account as well.

 

[exdeath]

This is why FVK digital only.

Be happy 1 DLC character wasn't an exclusive preorder bonus from 6 different retailers and requiring you to pre order the game for 6 x 59.99 if you're passionate about that game and want all the characters.

Digital by itself could work fine if they treated it the same as physical media and didn't simultaneously backdoor exclusivity and new "revenue models" into it.

 

[Pandamonium]

Well I suppose I'm comforted by the company of similarly frustrated people. I haven't really had that much spare time to spend on entertainment in the past few years, so I just didn't know how bad things have gotten. It's hard to believe that there hasn't been enough outrage to get the publishers to cater to the customers instead of the IP holding companies.

Turning off my phone on flights was kind of obnoxious- and I frequently failed to do so- but it didn't feel like it took a long time for the FCC to agree with the rest of the voting public. I had no idea Marvel licensing was this big a quagmire.

I might be marginally less peeved if the damn game weren't so restrictive. I loved Saturday morning X-men as a kid, so that will always be my team. I've yet to find a combination of X-men that allows me to use all three classes of "fusion" moves. My gut tells me that swapping Psylocke in (or maybe even Magneto) would allow me to do all three fusion moves. The frustrating part is that the game has a built-in training exercise thing, and you cannot advance without killing the practice dummy with the specific move. So when my X-men team was required to do a "targeted" fusion kill, I was stuck. As a man of principle, I refuse to deviate from the X-men.

Whoever thought that was a bright idea was probably the same idiot that parsed the game out with DLC. I hope they suffer eternally.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Companies have no incentive to placate the consumer because people still shell out their cash for anything and everything. You don't have to go very far just reading the threads here with the actual informed people to see that. People GOTTA have it now.