Editorial: Everybody vs. The Season Pass

Everybody vs. The Season Pass

          DLC and other post-launch additional content stuff have become a mainstay in gaming, for both good and bad reasons. It’s nice to have a reason to return to games long after the first few months after release, as is the case with games like Splatoon. But then there are the people who try and use DLC as a tactic for milking your wallet for more than they already have.

          I could go on about the different ways publishers lock on-disc content behind paywalls or use DLC as an excuse to release games way before they’re ready, but this week we’ll be talking about one of the more notorious methods of money-munching that’s made it into the news once again thanks to the inclusion of one in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: the Season Pass.

          If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a gaming Season Pass, it’s very simple. A standard Season Pass is basically a glorified pre-order available from Day 1 of a game’s launch. Buying the Season Pass gives you codes that unlock any future DLC the game may get…but of course, only for a price.

          So why is the Season Pass so hated among gamers? Well, there’s the obvious reason that it inflates the already ludicrous price of buying a game. Here in Canada buying a game from a triple-A publisher can cost you around $70-$80, but throw in a Season Pass and the price can be inflated to above $100. There’s also the concern that if a publisher is flaunting purchasing DLC around a lot before release, the base product will feel incomplete and even boring without it. Remember Star Wars Battlefront and how it constantly shoved it into our faces how we needed to buy the Season Pass? Turns out that game had extremely little content on Day 1, and by the time the stuff included on the Season Pass had come out the game’s playerbase was essentially dead.

          There’s also the concern that a Season Pass will affect a game’s longevity, and that’s where it’s most concerning with the announcement that Breath of the Wild will have one. What happens if the publisher goes under and their online store is closed? The DLC is unavailable to anyone at that point, leaving customers who may want to buy the game later kind of stuck with an incomplete game.

          Finally, and the biggest problem with the Season Pass: they rarely tell you what you’re getting. Buying a Season Pass is, in my eyes, far more dangerous than pre-ordering a game. At least when you pre-order a game you know you’ll play it for an hour or two at most, even if it turns out to be crap. Putting down money for a Season Pass means putting your faith in the developer that the game you’re purchasing will not only be good, but you’ll still be interested in playing it when the DLC eventually comes out months later. It also means that you’ll want every single bit of DLC, and that you’ll blindly put money down to get it all, regardless of what it may be. It’s basically gambling. With the nature of how hard it already is to buy a good game at launch thanks to Day 1 patches and publishers making review embargos closer and closer to release dates, buying the Season Pass instead of just patiently waiting for the DLC to release one by one is a huge risk.

          So, considering this, why is everyone getting all up in arms about Breath of the Wild getting a Season Pass? Looking at the listings, it nets you some bonus stuff, including bonus story missions and a Hard Mode down the line. Pretty optional stuff if you ask me.

          But the problem doesn’t really lie in the content itself. If anything, Nintendo did a good job here detailing exactly what the Season Pass will get you later this year, making it less of a gamble. The real concern is its existence in a Zelda game of all things. While Nintendo has pulled out all the stops telling us how massive Breath of the Wild is going to be, we now know not all the content will be there at launch. While I’m glad Nintendo isn’t pulling a Battlefront, releasing a barely finished game with minimal content and intentions to update it later if you’re willing to fork over some more cash, if this is successful there’s no telling what it might extend to next. Will there be a level pack for Super Mario Odyssey? Or maybe Splatoon 2 will divert from how great it’s predecessor was at giving out new stuff for free, locking some weapons or gear behind a paywall.

          I don’t know, maybe it’s just me being nostalgic about the good old days when you bought a game you got literally everything. I like that nowadays there are games like Splatoon and Overwatch that give you new stuff for free whenever it updates. I also think there’s little doubt that Breath of the Wild is going to be something special even without the added content. It just pains me to think that not all the content in this (hopefully) amazing game will be there at launch. Maybe it’ll give me incentive to keep playing months after I finish the game, but for now I’ll leave you with the advice I’ve always given out concerning these types of things: don’t buy the Season Pass. It’s a gamble that isn’t worth it, and you’re better off saving your money for something else.

Song of the Week

          It’s hard to believe that next week we’re getting basically a second Christmas from gaming, with the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild launching, as well as the highly anticipated Horizon: Zero Dawn over on PS4. With that in mind, I’ve chosen the music from the last Zelda trailer. I love how the classic Zelda theme is integrated into this song, and I really hope that the whole Breath of the Wild soundtrack continues the use of leitmotif.