Borderlands 2, the fancy-pants first person shooter which Peter scored a hugely exciting 9/10 in his review, comes with the option to buy a ‘season pass’ – an additional purchase that bags you a season’s worth of downloadable content and extras.
Except, it doesn’t.
Several packs of DLC, explains Gearbox head Randy Pitchford, won’t be covered by the season pass, and you’ll have to buy them separately.
“We will have other, non-season pass related DLC,” he said in a question and answer session on Kotaku. “The additional character (Mechromancer) is one kind of example.”
“Since we finished the game, we’ve started with some new ideas that we expect will show up in DLC. Some new vehicle types are on-deck – [it’s] awesome stuff.”
Indeed, the season pass – which is around £20 – actually only covers four main expansions to the game. “We’re extremely far along with the first campaign DLC,” added Pitchford. “The second DLC is also in amazing shape. The third DLC is a little farther out and the fourth DLC is just in the pre-concept stages.”
That’s nice.
The Lone Steven
A part of me is a bit annoyed as a season pass should cover all DLC but another part of me doesn’t mind as it’s just minor bits and bobs. If the 4 expansions are more then a fiver each, then tis worth buying the pass. But i do hope they will have changed the description to relfect this as i would be very annoyed if i had forked out £20 for the pass then find out that i won’t get what was advertised in the description.
Although it is a bit too early to be thinking about DLC imo as the game was only released a week or 2 weeks ago. Would have preffered to hear about DLC at least 1 month after launch. Oh well.
Forrest_01
Planned DLC is fine mate – Its when it releases on the release day of a game (or before in some cases) that you have to question whether it is a valid add on, or something they simply stripped out for a few extra bucks.
I understand about the mecromancer – It was a preorder bonus (i think), so it makes sense that this isn’t included in the season pass.
As a general though, I would expect a ‘season pass’ to pretty much cover everything that came out & it’s a bit of a poor show if it in fact doesn’t.
The Lone Steven
I expect it to cover all DLC as well but if it’s only small bits and bobs that are not covered by it, then i don’t mind as i tend to not bother with them unless it’s a DLC pack that introduces a lot of new weapons and items into the game such as F:NV’s Gun runners arsenal.
Bilbo_bobbins
Absolutely shocking a “season” pass doesn’t cover all. I was thinking of buying this game, but due to this ridiculous idea, I wont even bother now. Yes I might be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I am not encouraging this sort of stuff with my money.
Forrest_01
You don’t need the season pass to play the game though. Just buy the game & not the season pass, as then you won’t feel ripped off.
Bilbo_bobbins
ah I see, I thought you needed that to play, the incentive being to get some DLC free, but not all etc. Seems mad they still don’t offer all the DLC if you buy a season pass though.
Forrest_01
Yeah, a lot of copies (all copies i have seen so far) have included some pre order bonus thingy – I even got one even though i didn’t preorder. But it has no online pass & the season pass referred to above is just for the DLC (like rockstar tend to do & similar to BF premium & CoD Elite).
Seriously, it is a great game & whilst i have only played an hour or two so far, i can feel myself being dragged in once again. If you enjoyed the first in any way, you owe it to yourself to get it! :)
CR8ZYH0RSE
An extra character and different vehicle’s doesn’t make much of a difference to the season pass.If they did release a major piece of dlc and i had bought the pass then yes i would be slightly miffed that they did it.
Like someone on here commented last week (i think) “Just wait until they release the GOTY or until it comes on ps plus”,that’s what i’ll be doing. 8)
KeRaSh
As far as I know they never claimed that the season pass would include every piece of DLC that will ever be available for BL2.
Here’s the official Gearbox Forum post:
“Soon we’ll be offering a “Season Pass” bundle that includes all four campaign add-on packs for 2400 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and $29.99 on PC and PlayStation Network — a savings of 25% over buying each campaign add-on individually.”
I really don’t see the problem. People just misread the official information and are now pissed about it because they thought they would get everything.
Forrest_01
Not really misreading info though when it states (even on the bit that you quoted);
“Soon we’ll be offering a “Season Pass” bundle that includes ALL four campaign add-on packs for 2400 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and $29.99 on PC and PlayStation Network ”
The word ‘all’ usually tends to mean ‘everything’.
I’m not annoyed by this as i had no intention of getting the season pass, but i can see why people are aggrieved.
yiddo
Yes, and to be fair the season pass is including ALL four campaign add ons. What it isn’t including is more minor stuff such as the character and vehicles, something which that quote doesn’t say they are including in the season pass anyway.
Forrest_01
Agreed – If its nothing more than bitty add-ons, then there isn’t really an issue as far as i see. They do want to be careful when throwing the term ‘all’ around though, as a lot of people will simply assume that means anything & everything.
yiddo
Yeah, I suppose the average customer will glance across at the description, see ‘ALL’ and assume it covers everything. Maybe they should update the description to say it ‘covers all four campaign add ons (doesn’t include character/vehicle add ons)’ or something similar, just to make sure.
KeRaSh
There really isn’t anything to misread. They stated “ALL four” and you will be getting “ALL four” campaign DLCs with the season pass. :)
If I glance at a sign and misread the information I’m not entitled to get what I thought I would get. If that would be the case I’d be a very rich man.
SpikeyMikey23
Naughty
Nate
L.A Noire did exactly the same if I remember rightly.
Sad Panda
I bought the season pass on the strength that it covered the 4 campaign add ons, I expected nothing more. I fully expected to have to pay for preorder bonuses like the Moxxi stuff as I bought direct from Steam.
This is the best game I have played this gen bar none, the news of further DLC, on top of the already announced content, is like music to my ears.
I’d be over the moon for this game to be supported for 12-18 months then a 3rd game a year or so into the next gens launch.
Faulker
Milk that cow Gearbox. I’ll wait for GOTY, but if it won’t be on the disc I won’t even get that. I think I’ll manage to sleep at night if I don’t get the chance to play a game.
hazelam
legally they’re no doubt in the clear, but it’s still a shitty thing to do.
sell it as a year’s worth of dlc then add stuff on that you have to buy separately.
definitely glad i’m waiting for the GOTY edition now.
Sad Panda
I think we will see new character classes added as paid for DLC, alongside cars and maybe gun packs. That’s the beauty of the game, there’s so much more than story items that fans will pay for.
On steam, the season pass was very clear as to what I was buying, I can’t see what Gearbox have done wrong here.