The Golf Club: Season Mode Could Be $10 DLC for Digital Customers

[Steve_OS]

HB Studios floated the idea that they would charge $10 for Season Mode in The Golf Club for existing digital customers -- which created some confusion. In a post on The Golf Club website, the folks at HB Studios worked to clear up the confusion:

Quote:

"I’ve had a lot of questions about the disk version and the differences between the disk “Collectors Edition” and the digital version. So let me try and clear everything up for you. The “Collector’s Edition” is: Current Digital Version with the March Update applied. Additional Season Mode. Tropical Theme. Collectors E-Book (which I don’t know much about as Maximum are sorting this out, and it’s all very secret). We will then be releasing the May update for both Digital and Disk based customers. This will be a free update as usual, adding: Drop Balls. Out of Bounds. Improved Commentary for Tours and Tournament. More Commentary Variation. Default Drive Loft Setting. Cart Paths. Wind improvements. Rain Effects. Plus more (Dependent on time). Also included within that is the option to buy the “Collector’s Edition” content with the exception of the E-Book, which is: Season Mode. Tropical Theme. And a bonus Asian Theme (we don’t have a name for this yet). This is likely to be available for $10, but we’re still evaluating this at the moment. The most common question we’ve had about the DLC is why does it take 3 weeks for our long term members to get feature parity with the “Collector’s Edition”? Unfortunately, this decision was out of our hands for a couple of reasons. For one, Sony and Microsoft have a set amount of time you have to wait after passing a new product before you can submit a feature update.

While not was initially expected, this isn't a horrible business plan and practice. Such huge additions to the game being added for free was an unrealistic expectation. The only quibble I'd have is the communication of that fact was not clear from the get-go (and from the latest post it still isn't clear), as I'm sure most customers would not have minded the idea of having to spend some extra money had it been clearly communicated at the onset.

Regardless, what do you think of The Golf Club's decision to charge for Season mode and additional themes in the newest DLC update?

[GrandMaster B]

Will gladly pay the $10. The game has been one of the best bargains on the Xbox One.

[hawkfantn]

Totally agree. This has been a complete bargain. And it is better than paying $60 for the EA Golf game.

[Hollywood88]

I will gladly pay the $10 for the added content. HB has demonstrated time and time again that they care about their product and the opinions from their patrons that would make the game better. It's an excellent game and it keeps getting better. People forget that they paid $35 for the game. And their is the added bonus of the extra "Asian" theme that the disc based People right now wouldn't get. In all honesty I'll spend the money but probably never touch the season mode unless it's fleshed out more then the standard game. But mostly because I play in the TGC.com tour which is the most active offline tour that I have ever participated in. Reading the advances that EASports are touting for their new game is comical. It's all already been done and then some by HB studios and the golf club. Easports is already being secretive about what their game will have. No one knows if Augusta will be in it. Last Time easports was secretive we got the nextgen joke that is NHL. Plus people forget that easports abandoned their last golf outing after two patches that made the game worse. I could never see HB studios doing that. They care about the experience. When one person complains about $10 for an expansion of an excellent $35 game, ask them if they think that easports will roll out the full game for their patrons at $60. I would bet my life that plenty of courses will live behind the paywall. A paywall that disrupts their individual season mode where you have to skip the courses that you won't shell out extra for. I bet an individual course is $10. I'm getting off my soap box.

[Braker1319]

I will gladly pay $10 for this update as well. For all the work this team has put in, and working with the community every step of the way, I think they've earned this small chunk of change for everything they've done since release.

Also, f*ckin cart paths!!!

[SDwinder]

No brainer. Great game. I bought it during their sale for $21, so another $10 to support this game is not a problem. Looking forward to Tropical and Asian themes.

[coached17]

Not a problem for me as a customer. The game is excellent and they seem to always be improving on it...asking for a measly $10 isn't a big deal.

Especially since it's NOT a game with a yearly release cycle, like the old EA golf games.

I love the idea of excellent and passionate indie developers being able to create great games outside of the whole "corporate" structure...and I have no problem supporting them, especially when they make great games!

[Hutton]

I will gladly give these guys another $10 for their hard work and excellent product. This is bar none the game of the year for me, and has saved me so much money from buying less other games.

Anyone who isn't on board with an indie studio making a non licensed sports game is out of their mind, and TGC is leap year better than any EA golf title could ever dream of.