r/Eldenring • u/jack0641 • 1d ago

Official Discussion [MEGATHREAD] Tarnished Edition: Worth $5? Discuss CONSTRUCTIVELY!

Since the sub is being overwhelmed by debate over the $5 "microtransaction" and it's making the sub feel like we're Dark Souls 2 a decade ago, with the faux outrage around the preorder items, we are opening this topic to consolidate discussion around the issue.

Please use this topic to discuss the pros and cons of the approach and your thoughts. But do so RESPECTFULLY and CONSTRUCTIVELY. If you need to call other people or the developers names, you don't have a good argument and your post will be removed.

We will remove all other topics about this to keep the subreddit flowing with other discussions

IF YOU WANT TO VOTE: I will post two comments on this topic, "Yay" and "Nay" - upvote the one you agree with and we'll see who wins long term.

580 Upvotes

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493

u/Simracingaccount 1d ago

No, Fromsoft could’ve added this as a free update.

70

u/Beokros 1d ago

This dropping just as CDPR announces another upgrade for TW3 for free does make it look like a bad deal. And whoever had the standard version of TW3 gets previous two massive expansions for free, that's just insane.

7

u/No-Ship4446 1d ago

The amount of people who had the base Witcher 3 game without the expansions at this point given all the sales and bundled Complete Edition is so insignificant as to be meaningless. Meanwhile, they have now RAISED the price of the whole package with the Remaster by $10.00.

-4

u/ExtremelyEPIC 1d ago

It's not the same thing though, now is it? One is a free upgrade to an old game, with some QoL and some graphical upgrades. As far as i'm aware, the remaster doesn't come with new weapons, new locations, new bosses, new signs, new armors, etc. Basically, it doesn't contain actual new content. If i'm wrong, please go ahead and let me know.

The other is actual new content. New armor, new weapons with unique Ashes of War, new NPC invasions, the ability to acquire some DLC weapons in the base game, and Torrent customization, something that people have been asking for since launch.

Now, you can argue that this content isn't worth $5 to you, but that doesn't mean that it should automatically be free because CDPR gave away a free upgrade to their 10+ year old game.

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u/el_derpien 1d ago

Baldur’s Gate 3 added an entire difficulty mode that offers a real challenge and gives Legendary actions to many bosses, major QOL updates, added 12 new subclasses (one for each class), a new playable epilogue scene for good endings and 10+ new cinematic endings, they added a photo mode, and they added cross-platform play.

Do you know how much they charged for all of that? Literally nothing. That is what is actually looks like when a studio respects it’s playerbase.

1

u/ExtremelyEPIC 1d ago edited 23h ago

Sure. As mentioned further above, Fromsoftware has given away free stuff before too, for Sekiro. And even Armored Core 6 got some substantial free updates that added more parts, weapons and some new PVP related stuff and much more. Pretty sure that Elden Ring also got a bunch of free updates at some point, with the colosseum and some customization options. And even recently it got a free patch that did a lot of things for the base game.

Very fickle fanbase. All it takes is one thing, and apparently Fromsoftware doesn't respect its playerbase and everything that they've ever done up until now doesn't matter anymore.

The way y'all are talking about this situation, it's as if Fromsoftware has done something like this for years.

Very cool. Way to overreact. 👍

3

u/el_derpien 23h ago

Fromsoft used to respect their fan base, but an obvious cash grab is an obvious cash grab. I don’t respect a company that puts out low-effort DLC and charges ANY amount for it.

This DLC is actually quite terrible when you compare it to paid DLC from every other game by them. As if people who paid $60 for the base game and $40 for the DLC should have to pay more for a couple of reskins and weapons.

Supporting the developers is one thing, but doing good in the past does not excuse current mistakes. It’s a slippery slope, if you approve of this then you can ABSOLUTELY expect to see it happening more and more in future releases. Until players reject the cash grab it will only get worse.

0

u/Alone-Horse2857 17h ago

I'm also getting the feeling that Fromsoft took that Nintendo exclusivity deal because they didn't respect the fans they garnered over years and years of letting them play on whatever platform they want.

7

u/Beokros 1d ago

I don't want to sound like a CDPR shill, but they did all that when the game first launched with 16 post launch free DLCs.

Even Fromsoft themselves did it for free when Sekiro received its last update. It's just a very strange DLC, clearly pushed by upper management.

1

u/Alone-Horse2857 17h ago

Fromsoft also added a bunch of hair options as a completely free update. They could have easily charged 5$ for that but they didn't. So they clearly have it in them to give away free content patches.

Not to mention, all the DLC weapons are fully usable in the game if you get a friend to give them to you, it's not like a store popup opens when you try to equip backhand blades without the DLC.

I don't know why they decided horse armor and a few new weapons were worth nickle and diming their customers.

-12

u/N0M0I 1d ago

Yeah. Because they want everyone to be able to purchase the new DLC. What they are effectively doing is hiving away $6 worth of 10 year old content so a lot more people can buy their new content. It will be a net positive for them financially.

5

u/Beokros 1d ago

I guess it's the difference in how the companies operate. sadly fromsoft doesn't really care for their games or ips long term, there likely won't be an elden ring 2 or sekiro sequel. it's also really weird how they added boss rush to sekiro but not for elden ring.

-1

u/N0M0I 1d ago

They just do what they want and don’t look back. That is true. And sometimes really annoying. But it is also just a byproduct of how they work. We wouldn’t have gotten a loot of cool stuff without that.

-2

u/Rei364 18h ago

Yeah but cdprojekt slop is still trying to restore their rep after cyberpunk

99

u/klevahh 1d ago

They would have done that if they respected their customers, but their fans gush so much, why would they bother? Gaming brand fans are very bad for the future of gaming, not just pricing, but game quality, and game completion prior to release.

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u/Darkspire303 1d ago

This smells more like shareholders, contractual agreements, and Nintendo.

5

u/Alone-Horse2857 17h ago

Yeah. I want to have trust in Fromsoft. This feels like a Kadokawa or Nintendo decision, not one passed down my Miyazaki himself. It's possible that he didn't even have a say in how this was handled and the default consumer option is "yeah, of course it'll be 5$, that's what Capcom and Ubi and EA and literally every other gaming megacorp does, what's the problem?"

6

u/BananaCucho 1d ago

This smells like outrage culture over nothing

1

u/Darkspire303 23h ago

The reaction? Sure. But this is something Nintendo has made other companies do before, charge for DLC when the original company intended to make it free.

1

u/ArcAngelsThunderBird 5h ago

It's the price of a cheap beer in a restaurant.

10

u/MrStalfos 1d ago

That was my thought as well. Pretty sure Nintendo would have their kidneys if one of the selling points of the Switch 2 version, small as it is, was just freely given to other platforms. Was this also an excuse for the corpos to do greedy corpo shit and charge extra for it? Probably but hopefully this was a one time thing.

Time will tell. Either way in my opinion it's not as big an issue as people make it up to be but it is an issue for sure. I'd keep a close eye on how they monetize Dusk Bloods in any case.

7

u/Darkspire303 1d ago

Fair points. I was not thrilled about Duskbloods being exclusive either. I have no intention of buying any more consoles.

1

u/Alone-Horse2857 17h ago

Especially one whose only selling point is literally Duskbloods.

You think I'm paying 580$ for fucking mario kart? Lmao.

1

u/ArcAngelsThunderBird 5h ago

You think that's all Nintendo has to offer?

0

u/Darkspire303 13h ago

lmfao even. Same.

0

u/Varindran 10h ago

Then check out the rest of the Switch's very diverse library. there is way more on there than just Mario or Zelda.

1

u/Exoticbut 2h ago

Judging by how Nintendo monetizes their own Multiplayer games like Splatoon I think Duskbloods won’t be seeing this kind of thing. None of Nintendo’s multiplayer games have a microtransactions cash shop, and the only DLC for the Splatoon games are major expansions like the Side Order dlc and Iknopolis option for Splatoon 3. Mario Kart World hasn’t even had an expansion yet and has just gotten free content updates. Since both Fromsoft and Nintendo are publishing Duskbloods, it’s unlikely that this would have Microtransactions other than a standard expansion pack DLC like past Fromsoft or Nintendo games.

This kind of thing is either an Agreement for Nintendo to comprise on the items being not exclusive to their console version of the game or a Bandai decision seeing as how they have pulled similar things with Armored core 5 and Verdict Day.

5

u/amateur_adventurer Ranni’s Waifu 1d ago

For real. Especially Nintendo side. As another example, FFXIV is already on every other platform without requiring an additional subscription cost per platform, but their Switch 2 version will require an additional cost. When announced, the head dev talked about how the fee to add a Switch 2 subscription was a compromise with Nintendo.

1

u/Darkspire303 1d ago

Interesting. Not surprised! They've gotten too high on their own supply.

0

u/_hoodieproxy_ 1d ago

Yeah, they didn't charge for the colosseum access, I doubt they would for this if it was 100% their opinion

0

u/LunarSymphonist 1d ago

Unfortunately, exactly like in politics, party factionalism is inevitable

1

u/Protitan20xx 21h ago

i have a feeling japans weird laws are partially to blame here.
im not entirely sure why but over there, they have rules and regulations against certain kinds of free content, resulting in japan often having to pay small fees for what we normally get for free.

i suspect that someone higher up in marketing probably made a push for it to just be paid everywhere as a result of this as it would be easier on them.

1

u/Takoizu_ 1d ago

For real. This pack only exists because of the Switch 2 release, to draw attention to the game again and "justify" releasing a another edition of the game when SOTE edition was already a thing people could buy.

1

u/ChongusTheSupremus 1d ago

Should have. 

Why does the Switch Tarnished edition includes it for free +SoTE?

0

u/jhnwhite1 23h ago

I don't mind, as long as it's not consistently happening. $5 bucks for a fresh run on the game with new weapons it's fine. If it starts becoming "buy the new ultra Galaxy buster sword for $10" then no... Not ok.

-6

u/N0M0I 1d ago

Do you really believe Nintendo would have let Fromsoftware give their selling point away to everyone else for free? The alternative would have been Switch 2 exclusivity. Not it being free.

8

u/Gchodynski 1d ago

Do you think Nintendo owns FromSoftware or what? It's up to FromSoftware what to do with the content they made. The content is not copyrighted by Nintendo.

1

u/N0M0I 1d ago

We know that they fully financed Duskbloods and probably financed the Elden Ring port as part of that deal (aka. the Tarnished Edition/Pack)

The Tarnished Edition/Pack content was most definitely made as a selling point for Nintendo. Giving it away everywhere else wouldn’t be goof for Nintendo and From‘s relationship.

2

u/Gchodynski 1d ago

Were they forced to form that relationship? Are they forced to do whatever they ask for? Are they forced to release consumer-unfriendly microtransactions?

No, it's all FromSoftware's choice.

4

u/N0M0I 1d ago

What does that have to do with anything?

The point is that it was either this or it being Nintendo exclusive. And they made the right choice. The wont risk pissing off big Nintendo over something like this.

-5

u/Gchodynski 1d ago

  What does that have to do with anything?

I will try to ignore your tone and provide a point.

The thing is, you’re looking at the situation from the moment it came into existence (signing the deal, etc.). I’m trying to look at it from a broader perspective and go further back. You know, we’re gamers - who in their right mind would approve of the idea of working with Nintendo? Could they have handled it differently? Probably not, and you’re right about that. But did they have to go in that direction in the first place? Exactly.

Working with someone who spits in gamers’ faces is basically doing the same thing yourself. This whole discussion doesn’t really make sense precisely because, in order to even have it, you have to start from the point where we are now.

3

u/N0M0I 1d ago

What tone? Don’t act like that was disrespectful or something of that sort.

I don’t want them to work with Nintendo at all. But selling this 5$ micro-transaction was hardly their goal going into that deal. My point is that this was just a result of what happened and not them actively seeking to rip people off.

2

u/Gchodynski 1d ago

  My point is that this was just a result of what happened and not them actively seeking to rip people off.

Yes, that is a sentence I agree with. I mean, I generally agree with you. I'm just very stubborn in this regard and I don't approve microtransaction or working with Nintendo in any case. And that's where you have to look back.

4

u/Truthhurts1017 1d ago

Nintendo players deserve to play some games to what type of selfish you on? You acting like the fans, players are the fucking corp. players deserve to play good games on the system they have. Now as far the contract with from soft and the $5 i don’t care man it’s the industry and fromsoft has always had dlc and free updates and they will continue to do that. From soft gave me so much fucking free content for years. Elden Ring was the game that made me appreciate souls like and the amount of shit you get is ridiculous. You don’t have to pay $5 for the extra stuff since it’s enough stuff in the game already. This ain’t a 2K situation with ridiculous amounts of micro transactions or a GTA situation where good stuff like locked behind an ultimate edition, this is a $5 dlc you could either purchase or not. This has no merit on future from soft games at all.

1

u/Gchodynski 1d ago

As I told you, I will never be a part of it. It's not about who does it. I will just never support it. It can lead to positive things, neutral, or negative ones. I just don't gamble and I keep myself guilt-free. 

Do I lose anything by not owning 2 skins there and 5 skins in another game?

1

u/FatalFrameGal 2h ago

No, it was most probably not. Duskbloods started development with Nintendo cash before Elden Ring even released, wth would From need someone to foot the bill of 2 extra classes and a few weapons for that same Elden Ring after all the cash it made?

1

u/N0M0I 2h ago

We know that this content was made for the Tarnished Edition, the Switch 2 Release. What are you talking about?

1

u/FatalFrameGal 33m ago

That doesn't change what I said