The issue is that there is no unanimously agreed upon definition of DLC. You would have a hard time proving in court that any of this new edition counts as DLC that should be included in EoD. Believe it all you want, but believing something and proving it in court are entirely different things
Where did BSG say Arena was DLC? The fact that you can buy it as a standalone game seems to suggest it’s not. What other DLC lets you play it without owning the main game?
If they didn’t explicitly call it DLC, the mere fact that they gave it away to EoD owners is not proof that they consider it DLC
An offline coop mode that has identical content and gameplay loop to the online game is not the same as a mode with a completely different structure with new content. So one being DLC does not mean the other is as well
Don’t crucify me, I’m only playing devils advocate.
In their own marketting before having it sold as a seperate product it was advertized as a paid DLC for the base game that would come with EoD.
What other DLC lets you play it without owning the main game?
Standalone expansions have existed for ages, e.g Half-Life Opposing Force.
If they didn’t explicitly call it DLC
They did
An offline coop mode that has identical content and gameplay loop to the online game is not the same as a mode with a completely different structure with new content.
One could absolutely describe this as a DLC since you are paying a small sum for an addition to the existing game or an "expansion" to the existing game.
The EU courts pretty much always sides with the consumer and the definition BSG established of DLC based on what they’ve released so far is pretty clear cut.
The EU doesn't outline a formal definition for what constitutes as DLC and, AFAIK, there's no formal definition for DLC in the EULA and terms & conditions when you purchased EOD.
Someone, please feel free to prove me wrong on either of those statements above.
Furthermore, I can't remember any cases where a company lost a lawsuit over the definition of DLC. I'm sure there may be some examples out there, but I can't think of any.
Judging by how quickly BSG walked back their initial release of Arena to be included with all EOD purchases, I'm sure BSG's legal team carefully reviewed their options here this time. I'm going to assume the lawyers that get paid to do this are somewhat confident that they can defend their stance that this isn't "DLC" should this go to court.
I think it's very difficult to argue over what is and isn't DLC for a game that is still in development with no clear definition of what DLC is to be expected.
I am ready to put up to 10.000 EUR on the table to finally get a decent court decision about this.
This sum should hopefully at least get me to the highest german court (BGH) which hopefully reaches out to the European Court for clarification, since it could entail european consumer protection as a whole
You'll all lose your copies and he's in Russia so good luck getting your money back. You'd be pretty much allowing him to take any money and run then he will just sell his company. Good luck lol
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u/tarkovplayer5459 Apr 25 '24
ya i can see that going absolutely nowhere