Eurogamer: "PC BioShock 2 users will not get to play the recent Minerva's Den DLC expansion, or the Protector's Trials pack, 2K Marin has announced."
Gone Home was one of the first games upon which the term ‘walking simulator’ was bestowed, games in which you move around an environment, seeking out interactive artefacts and/or triggering audio and video logs that, together, tell a story - the interaction and player agency coming from the order and pacing through which you uncover moments of interest.
Your resultant depth of understanding is determined by how far you're willing to explore both the world around you and how you decide to interpret what you've seen, heard and ingested.
Here Steve Gaynor of The Fullbright Company (Gone Home, Tacoma) talks to Indie By Design's John Robertson about the progress he and his studio has made since Gone Home, what is the core nature of his games and how he goes about constructing and designing them. We also discuss his work on the Bioshock series and where games as a whole sit within wider culture and why they find themselves in their current position.
Aaron at IGCritic says "Many have come to think of the term DLC as standing for Downright Lazy Cash-grabbing as opposed to what it is usually intended as; additional content."
Kotaku:
"Whether it's a good old-fashioned expansion pack or modern DLC, spinning additional content for already-released games has been a standard practice in the industry for decades. But the best expansions do more than simply add a few extra hours of the same game for you to play. They enhance the ideas and systems explored in their parent games, condensing them down into a smaller, tighter package that function as self-contained entities."
PC GAMERS, LET'S NOT TAKE THIS SHODDY TREATMENT LYING DOWN! TAKE TWO MINUTES TO SEND THIS EMAIL TO TAKE TWO - just COPY AND PASTE AND SIGN AND SEND!
**** COPY AND PASTE STARTS BELOW********
To: Meg Maise
Investor Relations/Corporate Communications
Phone: (646) 536-2932
E-mail: meg.maise@take2games.com
Dear Meg,
As a Bioshock 2 customer, I am outraged that 2K has decided to not release additional DLC content for the PC (namely Minerva's Den).
I find this upsetting for several reasons:
1) In 2K's original announcement for Minerva's Den, 2K stated that a PC release was forthcoming - to backtrack on a statement like that constitutes a broken promise and hurts 2K's overall credibility and public image for all users.
2) More importantly, by your actions you're telling the PC market that we don't matter. If this is truly how 2K Games feels, then just come out and say so. As PC users we'll simply make sure not to purchase your games if we're to be treated as second-class citizens. And as much as we like the Bioshock universe, you should already start cutting back your projections for Bioshock Infinite if this is the half-hearted support you intend to provide for that title as well.
I do not know what sort of flawed cost / benefit analysis went into your decision-making process, but based on the anger and the number of responses I've seen in comments posted on numerous websites (including 2K Forums), I think you are being short-sighted in thinking that a PC release would not be worth the time or effort. I have read the extremely positive reviews for Minerva's Den and would have even prepaid for the DLC if 2K needed to guarantee a certain level of downloads to ensure profitability. Instead 2K has hurt its own image by handling this issue in such a haphazard fashion.
I urge you to reconsider your decision and rebuild your trust with your customers - they're your ultimate stakeholders, not the shareholders, and will decide the ultimate success of Take Two Interactive as a company.
Best Regards,
[Your Name]