Faction 9 - Pontus "Day One" DLC - Bizarre logic?

[Heskey]

Hi all,

Can I just start by saying, I've just pre-ordered Rome 2 - this isn't a whine about bolt-on content for money grabbing.

Simply, if Pontus is 'additional content made available from day 1 to everyone'... Why isn't it just in the game?

I remember Battlefield 2142 had to roll out a day 1 patch to fix major issues the game had from shipping, and the logic behind that is understandable.

But if a game isn't finished and on disc yet, why treat this 9th faction as additional content if it comes WITH the game? Surely it's core content?

I just don't understand the logic.

[Murfmurf]

I think it's to do with deadlines set by SEGA, which coincidentally were the reason for Empire's flawed launch.

They have a certain amount of time to finish, with a set deadline and release date. As such you work out how much you can realistically do in that time, including testing.

From what I gather, they're way ahead of schedule, and as such had time to work on another faction, but the original brief they set themselves still exists and is "locked-down", so instead they add the extra content as DLC.

It still works out the same for us, but avoids headaches for them with logistics/printing/publishing etc etc.

[normajean]

The game is finished and going through testing, bug-fixing and distribution. That leaves the programmers without much to do, so they make extra content - that content can't go in the boxed game simply because of how production cycles work.

[Raikou]

Just like I said before they said there would be 500 units yet theres 4 more factions so called "DLC" well if those 4 factions account for the 500 men as well then they mustve known they would be DLC marketing otherwise there'd be more than 500 units...

[Heskey]

Thanks for the responses all, that makes perfect sense.

I'm satisfied this threat can be locked!

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

Pontus DLC will be finished after the DVD is gone Gold, so it will be not on the disc, but avaible as a day one patch if you want it that way.

[PROMETHEUS ts]

Pontus DLC will be finished after the DVD is gone Gold, so it will be not on the disc, but avaible as a day one patch if you want it that way.

Its already finished according to them they should be working on other faction dlcs for later release...

The weird thing is that they are still able to put in error fixes , bug cleaning , game polishing , hopefully even reins.... But not faction dlcs ....

[Adreno]

Its already finished according to them they should be working on other faction dlcs for later release...

The weird thing is that they are still able to put in error fixes , bug cleaning , game polishing , hopefully even reins.... But not faction dlcs ....

eh its the same thing, content is locked and about to be printed, now theyre going to bugfix and all that.. and day 1 will see dlc and a day 1 patch added..

[Adreno]

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[normajean]

Its already finished according to them they should be working on other faction dlcs for later release...

The weird thing is that they are still able to put in error fixes , bug cleaning , game polishing , hopefully even reins.... But not faction dlcs ....

By the time the Pontus 'free-lc' is done, tested and bugs fixed the main game will probably already be going through distribution.

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

I think it's a marketing move by CA, attempting to make us appreciate it more.