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WiiU

New Super Mario Bros. U Will Receive DLC in the Future

by Tom Malina - November 16, 2012, 8:46 pm EST
Total comments: 7

Nintendo wants to take an approach different from the DLC in New Super Mario Bros. 2.

Nintendo is planning to sell additional courses for New Super Mario Bros. U in the future, according to a recent Iwata Asks developer interview.

When questioned on the topic, EAD General Manager Takashi Tezuka confirmed that the development team had not yet begun work on these levels, but the infrastructure for selling and downloading them is already in place. This follows the precedent set by New Super Mario Bros. 2, which launched on Nintendo 3DS earlier this year.

Tezuka also mentioned that their intention with these downloadable courses is to explore ways of playing that are different from the DLC in the aforementioned 3DS title. 

In that game, new stages were released for the Coin Rush mode in packs of three, grouped by specific themes such as difficulty. Whether this means that the upcoming add-ons will be more than Boost Rush and Challenge Mode level packs remains to be seen.

New Super Mario Bros. U is a Wii U launch game in all territories, releasing in North America on November 18, Europe on November 30 and Japan on December 8.

Talkback

Chocobo_RiderNovember 17, 2012

That's it.  Nintendo has finally caved completely on DLC.  I can't stand DLC, let alone paid DLC.  It's just a rip-off plain and simple.

It essentially boils down to a game no longer costing $60 but costing $80.  AND, that extra slice of the game doesn't live in the box with the disc.  So, if your system dies and the next one can't import? Or the one two generations down the line? That content, which you paid extra for, is gone, son - and through no fault of your own.

My most highly anticipated Wii U game just got tarnished. Disgusting.

TJ SpykeNovember 17, 2012

DLC in general is NOT a rip-off, it's NOT. Some specific DLC is, but in general it is not. And Nintendo is doing it really well, $2.50 for 3 new levels is a good deal. And it's bullshit to say the game now costs $80, the DLC is EXTRA. It's like a pizza, which is the game. Extra ingredients are like DLC. Do you complain when the pizza shop charges you extra for those extra ingredients and bitch that the real pizza is now more?

EasyCureNovember 17, 2012

While I don't feel as strongly as NinSage, it is a slippery slope. We all know how greedy Nintendo is/can be..

Chocobo_RiderNovember 17, 2012

@TJ

mmm, no.  Pizza is a fairly standard thing: cheese, crust, sauce.  Games, on the other hand, have no such standard and thus a "complete" game is entirely subjective.  There's nothing wrong with that.  But, it becomes problematic when the ones SELLING the game are the ones telling you what should and should not be expected in the "complete" package.

For instance, in Mario 3, you could battle a 2P if you landed on the same space.  Did it contribute to the game? No. Was it fun? Maybe.  Was it extra? NO.

Some DLC can be done well.  And Nintendo's approach to DLC may very well still be some of the most virtuous.  But, since the entirety of the concept is designed to squeeze the customer's who care most, it's just not cool.

If it was more about "supporting a product" or giving more to your loyal fans, you'd see FREE DLC a lot more.  But, we just don't.  So, it's purely about money. Which can also be OK, I mean, gaming is a business.  The problem with this particular VERSION of the business is that we won't have that content when the machine it's on eventually dies.

Conversely, my wife and I just played Mario 3 a few weeks ago (on my SECOND NES) - battle stages and all - at no extra charge.

@EasyCure

Exactly.  A slippery slope.  When the foxes guard the hen house, things are NOT going to turn out in the hen's advantage.

EasyCureNovember 17, 2012

Slippery slope indeed, but we'll see. As long as Nintendo doesn't start rushing games out the door that need day 1 patches like other big name games from other devs, I'm fine with DLC because I can easily just skip it (or the game entirely if I feel early on that I'd be buying a DLC trap).

Considering how they seem to be rushing Wii U out though doesn't give me much confidence.

Mop it upNovember 18, 2012

Quote from: TJ

And Nintendo is doing it really well, $2.50 for 3 new levels is a good deal.

From a strictly value perspective, it is not a good deal. The base game of NSMB2 has ~80 levels, so if the game were $2.50 for 3 levels, then it would be around $70. That's nearly twice the price of the base game, and could be even higher if the game were purchased on sale.

As a deal-conscious consumer, DLC is never a good value compared to full retail games, which can and often do go on sale. Now, entertainment value is another story, and what something's worth in dollars in that sense is up to the individual.

As far as DLC for the NSMB games specifically, it at least doesn't feel like content that was withheld, and I don't think I'll feel like I'm missing anything by not buying the DLC.

Luigi DudeNovember 18, 2012

The problem with DLC is when it's used to take the place of features that used to be standard in games.  Hell, some games charge DLC just to get the ending for fucks sake.

In the case of NSMB U though, the DLC isn't taking anything away.  On its own, NSMB U has more content then any of the previous 2D Mario games.  It was the same way with Fire Emblem Awakening which without the DLC is still the biggest Fire Emblem game as well.

So right now, Nintendo hasn't been scamming anyone with any DLC since the standalone retail games are still being made as true sequels with more content over their predecessors.  And people need to stop the slippery slope argument by pointing to what others in the industry have done, when we all know Nintendo does their own thing(for better or worse) and doesn't follow what others do.

Plus Nintendo did DLC with the Mario Advance 4 E-reader cards which were more expensive so people need to stop acting shocked Nintendo is charging for DLC Mario levels when they already did close to a decade ago.  If anything, the prices for NSMB 2's levels show Nintendo has gotten better with DLC prices not worse.

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