Today marks the release of Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on PS4 and PC (Xbox One's release date has been moved to Thursday, July 28th) and players have discovered the first game does not include the DLC characters that released in 2007. This may be strange, but there appears to be a reason.
The DLC for the game on Xbox 360 and PS3 disappeared off the storefront in 2009 after a contract between Marvel and Activision expired. This would have lined up with when Disney bought Marvel so it's possible that there were some behind the scenes negotiations that prevented Activision from selling the DLC. Players were able to get the DLC through the game's "Gold Edition" but players were unable to purchase the DLC digitally.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 DOES however include the DLC characters strangely enough, and I really have no explanation for that! Players are upset that they're being charged $39.99 for the first title (or $59.99 for both games in a bundle) yet the game doesn't include the DLC. Personally, they should have been upfront about this because Activision and Marvel avoided this question heavily before release and left players wondering. There is no indication that the DLC isn't included before buying, and led everyone to finding out that it wasn't included by some people who tweeted out in frustration after buying the superhero brawler.
Since Activision probably can't include the DLC, they should offer some sort of discount on the first game or give players who already bought the game something to makeup for the frustration. We will keep you updated as the story develops as Activision will probably release a statement shortly.
[Reddit]
