Infinity Ward and Activision sent out a press release making sure everyone took note of the fact that they have just shattered an Xbox Live DLC record by selling 2.5 million downloads of the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus map pack. 2.5 million just in the first week alone at 15 dollars a pop is around 37 million dollars if this calculator is correct. That is a LOT of cash.
The big question is will there be more DLC coming soon? Also, will it be similarly priced as the first? Is it sending a message out to other developers and publishers telling them to basically charge whatever they want for a small amount of content?
Another map pack for Modern Warfare 2? You betcha, there is no way Activision is going to let this cash cow go without completely milking her first. While it may not be soon we would put money on this happening at least two more times. Hopefully gamers wont have to pay $15 again for 2 maps that were already in the first Modern Warfare and a few new ones. Charging 15 dollars doesn’t seem quite fair when Infinity Ward only charged around 800 MS points for a 4 level map pack in the first game.
It comes as quite a surprise that the new maps have sold so well, even with Modern Warfare 2 being as big as it is. There hasn’t been a bigger outlash against DLC and the pricing in a long time, I personally witnessed a lot of comments all over the web from thousands and thousands of gamers saying they absolutely would not pay that much for 2 old maps and 3 new ones. With Modern Warfare 2 in the condition it is in with all of the cheaters, hackers, glitchers, exploiters, and boosters many haven’t put their copy of MW2 in for months and months *except when Kombo had the community playdate of course*. Until these problems are rectified many will not give them their money. No one wants to pay $15 just to join a game and get nuked within the first minute because of some exploit or booster.
When Activision and Infinity Ward announce another map pack you can bet on it being similarly priced. Activision is going down a road that other publishers shouldn’t follow. EA learned this the hard way and is now letting their development teams take their time making the games instead of forcing harsh deadlines and pushing games out early like Activision has clearly done with Modern Warfare 2.
This is definitely sending a bad message to those are also considering overcharging. More publishers might go, “Hey, you know what, Activision charged 15 dollars for a lousy map pack, lets see if we can charge 15 for 1 map and some extra armor!”. This is not what gamers want to see. Let’s hope the industry doesn’t take this turn for the worst. If it does you can count on your Halo: Reach maps being $20+ each and every time they are released. Bungie has been quite good about pricing though so gamers shouldn’t need to worry…Hopefully.
What do you guys out there think? Did you get your monies worth with the Stimulus Map Pack? Let us know in the comment section below!
