Oblivion Gets More Content

Two Upcoming Packages Detailed, Patches Planned

from Stardock Forums
The folks over at Bethesda Softworks have priced the newest content packages for their massively popular RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, taking a slightly different approach from the just released package that geared up a player's stead.

'The Wizard's Tower' and 'The Orrery' will include even more content than its predecessor at a lower price to boot. PC owners will be able to pick up 'The Orrery' next week for $1.89 allowing them to explore a new quest with original dialog, journals, rewards and even new character powers based on the cycle of the moon.

'The Wizard's Tower' will act as a safe haven for players, enabling them to create spells, grow herbs, and perform many other magic oriented tasks. Unfortunately Bethesda has not announced a price point or release date for that content patch.

The Bethesda post also mentioned two upcoming patches for the title. The first, which will debut in Beta form on PCs, will fix various known issues and bugs in the title. The second patch will address localization issues, mainly for the European version.

Source: ElderScrolls Forum
1,349 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Remember the good old days when this sort of content would be released for free as part of patches?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Remember the good old days when this sort of content would be released for free as part of patches?


I would like to point out that SOME companies, such as, say, the one whose website this is, still do.

Unfortunately, the reality is that gaming has been relatively blessed in terms of price increases; where everything else has been going up by inflation if nothing else, games have remained relatively stable except for very high profile releases. But with the next generation requiring even more work than before and most companies using the "throw lots of people at it" approach to handling it, games cost too much to make and it's basically either this or raise prices generally. I'll take this since at least I can choose not to buy it.

It also doesn't help that this sort of scheme has been astoundingly successful; the reason is because if you can release enough small content packs, you can price them so low that the average buyer doesn't think about it.

My worry isn't so much quality games like Oblivion using this model, since frankly, I'd buy an expansion right now for that game if it was available and what they're doing is nearly the same thing; what I'm worried about is when the big publishers start shipping half games and charging extra for the rest. "Hey, don't you wish that $50 game you bought had an ending? Well, for the low, low price of $19.95, you can have it!" It's bad enough they dupe so many people into buying games like that in the first place, and you can bet way too many of those people will cough up some extra so that they can feel like they didn't waste the first $50.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Weeeelll, there is a massive difference between what you just said and what oblivion is doing. There are plenty of mods for oblivion with many new quests. You don't have to pay for most of them, so if you want that wizard bumbling moon saratoga thingy, feel free to pay. There is no problems when you have the choice to pay or not. If ever games come to the point that you have to pay for the ending or important parts of it, then a gamer i will be no more. Don't forget that there are many many way to have fun. Video games are just one of them.