Heck yeah, looks like we have a lot to look forward to. My only hope is that the marketing team can do a little better moving forward to keep players interested while we're waiting for content instead of going silent on us.
I think the plan was always to release in a glut like this to generate a large amount of hype. That kind if "feast or famine" marketing is common in media products and much as we on this forum all reasonably say we hate it and would rather, as super fans, have a steady stream of info, there's a method to the madness: a slow trickle of info doesn't pack as much oompf for the mass market, whereas stringing people along, desperate for information and then dropping lots at once does. But I think in this case there's a second cause: SC has not exactly been a cash cow in recent years and I think they needed a fair bit of market research and decent sales projections to decide where they were likely to land in terms of Namco bankrolling serialized content.
I believe that's also why they faked a leak (
albeit in a comically obvious way) as a viral reveal of the second season pass--it's helpful also because it's free marketing that get people very invested through "sleuthing" and theorizing about the exact nature of the content, but it also allows them to drop those plans like a hot potato if necessary, without facing blowback from people who bought the base game anticipating more content; in that situation, Namco has plausible deniability/the ability to genuinely claim "Hey, we didn't announce anything!"
By the same token, once the first season pass is completely officially revealed and has firm release dates, the eyes of the consumers turn towards that issue. Altogether, they have lots of reasons for keeping a lid on the exact details and stretching out the reveals for marketing purposes. The complaints of superfans are reasonable and genuine at the same time, but I wouldn't expect Namco/PS to do a huge turn-about on how they've recently approached their marketied the content and signposted their announcements, and it's not because they are oblivious to the frustrations of the hardcore players, I don't think--it's more that they have geared their decisions towards the bigger picture, alas.
I wonder if once season 1 is finished if they'll release a complete edition or if they'll wait until after season 2. Right now in Canada the game is retailing for 39.99 so something like that could help bring the price tag back up to the standard 79.99
That's indeed an interesting question. I'm sure they have a team of analysts crunching numbers anew each week to figure that out: cash in on giving consumers another way to purchase or signal that the content is an ongoing thing but waiting until after season two? My guess is they go for the former: afterall, gamers are now used to choosing between two, three or even four editions of a given game and don't get as frustrated with the pricing shenanigans.
2B has been released 1 month and 3 weeks after her trailer dropped, so basically almost two months later.
Well, if Amy comes out on April 9, I'll be a happy enough customer. :) But I've got my fingers cross for March even so!
