http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/burnout-toycars.jpg
A couple of weeks ago Burnout Paradise was given its second piece of pay-for DLC, the movie & TV inspired Legendary Cars Pack. While kinda cool, I couldn’t recommend them to fellow gamers in good conscience, because EA have a serious issue with charging reasonable prices for their downloadable content.

When I checked out Criterion Games’ website for details on today’s Toy Cars pack, I’m pretty sure I died a little inside. Or maybe it’s just my hangover (http://twitter.com/yamstersg/status/1280571816). See why after the jump…



In case you decided - like most of the readership here, probably - not to read my 25th article on Burnout Paradise in the past month and a half, I gave the Legendary Cars pack a good seeing to when it hit the Marketplace and the PlayStation Store in the middle of February. It wasn’t pretty. (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2009/02/itsnotareview-burnout-legendary-cars.html)

The homages to Ghostbusters, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider and of course Back To The Future were pretty cool but at the same time, EA’s asking price -*$/€7.99, £6.29, or 640 Microsoft Points - was just too much, especially when you took the actual exchange rates into consideration. The Europeans, for instance, were being charged an extra two bucks for no conceivable reason whatsoever.

It couldn’t get much worse than this and the also-slightly-overpriced Party Pack (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2009/02/itsnotareview-burnout-paradise-party-pack.html), right? Ohhh dear…apparently it can! While the pricing of the Toy Cars pack isn’t as bad as that of the Legendary Cars (which worked out at about £1.60, $/€1.99 or 160 MS points a car…but we’re not here to number crunch because that’s boring) it’s still pretty bad.

8 quid! (or about $/€10.99, but I can’t confirm that.)* (http://www.criteriongames.com/packs/toy_cars.php)*That’s a lot of dosh for 9 dinky versions of cars you’ve already got (whether you unlocked them or, um, spent a fiver on the ‘I’m a lazy ass, give me the cars’ unlock). Are EA for real? (I’ve presuming EA handle the pricing independently from Criterion…but I’m gonna check that out.)

So much for my estimate of £5 (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2009/02/burnouts-dlc-will-you-buy-it-all.html) for the Toy Cars pack. This is getting friggin’ ridiculous. I can understand the need to make money and to reward Criterion for their admittedly admirable work, but this works out at about 89p - or ~$/€1.19, by my own estimates - per car (AGAIN WITH THE NUMBER CRUNCHING).

When you compre this pricing to that of other games, the pricing looks even more ridiculous; PSN game High Velocity Bowling’s occasional DLC offerings are either free or 80p packs, each of which features a character and a new level to play in. All for less than a single Toy Car.

I’m getting a little sick of EA’s current exercise in extortion,*especially since so many suckers out there will shrug their shoulders and think “wow, look at the size of the motorcyclist’s head, this is so cute, I MUST HAVE IT.” EA knows these suckers are out there, and they know how to exploit them.*There’s profit, and there’s greed:*Burnout Paradise is most definitely an exercise in the latter.

I guess it’s true that things get more expensive as they get smaller…

*When I wrote this at first I was going by the prices listed on Criterion’s Toy Cars page. Since then the pack has went live in the UK with revised, cheaper prices and I have no idea what the pricing is in other territories.



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Yep, just forget all the free DLC they've made for it and concentrate on this one silly little pack. Just think of it as having those cars, bikes, a new physics system and the day night cycle.

If you dont want to pay for the cars then don't, its nothing gameplay altering. Its like the SF4 costumes, they're there if you want them and are stupid enough to buy them but you're missing out on nothing if you dont.

I don't mind paying for them, it's just when the pricing stacks up and you're essentially buying a whole new game.

Look at Metal Gear Online's latest announcement: they'll sell you all 3 expansions - which come with several characters, bits of clothing, maps, gameplay modes and more - for 18 bucks. Burnout's DLC totals a lot more than that already!

I suppose in a way that there's "back pay" for the updates of the past but at the same time...it seriously stings your wallet!

This rant is really directed more at EA than at Criterion. They're extorting from Burnout owners in the same way they're extorting from Skate 2 owners; have you seen any other game where you're made to pay for extra camera controls a couple of weeks after the game came out? Have you seen any other publisher make you purchase a cheat code in the way EA make you for Burnout and Skate 2?

Whatever happened to being able to put in a "get all cars" cheat code for nothing, y'know?

I'm just angry at EA for seriously ripping off everybody; I don't mind paying for Burnout DLC but dammit, we're paying too much.