Nintendo Finally Gets With the Times...

Zelda Breath of the Wild Expansion Pass

-_-

Not happy about this, but I'll probably buy it. The only possible silver lining is that they're confident the have enough dungeons to include one in a season pass.

EDIT: $20 in the US

14th February, 2017 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Nintendo Switch and Wii U is one of the largest, most engaging video games Nintendo has ever created. While the main game offers players an engrossing quest that will keep them entertained for hours, as well as the freedom to explore the vast Hyrule at their own pace, the game world provides a rich canvas that offers the opportunity for additional adventures. As a result, the first-ever downloadable content for the mainline The Legend of Zelda series is in development.

Starting when the game launches on 3rd March, players will be able to purchase an Expansion Pass for £17.99/€19.99, granting access to two new sets of downloadable content for the game when they become available later this year. Immediately upon pre-purchase or purchase of the Expansion Pass, three new Treasure Chests will appear in the game’s Great Plateau area. One of these Treasure Chests will contain a shirt with a Nintendo Switch logo which Link can wear during his adventure, exclusive to the Expansion Pass. The other two Treasure Chests will deliver useful items. The first content pack is scheduled to launch this summer and will include the addition of a Cave of Trials challenge, a new hard mode and a new feature for the in-game map. The second content pack will launch in Holiday 2017, and adds new challenges that will let players enjoy a new dungeon and a new original story. The Expansion Pass will be available for both the Nintendo Switch and Wii U versions of the game and are identical. Content packs cannot be purchased individually.

“The world of Hyrule which we created for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so large and vibrant that we wanted to offer more for players to experience within it,” said Nintendo developer Eiji Aonuma, the long-time producer of the series. “With this new Expansion Pass, we hope that fans will play, explore and enjoy the game even more.”

The one time nintendoboy is gonna be mildly right about something, he's going to be insufferable as **** about it. You can just tell there will be some shitty reference to Family Guy or Trump.

Sorry, but this isn't a good. thing.

One of the best aspects of my beloved 3ds is a lack of dlc being spammed up my arse.

It's really nice to just play a game, without all the bullshit round about it. Like the other consoles it will get progressively worse to the point the next Zelda comes with built in microtransactions.

Great.

@uninspiredcup: oh I completely agree. The title was more sarcastic, as it seems like Nintendo is picking up some of the worst habits from other companies (both manufacturers and publishers).

People wanted Nintendo to be more like Sony and MS.

Yep lol...

Pay for online.... Check

Season Passes... Check

Overpriced underpowered gimmicky launch system and peripherals... Check

Plenty of third party support... Erm... Unchecked. :P

The price of modernization, as ugly as I thought it would.

Eh... not sure on this myself.

Price seems kinda high considering the first pack is literally just updates. Additional Cave of Trials challenge, Hard Mode and additional map features? This all sounds like stuff that should have either been in the game day one, or at the very least added in a free update, not part of a paid DLC pass.

Second pack sounds more interesting, but what does it actually mean. New story? That by itself means nothing, is it a brand new mini campaign, or just a side quest? New dungeon? Is this party of the "new story", or is this in addition to it? New challenges? Again is this just the same as the "new story" and thery're trying to make us think there's more hear than there actually is, or is it on top of that?

This announcement has left me with far more questions that answers and I do not feel comfortable even considering pre-ordering it when the content seems so light for the price.

I have to pay for a seasons pass to unlock the hard mode? I'm honestly kind of speechless....nice to see that unprecedented partnership with EA is paying off I guess....

This pass might be the worst I've ever seen. Outside of the new story content the other stuff sounds like features they stripped from the game to sell separately.

I do apologize.

Yes, people want Nintendo to meld into another androgynous console when the fact it done what it wanted was what set it apart, gloriously.

This is essenailly what happened to pc gaming, it use to be a hub of creativity with it's own AAA developed titles. Thanks to piracy it's now it's a place for console ports where your typical pc gamer equates "my GTX can run this console port with slightly better graphics" as the definition of pc gaming, it's identity is all but gone.

Screaming for third party snakes, namely Ubisoft and EA, wanting modernized Uncharted like presentation where gameplay services cutscenes and complaining about Nintendo's old school philosophy is very much like begging for the guillotine to drop in order to discard the unutterable poignancy of life.

@NathanDrakeSwag: false. Extra Zelda dungeon alone is better than most DLC. Did you see Evolve's DLC, or any CoD DLC?

Your fanboy is showing.

@uninspiredcup: never been a PC gamer so I can't necessarily relate, but it certainly seems like a problem with AAA gaming.

The ONLY that would make this okay is if the DLC story is a Zelda expansion where she's playable (which from the image they chose to advertise this doesn't seem far fetched).

This could be like Zelda'a Left Behind. If so I'll be okay with it.

And when was the last time I referenced the former? I don't do it all the time, and didn't do it now.

Oh goody. Now we get to see Nintendo get as scummy as the rest of the industry.

That was one of the nice things about the WiiU/3DS, very few games had DLC. Now they are getting on the season pass bullshit wagon. Ugh

Drives me nuts to no end knowing that my up front purchase is not buying a complete game unless I want to pay extra.

Certaintly have nothing against the idea of expanded content.

In the old days, before pc gaming became a fourth console, it had expansion packs. A game like Quake, would get an expansion with a 4-5 hour campaign, new weapons, enemies and multiplayer specific maps for £19.99.

Rather than winch at the announcement and promptly complain, stuff like Halflife: Opposing Force made people excited and optimistic.

Now it's £2.99 for a weapon, £5.99 for 3 multiplayer maps and £1000 for a bunch of anime girl costumes.

Not even content anymore, microtransactions, like mobile titles games (except in a £50 product) games specifically built around play or grind. Rainbow 6: Siege for example.

It's nonsense.

The fact that you have to bring up Evolve to make this look justifiable is sad. Nintendo stripped a dungeon, a difficulty, and a map feature to nickel and dime you for them.

No way... This is so stupid... On their launch title... AND ONE OF THE THINGS LOCKED IS HARD MODE!??!?!

Game ruined... I'll never buy it, but might be able to get it free. But using it is against my principals. Urgh..

@NathanDrakeSwag: nah bro not justifying. Take the fanboy goggles off for a second. From the title and OP alone you should realize that I'm against the idea of Nintendo adding DLC like this. Mario Kart 8 was the right way to do it. Unless this adds 5 hrs of content at least, it isn't worth it.

It's one thing to criticize, like I've done, and a completely different thing to come in spewing hyperbolic bullshit because it's Nintendo doing this and not Sony.

Stop it because you just look silly.

It was bound to happen. Nintendo is seeing that they are leaving money on the table. While I am not happy about this, it is the way of modern gaming and pretty much expected with all AAA releases at this point.

So not only do they have (by far) the most overpriced peripherals, games that never drop in price and online fees, but also the dlc milking that locks hard mode behind a paywall. lol Nintendo is entertaining.

@aigis: Where'd you get $60? US price has yet to be announced but it's €19.99 for both.

@sHaDyCuBe321: my bad

I don't really see the problem Zelda look like it's going to have 100's of hour of beautifully crafted content on that disk. If you want more then you have to pay for it.

@aigis: that's not usually how pricing works. Mario Kart 8 DLC was $12/£12/€12.

And like I said before it's €20 for both packs.

@sHaDyCuBe321: It's not hyperbolic. They are literally charging you for a difficulty level. This is as low as any other bad season pass in the industry.

And I'll be the first to criticize Sony for poor handling of DLC too. They locked guns behind paywalls in TLOU MP instead of letting you unlock them by playing the game. That was as shitty as it gets too. But it doesn't make what Nintendo is doing any better.

The best handling of DLC this gen has been The Witcher 3 and Overwatch.

@sHaDyCuBe321: even so, they shouldnt be charging me a cent for f****** hard mode. You're going to lock a difficulty?

I rarely buy DLC and I've never purchased a season pass before.

That said...MK8 was great DLC, probably some of the best I've ever seen, Especially in terms of price.

I guess if you close your eyes and pretend this is ten bucks each for two DLC's it's not SOOO bad.

But it's bad....I hope you people are happy. Nintendo is now like the others. Happy now? ARE YA? HUH? ARE YOU FUDGING HAPPY?

@NathanDrakeSwag: dude I get it. It's bullshit, but it's not as if hard mode is the only thing.

It's a problem that they're tied together when most people would probably just want the holiday pack.

But tell me this, will it be worth it if the second expansion pack is of the quality and length of Blood and Wine?

Nintendo has joined the milking revolution! Good Good....

@sHaDyCuBe321: Would it be worth it? Sure. But that still wouldn't excuse locking a difficulty level behind it and if the planned story DLC was the length and quality of Blood and Wine they wouldn't need the extra bells and whistles of the pass to sell it either.

I'm not mad on season passes at all. :(

It always makes me less inclined to purchase downloadable content for a game.

Smh the game isn't even out yet.... At least, announce the thing months after the release. It's ridiculous. Anyway, only the 2nd DLC interest me.

Here's the video, for the interested.

This isn't new. New for Zelda but not Nintendo as a whole. Nintendo has done DLC and season passes for the last several years on both the Wii U and the 3DS. Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3, Fire Emblem, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Golf, and Smash Bros Wii U/3DS all have either DLC or season passes. There might even be a few others as well I'm missing in regard to eShop games and retail games.

If one choose to ignore everything Nintendo was doing the last several years then this would be a surprise. However if one claimed to be a Nintendo fan, claimed to have played the most popular games on the Wii U and 3DS then they should have already been exposed to this. Additionally they should know when Nintendo does DLC it's significant and isn't content cut from the original game.

I don't agree with the hard mode being behind the pay wall but I expect everything else to be signficant as Nintendo's past DLCs have been. More Zelda is always a good thing. With how big BoTW is suppose to be it's not like it's content cut from the game. In fact because it's so late they're likely still working on it or just started.

I really don't understand the resistance to DLC. Judge the game on its merits. If it feels empty without the DLC then there is an issue. Most of the time, DLC is stuff that would make the game feel bloated if it were included right off the bat, and should only be there for the gamers who really loved the experienced and want that bloat.

It's also about economics. Games in the past didn't have DLC, but their budgets were also minuscule compared to today's budgets, and took much more man-hours to produce. If you care about the viability of gaming, then DLC is a good thing.

However I would agree that the Hard Mode seems like something that should be included in the main game, but that depends on what it is. If it's a large investment like re-designed areas, then I don't see the problem.

NOOO!! WHY NINTENDO??

Ugh.

At least Nintendo is decent about it.

1. They tell you what you're getting and when.

2. It's priced somewhat normally.

But Nintendo does DLC right! A paid difficulty lol.

it's really not that bad of a price compared to what other companies offer

That's not a problem. Announcing things early is fine. Especially if you get details to some degree about what you're going to get. When you don't get details is a problem. That this is coming in the summer and then the big part coming in the holiday season are the most important aspects of this. That means it's not content cut from the game since they have to actually make it. That's what they did with Smash, Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, etc. Announced the DLC was coming. Let you know when. Then worked on it and not simply cut it from the game for day one content.

Cast your mind back to Oblivion.

Everyone scoffed at the horse armor, it was ridiculous, laughable. No one in their right minds would ever buy that.

Not only did it sell well, it's not standard and went well beyond, companies are now selling, literally, nothing.

No they're not.

Yeah, the hub bub about the horse armor was the perfect advertising for the horse armor. It's like trump voters...nobody proudly said they were voting for him...but they secretly did. So I bet many bought the horse armor...but never told anyone about it.

I would like to add they added so much to splatoon and never charged a cent. So they give and they take, it feels balanced.

Yeah price sounds good. Ill be buying for sure.

Ohhh boy, c'mon you silly gooses defending this..er, I mean sheep...

lol :P

@SecretPolice:

How can Nintendo fanboys defends this.

I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but for years, didn't Nintendo fanboys ripped Sony/MSoft for DLCs and online?

Honestly, we should have all seen this coming. Nintendo went from reasonable (MK8) to somewhat bullshit (Smash 4) and now we get total bullshit (Breath of the Wild)

@PSP107: You do know Nintendo has had DLC for years. Its been praised as best DLC ever known to man.

Good point. The DLC probably isn't done yet.... tho the detail I would like to know is how many hours of gamplay it will add. Honestly, the DLC is ok but announcing it so soon feel like you get cheated, ya know? It's just the feeling.... but yeah I'm making a big deal out of nothing. :P I'll get over it.