You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Our corporate overlords have just one goal in mind: sell us crap. That's just how it is. A typical meeting probably goes something like this:
Marketing Guy: How can we sell this crap?
Marketing Guy 2: Can you say, "Greatest Hits?"
Marketing Guy: BOOYAH!
High-fives, chest-bumps, and company cars all around.
Above: Om nom nom nom
Downloadable content isn't a bad thing per se, but when the content is already on the disk and we're paying for a "key" to unlock it, well, that's a pile of barn animal excrement (hear that, Beautiful Katamari?).
There's also the question of pricing. Does it make sense that to buy all of the downloadable songs for Rock Band would cost nearly as much as the game itself? Not unless you eat piles of money for breakfast, in which case you should probably be more worried about that bowel obstruction.
The only way to avoid being duped into paying extra for a complete product is research. Know what you're buying before you buy it, and don't go downloading all willy-nillyuntil you've evaluated the actual worth of your purchase.
Above: GTA IV exclusive downloadable content? That's a damn double shaft!
The entire concept of the exclusive is built to breed fanboyism. Turns out, most of the time an exclusive isn't really an exclusive ("timed exclusive" anyone?). And why should it be? The publishers want to make more money, so releasing a game on only one platform is counterproductive.
These "console rivalries" are manufactured by the console makers and propagated by blindly loyal fans to do nothing else but sell consoles. Don't buy into it. Sony doesn't "have your back." Neither do Microsoft or Nintendo. They just want to eat your delicious cash.
If there's a game you want on a console you don't own, make an educated decision. You can suck it up and buy a new console, borrow it from a friend, play the entire game in a store kiosk - it's up to you, but don't get caught up in blind brand loyalty, that's what they want.
On the next page: "shortages" and fake hype...
