Tag: Downloadable content

Rock Band Devs Announce No More DLC, Focusing On Fortnite Now

Harmonix, the Epic Games-owned studio behind the popular rhythm game franchise Rock Band, has officially announced that it is wrapping up its weekly DLC releases for 2015’s Rock Band 4. It will now focus on supporting Fortnite Festival, instead.

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Rock Band 4 was released nearly a decade ago in October 2015, and was a return for the franchise five years after the release of Rock Band 3 and the crash of plastic instrument games like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero. While Rock Band 4 wasn’t able to rebuild the once large plastic instrument genre of rhythm games, it ended up with a dedicated community of players who kept enjoying the game and buying DLC songs for it even as it became harder and harder to track down replacement instrument controllers. Now, eight years and nearly 3,000 DLC songs later, Harmonix is moving on.

In a January 17 post on the official Harmonix blog from Rock Band 4‘s product manager Daniel Sussman, the studio revealed that the DLC music released on January 25 will be the last ever for Rock Band 4. Sussman’s post did clarify that all other live services, including Rivals seasons and online play, will continue as normal. But there will be no new tracks coming to RB4 after this month.

Sussman also made it clear that all the songs players own in Rock Band 4 will not be going anywhere, adding that you’ll be able to keep rocking out to your previously purchased songs “for as long as you like.”

Fortnite Festival is the future

As for what Harmonix is working on now, well, that’s clear if you’ve been paying attention to Fortnite lately. Epic’s popular battle royale juggernaut expanded in December with the addition of three new games built inside Fortnite. One of those is Fortnite Festival, a controller-based rhythm game featuring popular songs from different genres. Harmonix is the team behind that game and it’s what the studio will be focusing on post-Rock Band 4.

Epic Games

“Looking ahead, the Harmonix team has been hard at work over the last two years to develop Fortnite Festival,” said Sussman. “[It] brings rhythm action gaming (and more) to the Fortnite ecosystem. It’s free to play, we have a rotating selection of songs that you can play (for free) anytime. If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be.”

And Sussman once again confirmed that support for RB4 instruments is coming soon to Festival, so you don’t need to “hang up your guitars just yet.”

“Working in support of the Rock Band community has been a high point in my professional life,” Sussman explained.

“We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB4 DLC of this era. The last two weeks will feature some tear-jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game. Long Live Rock and Roll.”

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Zack Zwiezen

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January 17, 2024
The Best Gaming Tips Of The Week, From God of War To Xbox Deals

It’s a quiet week for major releases, but a big week for savings and DLC from some of the biggest games in the land, like God of War Ragnarok and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

God Of War Ragnarök DLC: Spend 19 Minutes In Valhalla

Here are some of the tips and guides we found most helpful this week.

Xbox Series X Just Got A Massive Price Drop

Photo: Ian Gavan (Getty Images)

In case you still needed to do some last-minute Christmas shopping for the gamers in your life (or for yourself), Microsoft has temporarily slashed the price of its most powerful gaming console, knocking the cost down by $100. – Levi Winslow Read More

How To Get Dipplin’s New Evolved Form In Pokémon Scarlet And Violet

Image: The Pokémon Company

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC adds a handful of new monsters to catch, one of which is, as fans had theorized, an evolution to Dipplin called Hydrapple. This means one of Applin’s diverging evolutionary lines finally has a third form. But if you’ve had a Dippllin since it was introduced in The Teal Mask DLC, you might be curious why it hasn’t evolved into this new form in the time between the two expansions. That’s because Hydrapple’s evolutionary method hadn’t been added to Scarlet and Violet until now. Here’s how to evolve your candy apple dragon into its final form. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

12 Things To Know Before Playing God Of War Ragnarök: Valhalla

Screenshot: Santa Monica Studio / Kotaku

God of War Ragnarök’s new, free DLC Valhalla is out now, and it’s a pretty great combat showcase that has the added benefit of giving Kratos some much-needed therapy. But if you’re unfamiliar with the punishing, repetitious nature of the roguelike genre or just haven’t booted up Ragnarök lately, it can knock you on your ass. Worry not, because we’re here to give you some general tips to help you face your demons. So grab your axe, blades, and spears, and let’s walk into Valhalla together. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

Alan Wake 2: New Game Plus Is An Excuse To Play This Work Of Art Again

Gif: Remedy Entertainment / Kotaku

Alan Wake 2, Remedy’s survival horror sequel, came out in late October, but if you’re already longing for another trip through the spiral, I have good news: “The Final Draft” update has arrived, and with it a new game plus mode and new story content. Not convinced? Then just watch this trailer and try not to lose your mind at the 30-second mark. – Claire Jackson Read More

Grand Theft Auto V Joins PlayStation Plus This Month

Image: Rockstar Games

Oh hey, we’re just burning through December, aren’t we? Well if the 2024 release calendar is lookin’ rather slim to you, might I interest you in some new additions to Sony’s PlayStation Plus service? This month includes quite a few tempting offers. – Claire Jackson Read More

Where To Find Every Essential Resource In Lego Fortnite

Screenshot: Epic Games

George Carlin famously said “a house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.” At its core, Lego Fortnite is the same. Epic’s new collab with Lego has become an absolute phenom since it launched December 7, seeing a daily peak of around 2 million concurrent players. Like all good sandbox survival games, it’s driven by the need to gather, store, and organize piles of stuff. But not all stuff is created equal. Some stuff, like wood and granite, is readily available. Other stuff is harder to find. This guide is concerned with the latter, giving you insight on where to find the hard-to-find materials like knotroot, flexwood, and more. – Mo Mozuch Read More

Buy Alan Wake 2 And Get Alan Wake Remastered For Free On Epic Games Store

Screenshot: Remedy Entertainment / Kotaku

Curious about Alan Wake 2 but never played the first? Well if you’re a PC gamer, I’ve got some good news: Grab a copy of Alan Wake 2 on the Epic Games Store during its holiday sale and you’ll get a free copy of the 2021 remastered version of the first game. – Claire Jackson Read More

Check Out Call Of Duty’s New Map For Free This Weekend

Image: Activison / Kotaku

Yeah, so that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III campaign wasn’t great. The multiplayer though? That’s a different story. And if you’re at all curious about some shooty fun between friends across some classic maps, good news: You can play the game for free from December 14 to 18. – Claire Jackson Read More

Come Catch Kratos’ Hands With This Ragnarök Brawler Build

Come Catch Kratos’ Hands With This Ragnarök Brawler Build

With the Valhalla DLC out it’s a great time to tackle those bosses who’ve been bodying you

Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox Saves Are Disappearing, Here’s How To Avoid It

Screenshot: Larian Studios / Kotaku

Baldur’s Gate 3 shadow-dropped on Xbox after winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards, and Larian Studios is already pushing out updates and hotfixes as the dust settles. If you’re playing the fantasy epic on your Xbox, you may be at risk of losing your saves, and Larian is warning players to update their system to avoid the issue. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

Kotaku Staff

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December 16, 2023
Destiny 2 Players Are Roasting Its New ‘Starter Pack’ [Update: Bungie Deletes It]
The hardest thing about Destiny 2 is getting any of your friends to play it. Fans of Bungie’s ambitious and imaginative sci-fi shooter have long hoped for a simple on-ramp that would make it easier to get lapsed players and newcomers back into its universe. Destiny 2’s new “Starter Pack” might sound like exactly that. Instead, it’s a pricey bundle of random items that fans can’t stop dunking on.

Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

Season of the Wish went live today with an exciting trailer and new missions revolving around collecting dragon eggs to win over an old enemy. But players also quietly noticed a new DLC add-on on PSN, Xbox, and Steam that went live alongside the latest update. It’s called the Destiny 2 Starter Pack, it costs $15, and it’s one of the more ridiculous microtransactions I’ve seen. Contrary to what its name might suggest, the Starter Pack does not include any expansions, missions, or story content. It’s just a random assortment of stuff meant to “supercharge” players’ arsenals. Here’s what’s included:
- Traveler’s Chosen
- Ruinous Effigy
- Sleeper Simulant
- Exotic Ship
- Exotic Sparrow
- Exotic Ghost Shell
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 50 Enhancement Cores
- 5 Enhancement Prisms
- 1 Ascendant Shard
Image: Bungie

Those first three items are all old Exotic weapons that have been in the game since 2019 or before. They are mostly fine but only synergize with specific builds and can all be acquired from the Tower kiosk without too much fuss. The ship, sparrow, and ghost shell are purely cosmetic and completely dependent on personal taste. In my opinion at least, the ones in the Starter Pack are far from some of the game’s better designs.

The materials, meanwhile, are pretty stingy. Glimmer is Destiny 2’s main in-game currency, earned by doing anything and everything. Cores, prisms, and Ascendant Shards (what players lovingly call “golf balls”) are for focusing engrams, rerolling gear, and crafting new items, none of which is particularly helpful for new players, nor very meaningful in the quantities offered. It’s not even enough to fully masterwork a new piece of armor. It’s a bizarre array of accouterments to buy for more than the cost of an entire season of the game.

“I’d say this is pay to win, but really it’s just a waste of money,” wrote one player on the Destiny subreddit. “Pay to lose.” Another wrote, “This is pathetic. 3 mid exotics, a few crap cosmetics and some materials is not worth that much. A real starter pack would be guns and old DLCs.”

There are three broad obstacles to players getting back into Destiny 2. The first is that most of the story is no longer in the game due to content vaulting. The second is that Destiny 2’s “New Light” campaign remains pretty barebones and offers no real direction with end-game activities. And the third is that despite ostensibly being free-to-play, all of the expansions are paid and unlocking access to everything is still quite expensive. Shadowkeep, the underwhelming 2019 expansion, is still normally $25. The Starter Pack just adds to the noise, confusing players with misleading descriptions like “Fly between destinations in your new Exotic ship.” Narrator voice: Exotic ships are just custom loading screen animations.

The Starter Pack also comes in the context of layoffs at Bungie amid the delay of 2024’s The Final Shape expansion and reported revenue shortfalls. At a time when the studio is apparently desperate for money, the $15 bundle just underlines the gulf between players and whoever is leading Destiny 2’s monetization strategy. It’s one thing to milk whales, but as Destiny 2 players are pointing out, the new Starter Pack seems squarely aimed at taking advantage of new players who won’t know any better. In the words of one of them, “This is some mobile game shit.”

Update 11/29/2023 6:09 p.m. ET: Bungie appears to have removed Destiny 2’s controvertial Starter Pack from storefornts, including Valve’s storefront. “Notice: Destiny 2: Starter Pack is no longer available on the Steam store,” reads an update on the Steam listing. PlayStation Store listings, meanwhile, return error pages.

Screenshot: Valve / Kotaku

In addition to roasting the microtransaction on social media and Reddit, some players had also attempted to review-bomb the bundle and change the Steam tags for it to things like “psychological horror.”
Ethan Gach

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November 29, 2023
PowerWash Simulator’s New DLC Is Going To Clean Up (Not Sorry)

Screenshot: FuturLab

The rise and rise of 2022’s PowerWash Simulator is everything that’s right with video games. It’s a game about washing the dirt off stuff, delivered with absolute sincerity, and extremely well made. It got me through a horrible bout of Covid, as I meticulously scrubbed every fleck of dirt from adventure playgrounds and country mansions, and rightly became a huge hit. Which makes it all the better that its post-release additions have leaned in. And today developers FuturLab have revealed plans for much more to come in 2023.

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The first update back in January was the completely free addition of five brand new levels set in the world of Tomb Raider. You can clean the front of Croft Manor! You can scrub down the obstacle course! And it was delivered with equally as straight a face as the main game. Then in March came a bundle of free Final Fantasy-themed areas! Last week saw its first paid DLC, which was naturally based on Spongebob Squarepants.

Today FuturLab have laid out their roadmap for the rest of the year, and while it is quite frustratingly vague, it does give me the all-important opportunity to post the teaser for its Warhammer 40K crossover! That’s the farthest away inclusion in the roadmap, however. It seems we have much to look forward to before even then.

FuturLab

What we’ve learned from their tweet is that there’s to be another paid DLC due to appear in Q3 (whatever that means in this instance), along with more from what the game calls The Muckingham Files—the title it gave to a slew of free new content it added in the 1.2 update back in April.

Then following that, toward the end of the year, FuturLab is promising even more free “seasonal content,” which of course means, Christmassy cleaning!

If you’ve not played PowerWash Simulator, and you think this is either an elaborate wind-up, or that Kotaku has gone completely nuts, be assured it’s neither! It’s a legitimately stupendous game, available on Game Pass, creating a zen-like methodological happy place, where you get all the satisfaction of making dirty things get sparkly clean, without having to even pick up a vacuum.

John Walker

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July 4, 2023
Upcoming Dead Space-Like Horror Game Locking Some Death Animations Behind A Season Pass

Screenshot: Striking Distance Studios / Kotaku

Callisto Protocol, out next month on consoles and PC, is a horror game that looks and plays a lot like the beloved Dead Space franchise. And like Dead Space, Callisto Protocol will feature some gnarly-looking deaths, both for you when you screw up and bite it, and for your alien foes when you slaughter them. But some of these gruesome and chilling death animations will be locked behind the game’s season pass according to new details spotted on the game’s Steam store page. And that’s kinda dumb and weird.

In the year of our lord two-thousand and twenty plus two, nearly every big and small game released includes some mix of DLC, paid expansions, and season passes. This is just how things work these days. It’s been like this for so long that most of us barely even recognize just how much shit publishers are trying to sell us all beyond the actual game. But then a company sticks death animations behind a paywall and it’s a good reminder of just how silly and greedy the game industry can be some days. Case in point, yeah, apparently some death animations in the upcoming horror game Callisto Protocol are only available to players who buy the season pass.

As spotted by VGC, over on the horror game’s Steam page, you can find updated details about what you get when you buy the various versions of the game and its season pass. And according to the details listed on Steam, 25 different death animations are being sold via two different DLC packs. 13 of these animations are for the main character of ~~Issac Clarke~~ Jacob while the other 12 are additional enemy death animations. The season pass is included with the digital deluxe edition, which costs $80 on PC. (The base game is $60.)

Here’s what the text currently says on the game’s Steam page:

The Season Pass includes:

Outer Way Skin Collection: Bear the armor of the Outer Way, an underground insurgency pitted against the UJC, as you fight to survive the horrors of Callisto.

Contagion Bundle: Discover the ultimate survival horror experience with a new mode, Contagion. With reduced ammo and health drops, a customized difficulty and permadeath – there are no second chances to escape Black Iron Prison or the horrors lurking beneath the surface of Callisto. The Contagion Bundle also includes thirteen new Jacob death animations and the Watchtower Skin Collection.

Riot Bundle: Venture into a previously undiscovered area of Black Iron Prison and battle through waves of brutal enemies. Gather credits to upgrade your weapons, or forge new ones, and survive the onslaught as long as you can in Riot, an all-new mode. The Riot Bundle also includes twelve new enemy death animations and the Engineer Skin Collection.

Story DLC: Dig deeper into the horrifying secrets of The Callisto Protocol.

Now to be clear: The season pass DLC comes with more than just death animations and the game is shipping with its own unknown amount of grisly kills. So it’s not like folks who buy just the base game and skip the DLC will be missing out completely. But it does seem very silly to lock death animations of all things behind a paywall, especially in a horror game that has spent much of its marketing showing off how violent and gory its kills will be in the full game.

Some may not care, or may suggest that it’s just a minor bit of content locked away from folks who only buy the vanilla game. But I can’t help but wonder what happens if this, like DLC and season passes more broadly, becomes the norm moving forward. This isn’t even the first time a publisher has charged players for extra animations. Sega did it earlier this year as part of the release of Sonic Origins.

What happens if this becomes yet one more thing we all put up with? What other “small” parts of the game can be cut from the main release and sold separately? Extra reload animations? Extra idle dialogue? Bonus pieces of scenery to help levels look less boring? Seems silly, but we are literally watching publishers lock animations behind DLC and paywalls. What’s next? I’m scared to find out.

Callisto Protocol is out December 2 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.

Zack Zwiezen

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November 23, 2022