Episodic content: Changing the way video games are made
by Blake Snow 
{ Oct 2nd 2006 at 4:45PM }
Chris Morris from CNN/Money examines the rise of episodic content through games like Half-Life, Halo, and the upcoming GTA 4 chapters for Xbox 360. While episodic gaming is nothing new, its application in $20 titles that serve up bite-size gaming sessions is still being perfected as a business model. From the article:"Cliffhangers, which have been somewhat rare in games of yore, have come into vogue in the last few years - and the rise of episodic gaming hints we may be seeing a lot more of them ... There are notable downsides to going episodic with video games. Players, who have been trained to expect 20 to 60 hours of gameplay per title, might reject the model, even though it's lower priced. Critics tend to penalize episodic games because of their length. And retailers don't quite know how to handle the games."
Half-Life developer Valve is still unsure if gamers will embrace their episodic content in the long-term, despite the distribution's ability to update a story more quickly and incorporate player feedback into future games. As a side note, I almost broke this post up into two staggered parts. But alas, I'm trained in the "give it all to me now" vein. Plus, that just would have been half-witted (pun intended).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ry @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:56PM
Valve updating the stories more quickly? Have you not seen the delay for Episode 2? These guys are either really poor at their jobs, or the Gabe Newell is too much of a damn perfectionist. Especially for 6 hours of gameplay, at best.
ry @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:57PM
oh ya, and grapes are fun!
Bearish @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:59PM
Every branch is developing. It's like human evolution
Devwar @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:14PM
Well, you could think of it this way. If you gotta wait a couple years for a single book/movie of Harry Potter, which will only last a couple hours for a movie, or a couple more hours for the hardcore reader, whats 6mo-1yr for 6-8 hours of gameplay? Plus, TF2 and Portal.
Guano @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:09PM
Since when is Halo episodic?
The3rdNuisance @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:12PM
Halo is more comparable to a movie series like Matrix, than a TV series. But this term as of right now, is a bit vague.
virtuadept @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:12PM
Players, who have been trained to expect 20 to 60 hours of gameplay per title, might reject the model, even though it's lower priced. Critics tend to penalize episodic games because of their length.
But it's NOT lower-priced. Gamers are not STUPID, you know. We know how to multiply $20 by X episodes to arrive at a number considerably higher than $50 to get the whole story. Episodic content might be the way of the future but lets not pretend it's cheaper by any means. Gamers get less for more! Weee!!!
Bucket @ Oct 6th 2006 3:47PM
You know, I have no problem with "low-content" games. The problem arises when a game can be sucked completely dry of value within an evening. For $30 a pop, this comes dangerously close to the current condition of Hollywood and theaters ripping off consumers with their drivel.
/me goes to play some random Flash puzzle game that was probably written in a weekend
Doomstalk @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:15PM
I personally have been disappointed by episodic content so far. As people have mentioned above, they haven't really turned it into faster release turnaround yet, and honestly $20 is a bit above what I'd consider the sweet spot for something that long: if it's only a third as long, why am I still paying about half of what I'd pay for a full title? Also, as someone from Epic noted, you're paying for reptition, because the price necessitates it. Why not just pay full price for a longer, more varied experience?
Cage @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:18PM
Well...the PS3 wont have to worry about this too much will they. Their online service seems non-existent. There is a plus (finally a plus) for Sony owners...
Cooper @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:21PM
Not trying to be an asshole... but I really don't care about the methodology of your writing. So while cute, I didn't need that last sidenote.
Since my lifestyle bars me from doing the marathon gaming sessions of yore, a 20-30 hour game sounds great. Part of the reason I like Lost, Veronica Mars, comic books, or any movie trilogy these days is that dangling thread at the end. And if I don't like where things have gone (shark jumping), I can NOT by part 6.
I think episodic games would be fun for the community (again look at the comic community) and would retail better for gamers who struggle to juggle their hobby and other responsiblities (or hobbies).
Jeremy Wright @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:25PM
I guess there's an upside. If a game sucks you're only spending 20$ on it instead of 60-70$ ;-)
Leper Messiah @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:09PM
Looks like another thing Nintendo is somewhat behind in.
The WiiConnect 24 seems made for it, but the lack of large storage space is a real kick in the nuts.
I'll probably end up getting an external hard drive for the wii sometime down the line.
Core_12 @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:35PM
Well... I was dissapointed at Half-life 2: Episode One, but then again Episode Two comes with Team Fortress 2 and Portal... all outstanding titles. But I do seriously think Episode One's mere 3 hours of gameplay wasn't really worth the price tag.
Mr. Fap-Fap @ Oct 2nd 2006 7:41PM
Episodic content should be treated like a TV show or a comic book...meaning that if they're going to only release tiny bits of game play at a time, it HAS to come out in a quick and timely manner. Like say once every 4-6 weeks, max. Otherwise, it's pointless.
It's kinda like TV vs movies, in a way. People get excited about a TV show when it comes on, but seeing a movie is more like an event.
It seems to me that right now, the people experimenting with the episodic content stuff haven't realized yet that they aren't making "events" and they can't really treat it like that, either, because people really won't take it seriously. At least not after it becomes the established norm.
That doesn't mean it can't have high production quality or will be inferior to a "regular" game. The X-Files, for example, had a production quality that regularly rivaled that of almost any movie during it's run...hence why, I gather, a lot of people were kind of let down by the movie- it just felt like a 2 hour episode, basically.
Personally, I think sequels are all well and good.
But episodic content is really just kinda stupid if they don't treat it like what it's worth.
Pag @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:40PM
Current episodic games are closer to a sequence of expansion packs than anything really episodic. A few levels every 6-8 months doesn't give me much of a sense of regular episodes...
What I'd like to see is something closer to TV: about 1 hour of entertainment released at the same time each week. Like for TV, you'd be anticipating the next episode, wondering what would happen next week. It would work great with games like GTA: the world could stay the same during a whole season (with a new city each season) and you'd get a new mission each week.
Of course, pricing would have to change. Instead of paying per episode, you could buy a subscription. Or, if the game has advertisements it could be free like TV.
Putting a cliff-hanger at the end of an expansion pack isn't anything different from what we've seen in the past. Weekly content, now that's how episodic gaming could rock.
Enzo @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:58PM
Do you really think they would discount games with ads? Of course not, they'll just throw in the ads and keep the prices the same.
Rootbeer @ Oct 2nd 2006 6:32PM
It's not even like episodic content is a new idea in gaming. Remember the Commander Keen games for PC? The first one was free as in shareware, but to play the later chapters you had to pony up some dough.
usagi704 @ Oct 2nd 2006 8:42PM
Oooh! Episodic content, A.K.A. incomplete games! Wow, wave of the future!
Peter Davis @ Oct 2nd 2006 10:31PM
"Halo is more comparable to a movie series like Matrix, than a TV series. But this term as of right now, is a bit vague."
I could make a joke, but i wont. i dont need to.
Danno @ Oct 3rd 2006 1:19AM
Halo's story progression so far is like almost EXACTLY identical to the Original Star Wars trilogy, down to blowing up a giant space thingy in the first part.
All they need is a giant space slug in number 3 and the circle will be complete.
Chronos_777 @ Oct 3rd 2006 2:30AM
I have to agree with Pag. I think that it would be really cool if we could pay maybe $20-$30 for the original game, with maybe a few hours of play or so, and then weekly episodes that take maybe another couple hours to play through and cost like $2. If they made it like the current TV series with good cliffhangers and great stories to keep people coming back, it would be great. Also, like Lost and other TV series, after all the episodes have been realeased, they could release the whole "season" like they do on DVD for $50 or so, for those that weren't able to(or didn't want to) play through all the episodes as they came out. Currently I have never watched an episode of lost on TV, I have watched both seasons on DVD. I plan to start watching it this season though. If the original disc had the graphics and such already on the disc, hopefully episodes wouldn't have to be very big. Who knows, it could work, but episodes need to come out on a regular basis. I think that it would be fun if they accomplished some great watercooler talk after episodes. Could you imagine talking with other gamers about the cool episode that just came out, and since they could be short, it wouldn't be hard for everyone to be at the same point in the game, and speculation about what might happen later in the game would be fun. Just imagine the amount of speculation and guesswork that people do with Lost, but apply that to a video game, sounds like where the future could go.
Double H @ Oct 3rd 2006 3:01AM
Oh Jesus Christ do we need every medium of entertainment to be the same? OMG!!1 TV is so kewl! Lets make games like it too!
Tell me a damn story, and finish it. I don't care if it takes 12 hours or 80. Enough with this bullshit cliffhanger cop out crap. You wanna milk your franchise for all its worth with sequel after sequel? Fine, so be it. But don't leave me with some bullshit unsatisfying "cliffhanger" when I just poured a substantial amount of hours into your game.
Gazbin @ Oct 4th 2006 7:21AM
I prefer buying Mods for two reasons:
(1) They are built by people who play games - not company employee's who manufacture games for pay.
(2) The cost is quite reasonable at $0.00
Hmmm... the lame ass episodic content for $20 or the clever dick mod expansion for $0?