Assassin's Creed II DLC was cut from main game due to time constraints

Look...

First, many here seem to ignore that time = money. If you delay a release, it hurts the bottom line in two ways. By lengthening your development time, it increases your budget. Also, it often hurts sales, since marketing is timed very carefully to maximize interest and sales at the point of release.

So with that as a given, this could've gone down one of two basic ways:

1) "Guys, we're up against a wall. We're out of time and we're out of budget, so we have to cut a couple of chapters. We could simply cut the content and not release 100% of what we originally planned [like almost every other video game ever made] and nobody will ever know the difference, but instead, why don't we release them as DLC and use those proceeds to fund development to finish the couple of chapters we're cutting? Everybody wins."

2) "Guys, we have a winner here. And it'll still be a winner if we cut a couple of chapters. So why don't we pull two chapters from the retail release, sell them as DLC and milk people for an extra $8?"

Here's the key part:

NOBODY COMMENTING HERE KNOWS WHICH OF THESE HAPPENED.

If you take Désilets at his word and believe it's scenario 1, they're taking an age old developer problem and turning it into a winning proposition for everybody involved, and criticism is stupid. That content wasn't ever going to see the light of day, because it was going to be cut just like content is ALWAYS cut due to time and/or budget constraints.

If you don't believe him and think it's scenario 2, they're cash-grabbing assholes.

But since nobody commenting here was in on the decision-making process and, thusly, can only guess at the motives behind the move, there's really only one way to look at it:

Was AC2 worth the $60 price tag? If yes, great, shut up. If no, forget about the DLC and instead, bitch and moan that the content in the retail release didn't justify the price. You'll be in a small minority, but at least you'll be in a minority with a rhetorical leg to stand on.

I think the man just phrased his words wrong. There is plenty of content in the disc and according to GT review of the game it was mostly fluff to lengthen the play time.

So this begs the question.

Would it be better if we never knew about or got a chance to play cut content or pay and play content that would otherwise thrown away. Keep in minds alot of content are cut from games for budget or time reasons we never know about so this isn't a new phenomenon. Editing is a crucial part of any media form.

It would have been too long with that extra stuff in it anyways. The game is really long and you get way more then $60 worth of content. Now you guys wanna crucify the guy for being honest.

you know what, discussion about the pros and cons of DLC aside, I'm fucking sick of people saying stupid shit on this web site. The game obviously isn't half finished even if they admit they cut a couple missions from the game and might sell them later. It's not half finished. It's a complete game. Need to hear that again? It's not a half finished game, so please stop saying total complete dumbass statements.

If you're going to bitch about DLC, fine, I've accepted that people just love to bitch this generation, but fucking hell, don't do it like a god damned idiot in the process.

Honestly, I think it's far more annoying to hear these "discussions" about DLC than I feel jipped of my cash or whatever.

I think I'm even going to skip my opinion on the matter altogether. Everyone should just chill the hell out. The game got rave reviews, so it's obvious this DLC isn't necessary to enjoy the game without feeling jipped.

At least he was honest. People don't seem to be complaining about what did come with the retail copy

Pretty much every game you're ever going to buy will most likely have had something cut. the initial design and concept documents for games normally contain a lot more concepts, ideas, events, weapons, levels etc. than what makes it into the final game. You pretty much always have to cut features and elements to fit the budget and the deadline.

Gamers do not have some kind of inherent right to the ideas that got scrapped, no matter what the reason for removing these things were. It's up to the developers what they want to add to the game and it's up to you if you want to buy it.

AC2 is already a HUGE game. 20+ hours to play though it? Huge world? Well told story? A huge number of side quests and additional events? And yet somehow that's not enough simply because the developers had to keep themselves within a budget and a meet a deadline?!

The game is well worth it's retail price (Unlike many titles released). Why in the world do you feel entitled to even more?

So going from what he's saying, this was going to be included in the game at the $60 price point...so why are they going to charge for it later as DLC? Didn't we already pay that $60?

He saved everyone the time arguing by highlighting the issue with making paid DLC out of content that was supposed to be in the game just by his comments.
If it was going to be in the game at $60, whats the reason for charging for it just because they had to release it after the launch? Would the game have been $65 if it was delayed for this content?

It has nothing to do with our feeling entitled to anything, more to do with our not sitting back and being taken for fools.

What really cracks me up though is the fact that we still pay $60 a pop for games, and the real reason we do...hint: it has nothing to do with trying to cut a profit on top of recouping development/publishing/manufacturing costs.

The problem is schedule. It's nice if they took extra time to finish EVERYTHING they wanted to then release the game.

But if they did that, you'd probably only see games come out every 3-4 years. And the company would not make any money and go bankrupt.

Companies need to create products according to a time table or there is no product to sell.

it should be free

Assassins Creed 2 was filled to the brim with content. The fact of the matter is, NO game has content that doesn't get cut. But with most games, that content gets tossed aside, and is never revisted.

In this case, the powers that be, realized they had too big of a work load. They realized something had to be cut. And they chose two sequences, that weren't neccessary to the overall narrative. Opposed to cutting core gameplay features, or slacking on polishing the core, neccessary components of the game. Ifm this was some sort of evil scheme, to just make more money, he wouldn't be open about it. He is being honest, even in a situation where it might not be the best thing to do.

At the end of the day, the content packs are over 1GB each. They take place during DNA sequences, that appear to be longer then most of those in the core game. The game with 11 sequences (a couple only a few memories long) is about 30 hours. Making the average sequence play time, about 2 hours and 43 mintues. Each of the two downloads take place over 1 sequence, the first one is 3.99, and the second is 4.99. Compare the value to other DLC, like Mass Effects. Which was about 5$ for 45 mintues of gameplay. Basically, this is phenomonal value.


Further more, its well established, most DLC starts production before the full game released. Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Dragon age, all being good examples. So finishing content, that was planned and started before launch and releasing it as premium DLC isn't that different.

I think people have to realize, if the developers weren't selling the DLC for something, they wouldn't of been allowed to finish the content at all. There is no alternative, where they would develop, and release over 2GBs of DLC for free. We aren't in the old school days any more. The bar to meet, is much higher today, then in the old school days. This comes at a price. Higher game prices. High DLC prices. And less free DLC. Making free content, for games in the 90s, was easy. Games had small development teams. A single person, a couple of people, could volunteer to make the content. Today, you have to dedicate a sizeable team to make, and polish DLC. And it takes place over a long period of time.


If you get free DLC, be thankful for it. Don't expect it. Even if its content, that was orginally cut from the game. If they weren't going to charge, the content would be deleted, or left on some hardrive somewhere. Would you prefer that? My experience forms a precedence, that tells me I wouldn't, that most people wouldn't.

When ever I hear anything or see anything about content cut for schedule reasons, I always wish the developer would release it as premium DLC. And thats a response in common with most people, from what I usually see.

One final assertion, when I bought AC 2, it was 10$ cheaper then most games. I only checked a couple retailers online, but it still appears to be cheaper. So one should consider this cheaper price, compared to other games, before talking about rejecting the DLC on "principle".

I think the most ironic thing is, if Patrice hadn't come out & been completely up front about the thing, then the same people that are pissed off now would have been screaming & yelling about a conspiracy, and how they intentionally left the content out of the game so that they could come back & "milk us for more money" later.

Personally, I applaud Ubisoft for coming out & being totally candid about the DLC and the reasoning behind it. I don't mind paying for content that was cut due to time restrictions. What's it gonna cost, maybe the price of a lunch at McDonalds? I'll certainly enjoy the DLC a hell of a lot longer than I will the meal.

This just confirms my suspicions. I knew there was no reason for Katarina to have that small bit part then to never be seen again. It just made no sense to introduce her at that point. Now we know what really happened with those two "corrupt" memory sequences.

I love the game and it's one of my favorites this year but it's impossible for me not to feel short changed after the developer comes out and says ... yeah it was going to be in the game but we pulled it so we could mee our deadline but instead of offering them up for free (earning good will for future premium DLC) we are going to charge you for them.

Burnout Paradise did a lot for itself by giving away free DLC and it encouraged people to buy the premium DLC. This is the wrong way for Ubisoft to go but it doesn't surprise me since this is the same company that sold a proper ending to Prince Of Persia last year.

@Massmass:

You know what happens when you don't cut content to meet deadlines? DNF, that's what happens.

DNF--Duke Nukem Forever AKA Did Not Finish.

the DNF thing has nothing to do with not cutting content

the problem was that they were slow and once they got to point X they suddenly realised they were on a too old engine and started again

my view is they had tons of ideas and thats it they hired thinkers not doers no one was able to execute the project in a reasonable amount of time

and when you say content think of how much content has even been released regarding DNF not a hell of alot in the past 10 yrs

I think its on the disc. try and swim to the other part of florence that will be added later in the DLC. you can get pretty close and see a whole lot of detail before the memory desynchronizes.

the fact that you CAN see the section on the map and see the detail of it... SCREAMS yes its already here, but you have to pay more to play in it.

and the people bitching about the whiners and those who "feel entitled"

hello were not bitching about a game we were GIVEN. we are bitching about a game we PURCHASED and found out that chapters in the middle are missing.
certain cues and lapses in the storyline make it obvious there were things that are suppose to be in there that arent. it was cleverly written to explain it, but that still felt like an afterthought and I guessed they would be selling it to us at a later date.

and yes while the game is fantastic, they should not be charging for this DLC.
it should have been there to begin with (and likely is)
if not because it should have been there to begin with, they should be giving this content for free as appreciation for making the sequel more succesful than its predecessor.

and a Devs shouldnt be given the riegns to say this in an interview. thats just plain bad PR sense.

Okay, I respect that it is like deleted scenes of a movie, the way they have done this. But they just cut it out of the game. I only just finished Assassin's Creed, so have just start playing Assassin's Creed II, but from the achievements alone, I call ridiculous on this one. The thing is, you have chapter 14. So going by the achievements, you literally do skip two chapters. Therefore, that means they planned before-hand to take it out, which is a rip-off.

If they had removed it, but had chapter 14 as chapter 12, then gone back and patched it up later by filling gaps in with DLC, that'd be fine, but you could literally tell there had to be DLC. But when you buy a DVD, do they make you pay more to see the deleted scenes? No. So why should we have to pay for this DLC?

Don't get me wrong - I'll be buying it, and probably before I finish chapter 11 (if it is out in time), but this is pretty ridiculous.

if they had never originally said that it was originally in the game no one would be angry but quite honestly i dont care, the game was long, satisfying and very fun to me. Any additional content after my original 15-20 hrs is worth (10$?) to me

lol u ppl still talking this up??? wtf? this game's such an improvement over the first that i've played thru it 5 TIMES and am still not sick of it....even taking the time to complete EVERY optionial assn./mission/chest/feather/whatever didn't dull my appetite for kickass! I will gladly pay for dlc....and you know what?...so will you!! Every one of you whiners is going to shell out..why? If you hated the game you wouldn't bother...therefore you wouldn't be bitching so loud. As for why dev's do these things...YOU make them do it. EVERY TIME a game comes out with a more expensive version for nothing more than some art and a couple of animation cells ppl buy the stupid crap...it's called test marketing...to see what ppl will spend their money on. Now it's dlc....from their pov it makes PERFECT cents....lololololol