Full Mega Man 9 WiiWare experience costs $18
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 2:47pm by Jack
People who hate DLC turn away, because Mega Man 9’s virtual instruction manual contains a DLC schedule with pricing and storage info.
The good news is the DLC is not necessary to play or enjoy the game. You get a full game with Mega Man 9, but if you want to ramp up the difficulty, you’ll have to pay for it. Lame? Yeah, but even with all the DLC bought and downloaded, you’ll still only be paying $18 for a great new-retro title. Details after the fold.
Five downloadable content types listed:
1. Endless Attack
2. Hero Mode
3. Superhero Mode
4. Proto Man Mode
5. Special ModeEndless Attack
Test your skills on a stage without end. Try to break the record for getting the farthest. Results will be displayed in the Rankings. Not compatible with Challenges.
Sale Date: 10/06/2008
Wii Points: 300
Required Blocks: 3Hero Mode
Play the game with a more difficult level of enemy distribution. Not compatible with Rankings or Challenges.
Sale Date: 10/20/2008
Wii Points: 100
Required Blocks: 2Superhero Mode
Play the game with a super difficult level of enemy distribution. Not compatible with Rankings or Challenges.
Sale Date: 10/20/2008
Wii Points: 100
Required Blocks: 2Proto Man Mode
Play the game as Proto Man. You can use the shield while jumping. Some of Proto Man’s abilities may differ from Mega Man’s. There is no story for Proto Man. Not compatible with Rankings and Challenges.
Sale Date: 10/06/2008
Wii Points: 200
Required Blocks: 2Special Stage
Give you another Time Attack Stage to try, including a new Boss at the end! Results will be displayed in Rankings. Not compatible with Challenges.
Sale Date: 10/20/2008
Wii Points: 100
Required Blocks: 2
As tipster ProtoJeff points out, paying for difficulty levels is uber-lame, especially since this DLC probably just unlocks code that’s already on your system. At $18, though, this still gets a “download now” stamp from me–I’ll just be holding off and weighing my options before I pony up any more cash for the DLC.
Thanks, ProtoJeff!
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
hahaha, I told you Capcom is milking the Megaman. They have no love for their fans by asking extra moneys for difficulties, characters, and extras, which retro games are known for. LOL, what kind of fan service is this? I ask thy. I thought the whole game is supposed make for you. Utterly pathetic, what a shame. Anyone who DL this game is part of the problem.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
@RoyalRook:
Please be quiet. You continue to complain and complain.
You may not like Mega Man, but I do.
Hey, think of it this way: $18 is SUPER CHEAP compared to a normal Wii game, right? What about those other shovelware titles? Yeah, MM9’s still cheaper.
So if you don’t like it, fine.
But just don’t go around saying everyone who downloads Mega Man 9 is an absolute idiot.
Remove yourself from this board now, please. Otherwise you’d probably get banned if you keep up your rants.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
If you bitch about paying 18$ for bonus content then you should be shot.
Now, who is up for beating my Galaxy Man Time Attack Rank? :p
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Charging for DLC that is (probably) really just an unlock for already downloaded code is lame… but the price here isn’t enough to complain about.
Anyone who likes Mega Man will spring for the $10 game. Anyone who REALLY likes Mega Man can spend just a few dollars more to get some cool extras. No real harm in that, eh?
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
You morons keep paying for DLC and companies will just keep pushing it further and further. The day will come when you need to enter your CC number after each level in order to proceed. Won’t that be grand? You’d be playing Call of Duty when all of a sudden you get a pop-up window. Still, by your logic, it’s still cheaper than actually killing someone, am I right?
You children are probably to young to remember this, but there was a time when game companies actually rewarded consumers for purchasing their games by providing free DLC. I guess now that the industry is posting record-breaking profits, to the tune of billions, they can’t afford to throw us a little something extra now and then.
And if $18 seems like a reasonable price to you for DLC, then you need a serious reality-check. It cost them next to nothing to put this out. It’s pure profit for them. You’re paying for air.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
@exolstice:
“And if $18 seems like a reasonable price to you for DLC, then you need a serious reality-check. It cost them next to nothing to put this out. It’s pure profit for them. You’re paying for air.”
Uh – you are wrong there.
Mega Man 9 was created just like any other software program. It’s just obtained via download instead of a disc or cartridge.
Where do you get your data from stating it cost them next to nothing to make? Post your reference links now…I need some actual evidence before I can make any more comments.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I have to say this is pretty lame, but it could be a lot lamer.
And joltman, please stop trying to be the nanny of the board. It’s getting really annoying. Everytime someone posts something you don’t like, you tell them to either be quiet or to leave.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
PROTOMAN MODE~! (what do you know, im wearing a scarf right now ^^)
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
BTW WHO’S PROTOJEFF? He sounds awesome.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
LOL I paid $50 for all the old ones and I was ready to at least pay $40 stupid capcom LOL!
DLC I may get this stuff but for 18 dollar Thats change to me plus we get another great capcom game. I mean really if you can do better get coding!
It still cost a hell of a lot of money to get a salary guy making around 100k+ to make an 8 bit game LOL. I don’t see how this is cheaper? Not many people can do good pixel art let along good and nice challenging games like mega man.
Hey but if you must be pissed then feel free. I’ll be buying this along with others and no we don’t care about sales because we are gamers.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
“You morons keep paying for DLC and companies will just keep pushing it further and further. The day will come when you need to enter your CC number after each level in order to proceed.”
Amen to that. I was really excited for this game, but this disgusting manipulation of fans — most of whom surely don’t know they’ll have to pay more to unlock the full game — has stayed my Wiimote. Capcom needs to learn that we won’t stand for this.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
It’s not so much the full game though really. Think about it, before you knew about the DLC you knew nothing of a super hard mode, or anything about protoman being playable, and all of you still wanted to buy the game. You buy the game you all knew about, this extra DLC is merely an add-on, you don’t HAVE to buy it, you could choose to buy just the game you’ve been reading about for the past n weeks.
I bet all of you would be happy if Capcom had not released this content for another few weeks. You would have all gotten bored of megaman 9 by then and you would praise the extra work they’d done to the game to allow you to get more out of it. It’s only ’cause it’s been announced straight away that you feel it should have been included in the game by default.
Megaman 9 is a full new-retro game and still has everything any other megaman game had in it. If you don’t like the idea of DLC on a retro game, don’t pay for it, the choice is there for you to make.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Difficulty levels, modes, and playable characters are basic features of the game. They designed the game and then removed features in order to charge extra for them later. I personally find that sort of business model reprehensible. Why not just charge $18 for the game if that’s what they’re asking? I would just as soon pay 60% of the price for a crippled game as I would for a car that had the engine rigged to only go 60% of the top speed, or which had gears or features removed. To wit: never.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
This game is really breaking my balls.
BUT I LOVE IT.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
hey, i just had a great idea! why don’t they sell the Mega Buster for 100 Wii Points? I’m sure everyone would pay that just to be able to charge their shots!
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Why in gods name would you need to download an even HARDER difficulty? The regular mode is friggin hard enough as it is. It looks like Wily finally did it himself, like in the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpP_BKPa5Oc
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Wait, everyone seems to have it wrong:
* Megaman 9 is 1000 Wiipoints
* The extra DLC, in total, is 800 points.
All in all it would be a 1800 wii points investment to get everything, NOT 1800 JUST for the DLC.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
“Difficulty levels, modes, and playable characters are basic features of the game.”
Where are you getting that from? Only one of the mega man games had any difficulty levels, the rest did not. The original games did not have multiple playable characters in them, or multiple modes.
Here is the deal: If you don’t want to buy the game, don’t. But stop claiming things like this– the basic features of the game are mega man and the eight robot masters (and that is either worth $10 to you, or isn’t– that’s your choice). Everything else is extra (and Capcom put a lot of stuff in this package that I was not expecting– ie, achievements)
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
davey1983:
I know the deal. You don’t need to remind me or anyone how market capitalism works. I know for a fact that the game was developed and tested as a whole and then had features removed for DLC because that is how game development works. You have to test everything together to make sure it all plays nice. It is irrelevant what features other games may or may not have had. They made a game. Then they split it up into pieces to try and nickel-and-dime us like suckers.
What I thought — until this morning — was the game was something I might have convinced myself to pay $10 for. What I know now is the game is something I will never buy. The main reason is Capcom’s shameful behavior, surely setting up their fans for disappointment when they realize they haven’t bought the whole game.
And, by the way, here’s a deal for you. Capcom would make way more money selling the entire game for $10. Many more people would buy if they knew they were getting the full experience for a reasonable price. We see more and more companies these days trying to set fixed prices… what they don’t realize is that maximum profit for them comes when they find the price the maximum number of customers will pay. Their game doesn’t cost $18; they only think it does. Funny thing, that free market.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
To those whining about the DLC, don’t want it; don’t buy it. Its not like it’s forcing you. Me, I just want Endless Attack and Proto Man mode. 500 points for more of the game, why not.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
The people complaining have never beat a single mega man game.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:45 am
i’ve beat them all, thanks.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 am
WTF, have Capcom brain washed you completely? This game is total BS, how could in god’s loving garden you won’t able to see this shit through? Ok, sure, the old mega man games may “not” all have difference difficult settings, but WTF? How could that make it ok for them to charge you money for pasting couple more spirits on the screen, or speed up the game a bit? That’s like the music industry asking you more money just so you ignorant fools could have the rights to speed up your favorite song in your own music player, to sing along with it, or just so you could listen to it through your own pimped out stereo system.
And screw you for falsely accusing some of us for never beat a single mega man game, I wouldn’t hate MegaMan 9 so much if I wasn’t in awe of the level designs in the original megaman. I want new stuff, I am sick of the same old megaman BS from Capcom over the years. And all you dumbass who have DL the game on Monday are just going to encourage Capcom to keep this joke up for another year.
Oh, let’s play MegaMan 9 with MegaMan 1 weapons, I am so freaking brilliant with my simple flash game design awesomeness. I should make another million b/c of that glorious fact. Screw the franchise, Capcom has too much fanboys’ money to burn. Go spent your money and time on this kind of garbage. Peace out.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 am
And dude, WTF? I know I am not a little kid anymore, and maybe I am just began to be considered out of the loop. But seriously, I think my common sense is still intact, at this moment. Why are we paying money for a product that is “finished,” with no harmful glitches, or game play problems, and then asked to be patched? And if a game can not keep it’s integrity by providing multiple DLC, which leads to endless none technical or balance issue modifications, and the gamers was able to be manipulated by the developer indefinitely and bound-lessly b/c of the lack of a real plot or the presence of a shallow story line, then why it is still considered a real game? Essentially, we are going to see a Pacman game with no walls, but 9 million-plus ghosts on screen, to give gamers a .00000000000000000000000000000001% successful rate to finish the “mazes,” with a dollar sign on the tag for a dollar. And oh, then right back at you, it’s those “hardcore” gamers argue from day to day about why should video games be considered as “art.” Think about the irony.
FACT: A fully upgraded MegaMan 9 with all of its DLCs is and will cost 80% more, than just the game…as for now as plan.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
I actually wrote a little rant titled “Mega Man 9 Trades Cheat Codes for Dollar Signs” for albotas.com. It kinda sucks that this is the direction that games are headed. Here’s the writeup if anyone’s interested. http://albotas.com/2008/09/mega-man-9-trades-cheat-codes-for-dollar-signs/
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:37 am
Ridiculous.
As if Capcom hadn’t gone scant enough with Mega Man 9, they decide to charge extra for features that should have been included in the final game. The point isn’t “don’t want it, don’t buy it,” or that it’s “only $18″ for the game in full.
Capcom likely could’ve included all those features in the game, sold it on the Wii Shop Channel for 800 Wii Points and made a ridiculous profit. DLC is one thing, but downloading difficulty levels and different sprites?
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Wow.
The best part of this whole thread are the ignorant people talking about what Capcom should’ve charged for the game, or making foolish assertions about “free markets”. None of those posters know how much it cost to make the game, nor how much profit Capcom earns from each copy sold at the current prices… which makes their arguments complete hooey.
Welcome to the world of business, guys and gals! The name of the game is maximizing profit, and I’ll bet any amount that Capcom (a company with years of experience and more than a few talented accountants) knows more about this than a few forum posters with an overdeveloped sense of priviledge.
Capcom doesn’t owe gamers anything, and they are providing a non-essential product at a reasonable price. If you don’t like it, then don’t buy it. Problem solved.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Here’s the thing. I really, really like Audi cars. But I hate accessories! Their base model packages are AMAZING, and they work WONDERFULLY, but then Audi goes and offers all these upgrades and extras, and that pisses me off!
Oh, wait, what’s that? I don’t have to buy all the extras and the car works just fine anyway? And Audi knows more about cars and car markets and making a profit than I do?
Wow, color me embarrassed, because I was about to get all pissed off at a company for offering something I didn’t have to buy.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
“The best part of this whole thread are the ignorant people talking about what Capcom should’ve charged for the game, or making foolish assertions about “free markets”.”
Couldn’t agree with you more. I’m still confused as to why ‘free markets’ were brought up in a response to my post. I did not mention anything like that in my original post (also the reason I stopped posting– he has yet to answer my original question).
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Judging by the minuscule amount of blocks eaten up for each upgrade, it indeed seems like you’re just buying the unlock.
Still, it’s an interesting way to expand the lifespan of the game (which already does more than I expected it to) so only those who really want it will go for it. Besides, at least this got the game to cost $10 instead of something higher. $18 is still quite a deal.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
This is not paying extra for features. Think of it this way: you only pay for what you want, its an a la carte way of buying the features you want in a game. The full game is $18 (still cheap btw), but if you don’t want extra difficulties, time attack modes, or the ability to play as protoman, you don’t have to pay for it. I think this is a great way of making games more affordable by letting you pick and choose just the features you want. I think Capcom is being generous giving us this choice. They could have just charged $18 flat for the whole deal, and they would have made more money, and it would have taken less effort, so the only reason why they would split stuff up, is to provide a better way to buy games: a la carte style.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
1 block might be an unlock key on any other Wiiware game over 250 blocks in size but doesn’t seem like it for Megaman 9. 3 blocks, since the full game is 66, definitely doesn’t seem like an unlock key.
So, all of a sudden $18 for a great game that offers at least 6 hours of fun is too much?
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
What was your “original question,” Davey1983?
“Where are you getting that from?”
Did you think that was some kind of brilliant rhetorical question that stumped me? I did answer it, if you read between the lines of my post. I know how games are made. The game wouldn’t be stable (with extra characters and modes) unless it had all been tested as a whole before any part was released.
I do love, though, how the best arguments you guys can come up with are “if you don’t want it, don’t buy it” and “$18 really isn’t that much,” which are both such specious and platitudinous fallacies that it boggles my mind that people keep spouting them and thinking they’re logically adequate. I don’t care what the game costs. I’ve spent ridiculous amounts of money on single games before. That’s not the point. I know — you don’t have to tell me — that I’m not required to buy anything. You’re not proving anything or adding anything to the discussion by saying those things.
The reason I brought up the market is because that is EXACTLY the relevant point about this particular release. This whole new business of microtransactions and splitting games into pieces is not something we console gamers have ever encountered before. That’s the only reason I’m interested in discussing this, but apparently most of you don’t really think these things through at the appropriate depth to be able to objectively evaluate them.
The point is that most people think this game costs $10. Later on they will find out that they didn’t get what they thought they were buying (the complete game, Mega Man 9). Is no one bothered by that concept? Doesn’t anyone feel the least bit concerned about the general direction this is tending?
ejamer said:
“The best part of this whole thread are the ignorant people talking about what Capcom should’ve charged for the game, or making foolish assertions about ‘free markets’. None of those posters know how much it cost to make the game, nor how much profit Capcom earns from each copy sold at the current prices…”
Listen, kid. You should be very careful before you call strangers you know nothing about “ignorant.” You have no idea who I am, what I know, or why I’m participating in this discussion. This will be my last post on the matter; I’ll leave you all to measure out the rest of your lives in coffee spoons and Wii Points to the corporations that own the world.
But I’ll say this first. Your assertions that no one knows how much it cost to make the game or what profit is made from each copy sold are irrelevant and false, in that order. Discounting the cut it surely pays to Nintendo for using the Wii Shop, the profit Capcom makes on each game is the price it charges. The “product” and transfers are electronic; therefore the marginal cost of additional sales is approximately ZERO, and the supply is theoretically infinite. The cost of game development is a fixed number, already determined, that is irrelevant to maximizing profit. To maximize its profit all Capcom has to do is find the point on the sales / price curve (a hyperbola) where sales * price is at the highest value. It’s in their best interest to find this price. What interests me in this situation is why they refuse to sell at that price. I’m certain there are a lot of hidden factors and ulterior motives behind that decision.
Well, enjoy the parts of your game that Capcom is letting you play right now!
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
“Well, enjoy the parts of your game that Capcom is letting you play right now!”
I am, and a lot too. Even when it makes me incredibly angry! And I’m not buying the DLC. To me, it doesn’t exist, and the game is a blast anyway. Complaining about something I’m not required to buy seems silly and moot. That’s the last I’ll say on this, too.
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Thunk–
My question was not rhetorical (and I am apparently not that bright– I don’t see how ‘reading between the lines’ of your post answered my question). Tell me how you know that “Difficulty levels, modes, and playable characters are basic features of the game.” I gave you what I thought the basic features were for the game when I downloaded it– Mega Man and the eight masters (plus the Wiley stages). Those are there (I guess I don’t understand your problem with downloadable content).
You keep spouting off about how you know how the game industry works and how game design works. Enlighten us as to how you know these things– are you a programmer? or just the janitor at a program studio? Here is the thing– I also need an answer as to how you know ‘for a fact’ that the content was there (are is already there). I have some limited programming experience– I have created programs that referenced other programs that I had not even created yet (I will concede that the debug was harder after the second program was created since I could not alter the first program– but I have first hand knowledge that content can be added to a program after the fact if it is programed to accept the new stuff without actually having the additional stuff ready)!
I will give that you clarified what you meant by profit (your original definition was wrong, your second statement, however, was exactly right). Have you ever considered that Capcom was splitting the market (same idea behind coupons– some people will enter at lower price points, or others are willing to pay higher prices). Capcom might have looked at the market and realized that many people would not pay $15 or more, but that $10 was there sweet spot. How do you get the people willing to pay more to do so? Offer them extra content. I am going to happily buy the game, but not the extra content (I concede that the content does appear overpriced for what we are getting).
Final say: I will buy games with downloadable content if I decide the game is worth the price, this game is more than worth the ten dollars.
PS– you should be careful who you call son (and I know you were talking about someone else, but still). I, or he, could very well be older than you, and your posts have a very condescending tone.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Seriously Why even complain? I mean damn we get some DLC on mega man that is actually stuff I may buy since it’s cool too and the price is still pretty low. Yet Xbox live and PSN are all about DLC? Why attack this game that cost $18 and is arguable the best design game coming from them in a long while.
Man the xbox and PS3 guys are working over time huh? Hey if they want it to fail then don’t buy it. That just means more lazy games for us to have fun with. Hey I’m all for that. I mean if you don’t like hard games then fine but that’s your problem. I’m actually gifting this to some people.