Nintendo's First Season Pass for a title (Mario Golf 3DS)

[chavosaur]

Now I know what everyone's thinking here. "Chavo how the hell is this news? Why is it so important that Nintendo is releasing a season pass."
Well Ill tell you friends. This is Nintendo's very first step into the world of Season passes, and a further step into DLC, which is a system Nintendo has never really done much with before.
Nintendo is Notorious for being, well a huge step backward with the times. But theyre slowly getting into the world of DLC and Season Passes and such with their most recent title, Mario Golf World Tour.

Nintendo will be offering a season pass for Mario Golf: World Tour that bundles together three add-ons for $14.99, the company announced today.
Mario Golf: World Tour, which launches May 2 on Nintendo 3DS, includes 10 courses with a total of 126 holes of golf. Six additional 18-hole courses, for a total of 108 extra holes, will be released in the three downloadable content packs Nintendo is working on. Each of the DLC packs will contain two new courses and one new playable character.
The season pass will kick off with the Mushroom Pack, which comes with Toadette, on May 2. Later that month, Nintendo will release the Flower Pack, which includes Nabbit. And June will see the launch of the Star Pack, which features Rosalina. Each add-on will be sold for $5.99, which means the season pass price represents a 20 percent discount over buying all three DLC packs separately. Players will have the opportunity to try the DLC courses before buying with Trial Tournaments.

Now to why this really qualifies as some news. This is Nintendo's first time offering a season pass for a slew of DLC for a title. They've had minor DLC for their titles before, like the Coin Rush packs in NSMB2, or the extra content in Fire Emblem Awakening. But now they're broadening their horizons a lot more.

Sure it seems way overpriced and not at all worth it. But it begs the question, Will we now be sing pot game content For Nintendo's even bigger titles releasing later this year, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros??
What we see here is DLC available for:
Courses
Characters
and possible mini trials.

So what does this mean for the future? Can we expect to hear news of a Mario Kart 8 Season Pass down the line? Perhaps DLC packs of characters or stages for smash bros? It may not seem like much to go off of, but what we're seeing here is Nintendo really pushing for a bigger focus on post game content. And if it goes well, we may see it go a LOT further.


EDIT: Sauce:http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/22/5639602/mario-golf-world-tour-dlc-season-pass

 

[BrightNeko]

Kinda cool way to go about it, shouldn't be called a season pass though. More like a bundle version of all the courses.

-edit-
The back lash on this is amazing, these courses were probably made in the 3-4 weeks it is taking to get the game, rated, produced, and whatever else needs doing before they ship the game.

 

[Nightwish]

Even Nintendo isn't free from this crap. Fucking hell.

 

[frogboy]

Let's hope their future endeavors in the realm of DLC are always this sensible.

Spoiler

Mario Golf World Tour 2: Buy one golf course for $9.99, get half of another course for free! Of course, you can't just play half of a course... so you'll need to buy another one! Please understand!

 

[Deleted_171835]

the end is nigh

 

[TyBlood13]

torn between "yay Ninty's catching up" and "Ugh more $ I'll end up spending"

 

[Issac]

I really hate the idea of season passes... Feels like it forces some DLC out. It's like you'd had to pay for the weekly puzzles in layton games :/

 

[Gahars]

Season Passes are honestly pretty awful and shady all around. I hate that Sony and Microsoft push them with their own games, and it's pretty disappointing to see Nintendo go down the same path. I hope people will be keen enough not to throw their money away here, but I'm not too optimistic.

 

[Bladexdsl]

ninty moving into the dark realm o PAID dlc and micro transactions. that's it...gaming is DEAD!

 

[omgpwn666]

I don't mind. If it looks good, I'll buy it.

 

[pokefloote]

The DLC is like the size of 50% of the game though, the game is cheaper than the average retail cartridge, and together with the DLC it's only $5 more than the usual retail game. If you don't want to buy it, don't. You still have the complete game. Some people want MORE and this is an option for that.

$29.99 + $14.99 = $44.98

What's the problem???

 

[Taleweaver]

Okay...I'm not much of a golfer (real or in game), so riddle me this:

Is 126 different tracks of golf in any way a small number?

Because to me, it doesn't sound like it at all. Of course this sort of depends on variation (if half those tracks are mirrored ones, for example), but I certainly know games with less levels. So my prime fear of the game being less content in order to beef up DLC doesn't really act up.

The season pass also seem like a lot of content. In fact: perhaps TOO MUCH content. It will put the total on 232 different tracks. On a freakin' golf game. Rather than complaining that nintendo puts a discount on a bundle (Oh no! how DARE they???) I'd see what it actually offers. And for what you get at what price, I don't think anyone is in the position to complain.

 

[PolloDiablo]

I want a new Golden Sun

 

[Nathan Drake]

The only thing that bothers me about this is the fact that they have a schedule already for this DLC that only extends for about one month past release with the first pack releasing literally the same day. I'm pretty sure we collectively agreed in the past that day one DLC like this is bullshit and should just be included with the game to begin with. Look at this logically and realize that Nintendo would be taking this step eventually, but also consider the fact that this is a very poor implementation of the idea. The season pass isn't a deal. You are simply paying extra for content that Nintendo decided to omit from the initial release likely for no reason but to test this type of development and sale.

Edit: In fairness to Nintendo, I do have to acknowledge the approximately $10 less price tag on this game when compared to other first party title prices making the $15 DLC essentially equal out the price for other first party titles. Presumably, this was also part of this test run, keeping the price around the same place just to see if the season pass was an idea worth pursuing for them.

Realistically, they would be far better off sticking to individual DLC for each game right now, not worrying about packs and dedicated DLC release schedules when they barely have any experience at all with it. A season pass is a big step that shows dedication to one game for an extended period of time, and the way Nintendo develops doesn't seem to allow much for prolonged periods of time being spent on individual titles post-release. Considering they almost exclusively support both the 3DS and the Wii U, I have a hard time believing that their studios have time to consider season pass DLC while just trying to push games out the door fast enough to keep the dead times between releases shorter.

All that aside, their entire online system really blows, and I don't like the idea of even more paid content being tied to something like an NNID which is still tied to the system rather than actually utilizing an online based account system. Maybe they should consider getting their general service into the now before using newer DLC ideas like the season pass.

 

[Count Duckula]

All that aside, their entire online system really blows, and I don't like the idea of even more paid content being tied to something like an NNID which is still tied to the system rather than actually utilizing an online based account system. Maybe they should consider getting their general service into the now before using newer DLC ideas like the season pass.

Couldn't agree more. Although even if their online service didn't suck, DLC in mariokart 8 would be a dealbreaker for me.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

The only DLC I've ever bought was Telltale's Walking Dead episodic collection but other than this, I can't remember. I did "purchase" XBLA games although they were with MSP I had acquired for free (Bing Rewards).

Not interested in Season Passes regardless if it's Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft games. Include it all in the disc/card and that's it for me.

 

[Sychophantom]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this:

Will we now be sing pot game content

As for the season pass, meh. It was inevitable that of all the things Nintendo does correct with their online attempts, it would be something universally despised.

 

[MarioFanatic64]

Season Pass makes it sound like these packs are only temporary. Like it only works for 30 days or something.

I don't like that.

 

[pokefloote]

Season Pass makes it sound like these packs are only temporary. Like it only works for 30 days or something.

I don't like that.

Nothing to worry about, it's yours forever if you buy it. It's like buying a season pass for a baseball team, you pay one price at the beginning, and then you can go to all of the games in the season for that team. (you are given all of the promised DLC when they come out). It's a slight discount compared to buying them individually.

 

[Clydefrosch]

maybe if it was a new course every week over 3 months?

how hard could it be to make a new golf course? its not exactly rocket science.

oh well, not a mario golf fan anyways