Season Passes: The Good, The Bad, The Missed Opportunities

Originally reserved for episodic releases like Telltale's The Walking Dead, the season pass was a way for gamers to buy in to unreleased content at a slight discount. From Bioshock Infinite to The Last of Us it now seems like every game that comes out has some sort of season pass. Even the HD port of Resident Evil: Revelations had one. There's no question that the only reason we're seeing these lump sum DLC packs more and more lately is that they make as much or more money than the DLC does individually. Some games just don't need one though, so today I'm going to separate the games that have one into three groups, the good, the bad, and the unnecessary.

The Good

Call of Duty ELITE

COST: $49.99 / Game SAVINGS: $10.00

Call of Duty Elite is one of the best values on the market when it comes to season passes, only to be trumped (in my opinion) by the next game on this list. For $49.99 you get four DLC packs that include new maps, game modes, and weapons. For fans of the series who plan on purchasing all the DLC anyway, it's a no-brainer because you also save $10 off the price of buying each pack individually. The only downside is the fact that it brings the yearly cost of a Call of Duty game to above $100.

Battlefield 3: PREMIUM

COST: ORIGINALLY $49.99 / SAVINGS: $25.00

Whereas Call of Duty's season pass gives you new maps, modes, and weapons that very slightly change the game, Battlefield Premium gave players full on expansion packs that literally changed how you play the game. It's also an overall better value than the Call of Duty Season Pass because you get five expansion packs and save a total of $25.00 by purchasing it. It also dropped in price to $39.00 on consoles and $29.99 on PC. The main difference from the Call of Duty pass is that Battlefield is not a game that is released annually.

The Last of Us

COST: $19.99 / SAVINGS: $10.00

The Last of Us' Season Pass provides a great value to anyone who loves the game because it includes multiplayer and singleplayer DLC packs. Additionally, by purchasing it you'll also receive a documentary about the game created by Area 5. The discount will technically net you one of the DLC packs for free. There's been a lot of praise surrounding the multiplayer mode in The Last of Us, so getting both single and multiplayer DLC ends up being a nice little package.

The Bad

Bioshock Infinite

COST: $20.00 / SAVINGS: $5.00

Bioshock Infinite's Season Pass is the one I have the biggest problem with. The first issue I have with it is that no indication of what the DLC for the game would be was given before the game was released. Much like 2012's Dishonored, It took about five months for any word on what would be released from Irrational Games, and even though two out of three offerings look like they'll be worth the purchase, it feels a little like a cop-out. Again, much like Dishonored, there is one challenge pack and two story packs being released for the game. In Dishonored's first story pack, The Knife of Dunwall, the "cliffhanger" at the end is so abrupt that it gives the impression that the story was cut in half just to meet Bethesda's requirement for three DLC packs. It's obviously too early to tell, but it seems like we could be in the same situation with Bioshock Infinite. Either way the Season Pass isn't worth buying unless you're really itching for some more of the game's combat because you'll get the Clash in The Clouds pack for free.

Injustice: Gods Among Us
COST: $14.99 / SAVINGS: $5.00

Much like Netherrealm's most recent release, Mortal Kombat, extra characters are being released as DLC for $5.00 each. By purchasing the Season Pass, you'll get all four characters for the price of three making this seem superficially like a pretty swell deal. There's a problem though. Netherrealm has been releasing costume packs for the game since it launched, so why aren't those included in the Season Pass? Especially costumes for the DLC characters. I feel that $5.00 is just a little too much for each character when it's just the character with no bonus costumes or levels.

Resident Evil Revelations HD
COST: FREE / SAVINGS: $13.00

The Resident Evil Revelations HD Season Pass is one of the weird ones. Free seems pretty enticing at first, but the only way to get the content was to pre-order the game on Steam for $49.99. Also, at the time when it was available, Capcom hadn't even announced what the content would even be.  The issue I have with this season pass actually stems to the fact that there was DLC at all for this game. It's an HD REMAKE of a previously released 3DS game. Any new content should have been included with the game end-of-story. Capcom has been known for being a tad dubious with their DLC offerings, and this Season Pass didn't do much to get them out of the hot water just yet.

The Missed Opportunities 

Mass Effect 3

The Mass Effect games, more specifically Mass Effect 2, have always been known for their stellar DLC offerings. EA hasn't shied away from the practice of selling them along with games like Battlefield 3, so why didn't they have one for Mass Effect 3? This is one of the times where it would have made a lot of sense because many Mass Effect fans probably already planned on buying the DLC  anyway. It also guarantees that people will pay for most of the DLC and eliminates a mass exodus from the potential failure of one of the packs.

PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale

Say what you want about this game, but I loved it enough to get the Platinum Trophy. There wasn't a whole lot of DLC, but packing together Kat, Emmet, Zeus, and Isaac along with the released bonus stages into a season pass would have been an extremely smart move on Sony's part. The game moved just over a million copies, and maybe selling a season pass along with it could have pushed total revenue from the game high enough for Sony to keep their relationship with SuperBot Entertainment.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim has to be the biggest missed opportunity of them all. Much like Mass Effect fans, Elder Scrolls fans live and die by the post-release offerings Bethesda ponies up. If Bethesda had packed together Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and Hearthfire and sold a season pass for $39.99, they may have seen even more profit from DLC sales. One thing's for sure though, I'd bet a lot of money that we'll see one when The Elder Scrolls VI is released.

Parting Words

So there you have it, a nice little list of games that I think should have, shouldn't have, and should've had a season pass. No matter what the opinion on them, the fact of the matter is that they're here to stay. If you've got any suggestions, or even your own opinion on the matter feel free to share in the comments below.