Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

I actually tend to disagree this time around, and you know how much I think that communication is their biggest point they could improve on.

Just looking at their Twitter for instance, since February there's been 6 tweets highlighting these three animals and every single time it was mentioned that they were exclusive to the pre-order. Every single time.

Could you say that the words "pre-order bonus" were initially confusing? Sure. But can we really continue saying that when every other form of communication around these animals used phrases like "Pre-order now and get the exclusive Thomson's Gazelle, Pygmy Hippopotamus and Komodo Dragon!", "Pre-order Planet Zoo: Console Edition now and get the Thomson's Gazelle as an exclusive bonus animal:" and "There's just over a week left to pre-order Planet Zoo: Console Edition and get an extra three exclusive animals for your zoo on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S!", that Frontier was not explicit about the fact that these animals were going to be exclusive for those who pre-order? And mind you, one of these tweets goes as far as February 2d; it's not like they only got explicit about it recently.

Do I think it's weird that they only just answered a question like that? Yeah maybe. But I don't think it's fair to say that Frontier left much wiggle room in their communication, they've been pretty clear for quite a while. I think it's just the community here that decided that because they're animals, there's all of a sudden an arbitrary rule why the animals would be avaiable at a later date, even if in previous Frontier games preorder exclusives never were available afterwards.

At the end of the day, I'm going to be honest and say that I don't really care about whether these animals are exclusive or not, as I'm not buying it on console (as I don't own a console). Am I a fan of pre-order exclusives, not really. Do I think Frontier is scummy for having them? Also not really, as it's been a pretty common strategy in the gaming industry for over a decade now. Even in the past Frontier has been giving away pre-order exclusive stuff for JWE, Planet Zoo, Planet Coaster Console and JWE2, so of course they were going to do it again for the console release.

Was it a good idea to give away the deluxe animals? I don't know. But I sure as hell know that a lot of people here would be complaining a hell of a lot more if console got a console exclusive animal, so I think that if they had to give something exclusive, that was the better choice. I personally would have gone for a console exclusive outfit for your character, but I can also understand that's not enough of a pull to get people to pre-order and if we want Frontier to keep doing well financially then a pre-order system where they can get people to buy the game a full price instead of at a discount is going to be one of those things we'll have to tolerate I guess.


Seriously, I know that this will sound a bit rude but... relax.

We literally know there is a PDLC coming before the end of May, what's the point in getting so worked up about having to wait maybe just another month? Let the console players have their moment for a minute, they've been waiting for this for more than 4 years now. I'm sure you can sit back and wait for a month or so if they were able to wait for 4 years, it's not the end of the world.
Whoops, I wasn't talking about the pre-order thing though 😂 Honestly? I didn't even notice or realise that there is a discussion around it.
I just feel the marketing of the console edition just overpowers everything and I feel like PC players don't even exist anymore.
Another thing that annoys me about the campaign is that it all feels so repetitive and uncreative, that I just grew very tired of it, like a commercial that cones up 5 times in 30 minutes.

I agree that the communication about pre-ordering was straight forward and I personally don't understand why someone would hesitate to pre-order and then mourn about not getting those not even extreme popular animals later.
 
and I personally don't understand why someone would hesitate to pre-order and then mourn about not getting those not even extreme popular animals later.
Because some may not be able to afford the game until later on, thats the problem. Komodo Dragon is an extreme popular animal and for many its their favourite reptile in the game, the Pygmy Hippo is also pretty popular so I can totally understand how people could be upset by this.
 
Because some may not be able to afford the game until later on, thats the problem. Komodo Dragon is an extreme popular animal and for many its their favourite reptile in the game, the Pygmy Hippo is also pretty popular so I can totally understand how people could be upset by this.
Fair, I tend to forget the financial aspect. Then again, pre-orders are Important for companys (or authors or anyone really), so I understand they need the encouragment for customers.
With the PC editition it was never about the extra animals I feel. It was about playing the beta.
 
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I still think having the 3 animals exlusively in the preorder is a scummy move. Imo the way they did it for PC was way better, having them bundled in the deluxe edition with early access and the other stuff, so you could get them later if you really wanted to. Given it was overpriced to all hell but hey, atleast the option was there for people which discovered the game only after it released, like i did.
I only heared about, and bought the game when aquatic was teased, so i would have had no chance of getting them without the option to get deluxe afterwards
 
Fair, I tend to forget the financial aspect. Then again, pre-orders are Important for companys (or authors or anyone really), so I understand they need the encouragment for customers.
With the PC editition it was never about the extra animals I feel. It was about playing the beta.
Even without the financial aspect, pre-order is by definition a small time frame. What if you discover that Planet Zoo exists a couple of months or years after the console release? You are left without 2-3 very important species in your game forever, and Frontier is left without your money. Some people may choose to not buying the game because their favourite animal is the Komodo dragon. It's a lose-lose situation for both sides, I can't get it.
 
Even without the financial aspect, pre-order is by definition a small time frame. What if you discover that Planet Zoo exists a couple of months or years after the console release? You are left without 2-3 very important species in your game forever, and Frontier is left without your money. Some people may choose to not buying the game because their favourite animal is the Komodo dragon. It's a lose-lose situation for both sides, I can't get it.
We can agree to disagree here, as "very Important species" in this case for me is the same buzz word as "essential for a zoo game" with every animal with the current roster.
I also see it personally far fetched that someone who is genuinly interested in a zoo game wouldn't buy the game later on, because it doesn't have animal x.
So I don't see Frontier loosing any noticeable amount of customers.
 
We can agree to disagree here, as "very Important species" in this case for me is the same buzz word as "essential for a zoo game" with every animal with the current roster.
I also see it personally far fetched that someone who is genuinly interested in a zoo game wouldn't buy the game later on, because it doesn't have animal x.
So I don't see Frontier loosing any noticeable amount of customers.
I bought the game around the arctic pack release without looking at the roster too closely. I waited a few months until some kinks were sorted out. When I finally started playing, I looked for all of my NA ZT favorites (Brown Bear, Black Bear, Mountain Lion, Grey Wolf, Moose, Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Wolverine, Beaver, Sea Lion, Sea Otter) and was extremely disappointed. I didn't really get into the game much until after the North America pack dropped, and before that, I mostly used the SA animals and worked my way through the tutorials. If I'd looked at the base game roster a bit more then, I might have waited. I might not have been willing to pay full price for the base game roster if I'd paid better attention to it. I just thought it would follow Zoo Tycoon.

The full DLC roster is much better now. The lack of birds and monkeys and the questionable communication gave me some reservations, but I have fewer issues with today's lineup. However, I think my standards are allowed to go up a little bit as the price of the game + all DLCs rises.
 
Remenber what i said about the console edition being more expensive in my country? yeah, about thatView attachment 387720View attachment 387725View attachment 387726
Also a fun fact: considering the upcoming easter sale, with the same amount of money need to buy the console edition, it's possible to buy the pc edition with all the dlcs and you will still have 20 R$ on your hands.

This is, indeed, a worse version than pc.
Converting to Brazilian Reals the XBox one is pretty much the same price as deluxe edition on the Australian store (90 AUD), both being more expensive than basic.

Seems real weird to charge people from a poorer country more (average Australian wage is more than double the average Brazilian wage), really seems like an error of some sort, but if it was, it seems unlikely both would do it.
 
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Defending anti-consumer business practices isn't going to make Frontier add your favourite animal or something.

Seriously I don't get why you'd side with a company doing something as blatantly anti consumer as locking content behind preorders. Company is not your friend, I feel bad for the console players who missed out on this due to various reasons. I hope console players will be able to purchase the three animals separately later.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is the fact they're kind of desperate, trying to recoup on bad investments, it makes sense that they'd press harder. Console users also can't have mods, so no pre-order alternatives, apart from PC.

I'm not sure what the plan is, if they do release the pre-order as purchasable, from their perspective it seems possible to affect future pre-order profits. With PC2 & JWE3 potentially coming up, I think they'd leave it till at least late 2025.

Becoming more anti-consumer is also kind of tied to company growth, so I've some doubts on the situation improving as we delve further into the future. (I think it's hard to pin down PC users in this way, as eventually there will always be mods, so I'm not sure how severe the bonus could be for PC2)

I think a bit of light cosplay outside the offices is appropriate.
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Converting to Brazilian Reals the XBox one is pretty much the same price as deluxe edition on the Australian store (90 AUD), both being more expensive than basic.

Seems real weird to charge people from a poorer country more (average Australian wage is more than double the average Brazilian wage), really seems like an error of some sort, but if it was, it seems unlikely both would do it.
All prices on console seems to be roughly adjusted to USD. They dont want to lose money anymore. Simple.
 
Yeah I don’t really understand their thought process here. For someone who wants the game and can’t save up for it in time of the release to not get the chance to enjoy these animals, it seems messed up to me, like if they want to get the animals later on then they should get the chance to pay for them, frontier gets income from this and players get more animals even if they have to pay for them, I genuinely don’t know what they’re thinking.
They want people to pay full price and get it early its a horrible business practice that unfortunately works
Depends how much the console playerbase can be pushed around though, I'm not seeing anyone seem upset by the comment so far that isn't a pc player.
Unfortunately console is all about bullying the consumers so console players wont complain because they are used to the abuse. Keep in mind preorder exclusive bonuses are nothing new to console almost every major console release will have them its been standard practice for over a deccade. There is a drastic power difference of the consumers when looking at console gaming and pc gaming and devs know this and make use of this to charge more just look at the conversion rates for the base game on pc and console. Console gaming as a whole is not designed by the users its designed by the corporate gaming world which wants to get as much money as possible out of every consumer and they can get away with it because once you have the console where else are you supposed to go.
600 bucks can easily get you a decent pc, if you settle for selfbuild with the help of a friend or online tutorials even less.
Imo current gen non nintendo consoles are atleast compared to a pc a waste of money as they are just a worse pc with only a low amount of exclusives and the only reason i dont rank the switch with them are that its only a third of the price, has a ton of great exclusives and some other nice perks
Every none nintendo or retro console is not the budget friendly option when looking at how to get into gaming. Almost every game that is on consoles is on pc even some console exclusive ie xbox games that exist in the Microsoft store. All console controllers work with pc so even games designed for controllers still work with pc almost as easily. There are only a handful of consumer benefits to consoles the main one is usability pc gaming is infinitely harder to understand than console its like the apple of the gaming world you sacrifice functionality for usability. depending on your region and buying power consoles can be cheaper than an equivalent strength pc and for a general consumer that doesnt know or want to understand pc specs they provide a good way to make sure all games you get can be played on the device you have.

Nintendo is the only exception here because almost every game is console exclusive so it has a greater weight in decision power. The controller is also non standard the only major dev on the market to still have non standard controllers and in my opinion it is the best controller. The switch is also fully mobile unlike other consoles which makes them much more useable to a wide variety of people. It is however not criticism free it still suffers from the god awful pricing of console games and the increasing prevalence of paid subscriptions to even do something as simple as be online (side note does anyone know if franchise will work without the consoles respective online subscription).

If you try hard enough and are lucky enough you can get a pc or laptop that can runs close enough to consoles for a similar price but for the average person especially children thats not easy and that is what the console market preys on.
 
also they will for sure add the deluxe animals in later it will be a dumb financial decision not to but it will be a lot later. They will get all the extra preorder money now, then when the games popularity is slowing down and they are wrapping up they will repackage it as a deluxe upgrade make it look like something they did from the kindess of their hearts and get more money.
 
All prices on console seems to be roughly adjusted to USD. They dont want to lose money anymore. Simple.
I believe steam includes buying power when calculating prices. I remember the days before they did that it was awful everything was much more expensive. Also as I believe someone pointed out they could buy the game (on sale) on pc and all the dlc for less than the game on console which definitely signals a price change that disproportionately affects poorer global regions. This is an unfortunate decision but is in line with most other console games so is expected.
 
Seriously, I know that this will sound a bit rude but... relax.

We literally know there is a PDLC coming before the end of May, what's the point in getting so worked up about having to wait maybe just another month? Let the console players have their moment for a minute, they've been waiting for this for more than 4 years now. I'm sure you can sit back and wait for a month or so if they were able to wait for 4 years, it's not the end of the world.
Oh I'm completely relaxed. I think you misinterpreted that. It is intentionally exaggerated and meant to be ironic, at least the second part.
Because of the constant demand for a console edition, you know?
I don't even have the reach or the time to really do something like that (I don't have any other social media apart from a YT account)
Basically, this is just a bit of a jibe at Frontier's communication (but that doesn't surprise me after all this time)
The only thing I find a bit strange is that the language file hasn't been updated yet, which puts the DLC date quite far back.
But as long as content is coming, I actually don't care when it comes. I would also be fine if there were only two DLCs released per year (one in summer, one in winter).
 
I honestly cannot understand the need to play a building game on console. But then again, I was never a console fan in the first place. I have a Nintento Switch that I barely use, and when that happen, it is mostly for party games when I have friends over. But each to their own I guess.

Regarding the pre order bonus, it is pretty bad practise. Sure, people that know about the game and want these animals will pre-order and have no issue, but what about those that will only discover the game after it released? I would be pretty mad if that happened to me because I absolutely adore Pygmy Hippos. The only hope there is that they will release it later, that they want as many people to preorder thus cannot explicitly say “sure, you do not need to pre-order buddy, these will be available at any time!”.
 
"Companys aren't your friend!"
Well, EXACTLY!
Which is why they need good pre-order numbers for investors and steam pushes. Which is why they want and need to sell the game full price, to make the biggest revenue with that.

The saddest part of this discussion for me is, that A LOT of people that now mourn for players that MIGHT not be able to have all x african antilopes, a mini hippo and another reptile in game down the line, did NOT scream "bad business practice" when hundreds of people were layed off, right before christmas. People without whom the game wouldn't even exist in its current form. People who actually cared for a consumer-company relationship. Did any of you even brother to follow people like Fran and read HOW bad it was?

But why should you be interested in THAT side of Frontier. That wasn't important enough for you to get heated up on, was it? It didn’t effect how much money YOU had at the end of the day.

Yoz know what? I like buying games that are worth it buy at full price and support a company that locks BENEFITS and not ESSENTIALS behind paywalls. I also like the tjought of keeping said company and workplaces alive with it, even if that's not always the case, as Frontiers bad business practice with their employees showed.
If that makes me anti-consumer, I'll be that happily. Because I am pro-worker.

Besides that: They made the bloody soundtrack available separate a year later. Just because they have no plans on releasing the animals separate now, won't mean they will not do it later.
Is it a given? No. But that doesn't make this situation more of a problem than any "while supplies last" bonus.
 
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