Uncharted 3 online pass defended
"Games have to make money."
Uncharted 3 developer Naughty Dog has spoken up in defense of the game's online pass, insisting it's a fair price to pay for the game's multiplayer content.
Speaking in an interview with The Sixth Axis, game director Justin Richmond argued that the developer has invested a great deal of time and resources into the game's multiplayer and deserves to be be financially rewarded by customers picking up the game second-hand.
"We give literally thousands of hours of content in our online stuff and on top of that we give you not just competitive, but an entire co-op experience as well. There's basically a whole alternate history, alternate version story in our co-op, and in this game they're actually all tied together," he explained.
"Part of the reason for the online pass is that when that stuff goes online, it isn't free. We have to pay for servers and all this different stuff to maintain it, and so at some point, you know, games have to make money.
"It is a business, and we just wanna be able to continue to provide that kind of content. If Sony ever comes to us and says 'You're not making enough money on this, you need to cut it' or whatever, that's not something that we want. We want to be able to maintain the level of quality of the product that we're giving out."
Richmond added that the only other option would be to split the game into two separate packages - one with the online content, the other with the parts of the game that are playable offline.
"The other thing is that even if you do buy it used, it's worth the price of that online pass just to get all that content, because there's so much stuff.
"It's either that or we offer online completely in its entirety also, so we have a complete offline package as well, so if you want to play the co-op with a friend, you can do that offline."
Richmond's comments closely echo those made recently by Battlefield 3 executive producer Patrick Bach.
"We would rather have you buy a new game than a used game because buying a used game is only a cost to us," he argued. "We don't get a single dime from a used game, but we still need to create server space and everything for you."