Let's Talk About Pricing(Did I Speak Too Soon?) (Gaming)

by Morpheus , High Charity, Thursday, January 21, 2016, 19:36 (3232 days ago)

So, as I started my aforementioned Destiny break I began with a game I had on my shelf since Black Friday:Dead or Alive 5--Last Round(yes, yes, most sexist franchise evar, etc, whatever). Anyway, whenever I start a new game, the first thing I do is check it for DLC/Store content to find 1. Anything that's free, 2. Whatever is essential for story/completion expansion, and 3. Whatever's relatively cheap but cool looking. So as I scroll through the list, I notice that the digital version of the game is $39.99 Give or take a few dollars, that's around what I paid when I bought it. Remember that price. I keep looking and find an add-on called the New Costume Pass--for the outfits that the characters wear in the fights. Get this--NINETY TWO DOLLARS AND NINETY NINE CENTS. EACH. And there's THREE of them.

I checked the contents of these packs, and there are no characters(except for one in Set 3), no maps, no modes, nothing but outfits!

Yes, I know the obvious solution is not to buy them(and obviously, I didn't). But that still doesn't stop the question from forming in my head and being expressed(usually in confused, angry shouting) from my mouth: Why would a DLC pack made of 100% purely cosmetic items singlehandedly cost nearly three times the amount of the game itself?! I know DOA5LR didn't ship at $40, but even at original full price, those packs are still double the money! I added it up--buying all three packs(without tax) is $279 dollars--enough to buy seven copies of the game at its BF pricing or 4 and a half copies of it at MSRP.

What sense does that make? I know it's excessive/unnecessary, but I'm actually on the fence and thinking about contacting Microsoft and finding out how something like this sounds fair to them.

For those of you that buy Marketplace content on a regular basis--have any of you come across ridiculously priced items on your favorite games? Does this look like some weird mistake to you or a company out for blood? Would you buy a game if something like this was actually required?