BioShock Infinite DLC bundles extras, Season Pass still in development

BioShock Infinite's "Columbia's Finest" pack is now available, offering the bonus items that came with the Premium and Ultimate Songbird editions of the game. The story-based Season Pass content, on the other hand, is still in development with no timeline set.

11

BioShock Infinite has gotten its first bit of downloadable content, while the Season Pass story-heavy DLC remains in development. This pack includes the extras from the Industrial Revolution Pack and the Upgrade Pack, which were originally offered with the Premium and Ultimate Songbird editions.

The "Columbia's Finest" pack is available across Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live Marketplace. It's $4.99 on Steam and PSN, but curiously, is listed at 480 Microsoft Points ($6) on XBLM. It includes 500 Silver Eagles, 5 Lock Picks, six unique gear items, and two weapon upgrades.

And what of the Season Pass content? We're no closer to hearing those details, as a tweet from series creator Ken Levine urged more patience. "We are working on it- have been since the game shipped," he said. "Things are going well, but plz understand: game development takes time."

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 26, 2013 9:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, BioShock Infinite DLC bundles extras, Season Pass still in development.

    BioShock Infinite's "Columbia's Finest" pack is now available, offering the bonus items that came with the Premium and Ultimate Songbird editions of the game. The story-based Season Pass content, on the other hand, is still in development with no timeline set.

    • reply
      June 26, 2013 9:38 AM

      We're 3 months past release with nothing concrete on DLC. That kinda surprises me. This isn't something like Skyrim where the large mod community (and hundreds of potential gameplay hours) keep it in people's minds so that DLC is still relevant 6-12 months after release. I wonder what the sales of DLC will be like if they don't get something out before the rush of Q3 games starts.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 9:58 AM

        I can see it being an "expansion pack" type deal.

        • reply
          June 26, 2013 10:06 AM

          That'd be cool, though I really wonder what else there is to do with the game at this point. I'm hoping it'll be some kind of side story, either from a new perspective or with different characters, something substantially *not* part of the main story, which I think is adequately closed out by the original game.

          • reply
            June 26, 2013 3:05 PM

            I want a complete side story, the narrative for infinite I think is effectively closed, so a nice side story in the universe would be fun.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 9:58 AM

        Yeah, I should not have bought the season pass with nothing announced.

    • reply
      June 26, 2013 9:53 AM

      Did they sell many season passes?

    • reply
      June 26, 2013 10:09 AM

      Funny.
      IF a dev announces a season pass and it says you will get content 1 minutes after you bought the game, then they get chastised cause "this was in the works all along and its content taken out of the full game" and on and on ...
      But if they sell the pass and start working on something new out of the box, then its a big fraud scheme and people complain. What to do, what to do.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 10:15 AM

        It seems to sorta be a Lose/Lose situation for them

        Though, I would have thought with a Season Pass planned, the basic story to the multi-DLC would be penned out in some basic form early on

        • reply
          June 26, 2013 10:43 AM

          It's Win/Win for them because they have the moneys. It's lose/lose for the people who pay them.

          • reply
            June 26, 2013 1:50 PM

            I don't feel that way, and I bought the season pass. I'm waiting patiently for Irrational to complete them, and I'm sure I'll be a lot happier with it in the long run, considering they didn't have to divide development across the studio for simultaneous projects.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 10:17 AM

        I think selling the pass without at least saying something like "Upcoming DLC will include new areas, characters, weapons and story, ETA Fall 2013" or something similar, is a mistake.

        Yeah, people don't like the feeling that stuff was cut, but it's a hard sell to make people care about SP DLC long after they've finished your game.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 10:27 AM

        Yeah, I think the industry needs to better communicate what DLC is because I'm tired to see complaints on both sides that doesn't understand modern game development and economics.

        If DLC is made during the production of the game it's usually (if the dev/pub is honest) on a separate budget with somewhat of a separate team.

        It's content that would NOT exist in the main game or at all if it wasn't going to be put up for sale separately as DLC.

        At the same time when a dev with tight content control like Irrational makes DLC, they can't do it alongside the main production, so it sadly might be forgotten 6 months down the line.

        • reply
          June 26, 2013 10:55 AM

          The problem is selling it before you can even say what it'll be, much less when it's coming.

          But then, I'm inclined to place the blame on consumers for handing over cash without any actual product. It takes pre-ordering to a whole new level.

      • reply
        June 26, 2013 11:23 AM

        mabye don't do the season pass, so I don't have to pre-order DLC

        • reply
          June 26, 2013 4:34 PM

          Agreed; don't sell your chickens before they hatch. I know it's a hard concept for sales to think of, but 2K seems to take stock whenever Ken Levine says "NO" (see: Bioshock Infinite Multiplayer Scrapped).

          The last year or two of Irrational's development process of Bioshock Infinite was probably brutal, and probably won't be talked about much in public (has Chris Remo said anything during the recent Idle Thumbs series? I doubt he's said much other than already-PR-vetted details), so they probably didn't know how deep they were digging themselves when they were scoping the product offering of the DLC season pass. But that wasn't announced until near release date ( http://www.shacknews.com/article/77928/bioshock-infinite-dlc-season-pass-announced ), so they could've sat on it instead... but didn't. Did the money earned from those DLC season pass sales offset the lost face in light of the delays? Delays that they probably saw major signs of back in the beginning of 2013, a month before they announced the availability of the season pass? It's really hard to tell a product manager to not sell something, but sometimes you HAVE to say NO.

Hello, Meet Lola