Viva Piñata first downloads

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 November, 2006

Some hats. 90 points.

Viva Piñata may not be out here until 1st December, but the game's launch in the US has prompted the game's first downloadable content.

Available now (we checked) for 90 Microsoft points, the Viva Piñata accessory pack consists of the Vela Wig and Juno Helmet, which apparently fit most piñata. You'll be able to obtain them from Paper Pets in the village.

If you ask us, this sort of thing is only likely to reawaken the debate about whether day-one downloads that probably could've been bundled on the disc are ethical - but we'll leave that bit up to you.

The comfort, I suppose, is that you can do as Peter Moore suggested and "vote with your A button" rather easily on this one, since the only people who have it are the ones who imported it.

Look out for our review of Viva Piñata very soon, and in the meantime you could always leaf through our first impressions or download the interactive video demo from Marketplace.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Steroyd #1 6 years ago

    I feel uncomfortable at how fast these optional add-ons are coming out after the games launch.
    With the timescale surely they could have included it in the game.

    Or did they run out of disc space.

    Badum tish. :D

  • Santino #2 6 years ago

    fuck instant micro transactions in the ass. there should be a minimum of 3-6 months after release before any is allowed to be sold. no excuse for things being held back from being included.

  • kissthestick #3 6 years ago

    Bomba

  • morriss #4 6 years ago

    Stupid.

  • EmiliasHorse #5 6 years ago

    Sadly it would appear to be the future of gaming. One day we will buy the bare bones of a game and have to slot in the actual game by handing over cash. Second Life does this right now but at least that gives the 25mb download for free.

    Mind you I will need a new wig for my Horstachio. Why?

  • ProtoformX #6 6 years ago

    It just seems to mean that games can be rushed now. Things are probably said at meetings like "We're not gonna make the release date at this rate. So just issue the game with what you've got done and then stick the rest on the Marketplace." It's like the patch with Gears of War in the USA. The fact that issues have already been found within days of release mean that QA probably didn't do their job that well. I had a similar experience recently. I downloaded the new Microsoft Messenger for Mac because I can't sign in unles I do. But the program doesn't work. I check the newsgroups about it and they're full of people complaining about the poor quality of the new program. People rush too much.

  • Machiavellian #7 6 years ago

    Why do people feel that if something is offered on Live that you have to buy it. I see a bunch of crap on live and have absolutely no incentive to purchase them.

    So Rare through up some extra hats on live. If the game has plenty of those items then so what. If you like the game enough to personalize it with micro transaction thats all good but nothing is forcing anyone to purchase such things.

    If a developer starts to cut features or items in a game to sell them on Live then they would lose me as a customer probably for life. There is no need to make a big deal every time a developer put something on live especially if you have no plans of getting it. My only concern is about the core game and if that suffers then thats when I take offense.

    When you think about it, between when a game is finished, sent to MS for the GOLD seal then shipped off for publishing then to your retail outlet takes probably about a Month and a 1/2. Plenty of time to produce such a simple items like hats.

  • Machetazo #8 6 years ago

    +1 @Machiavellian

    Firstly, there's been no illusion been put up about VP utilising microtransactions. That's been known for a long time. I haven't played, but there's sure to be plenty of Piñata customisation content already included with the game, from all the shots.
    Then, these hats are actually based on Rare earlier games. A nod to the fans, which in this climate, you're usually asked to pay for. Not having these hats shouldn't impact your enjoyment of the game, either. You're still able to fully enjoy what you paid for.

    There needs to be some distinction made between when developers are clearly removing content specifically from the game to sell later (not the case at all here, imo), and when they're simply offering additional content post-launch to support the game further.

    They probably created these JFG things from scratch, had to test them with the game, expose them to QA to ensure complete compatibility. It took time and resources, over and above that used in the game creation, so a modest 90 Microsoft Points isn't too much to ask, for those that want to enjoy the content, surely! I think some people are looking to blow the whistle here, far too early.

    Rare haven't shown any inclination with Kameo or PDZ to actively nickel and dime their customers there, (co-op pack= Free - Rare said that if a feature was necessary to fully enjoy the game, and was effectively added later to the full game post launch, then it would be offered free...Guess what? They delivered on that. 11 costumes= 200 points in Kameo; Lots of added content in the power pack for that game, beyond the higher difficulty promised; PDZ: much-requested legacy maps made available for free in Map Pack 2)
    and this is no evidence they've decided to buck that trend, now.

  • bioreit #9 6 years ago

    +1 plus a massive pat on the back to Machetazo for saying exactly what was on my mind. (Plus I guess another +1 by default for Machievellian)

  • J*C #10 6 years ago

    Dont know why there bothering with this shit, i have said this before and i will say it again. its unpopular, it wont catch on and its a rip off. so just drop it, and release the game proper with all the bells and whistles in the game.

  • haowan #11 6 years ago

    I think it's fairer to say that if it's unpopular, then it won't catch on, and whether or not it's a rip-off is down to the individual consumer to decide. This particular game was pretty much built ground-up to work by MTs, and if you'd been following it at all then this news would come as no surprise at all. It's a great business model - just look at mobile phone ringtones for proof.

  • Xerx3s #12 6 years ago

    Or did they run out of disc space.

    Badum tish. :D

    /tumbleweed

    I can't remember having to pay for minor downloads for PC games, and if you did have to pay it was because the content was developed AFTER the game was made.

    So you never played expansion packs? Anyway, you can blame ms, but in the end the only ones that are to blame are the publishers. Ms doesn't force them to release these things (this being the exception because ms owns rare).

    Besides, DLC doesn't stop Oblivion from being a great game with 500+ hours of gameplay without paying for the extra stuff. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Companies are probing the market for what it feels to be the right price. I.e. Oblivion will soon have an expansion that will add 10+ hours of gameplay to the game for a reasonable price.

  • YourMessageHere #13 6 years ago

    The concern I have over DLC in its present form is that people are gradually being conditioned to believe and expect that DLC=cost to them. I see a slippery slope thing here; once upon a time patches were a mixture of "we fixed X" and "we added a new thing, Y", whereas now patches all seem to be bugfixes only, and people end up having to pay for the nice addons. How long will it be before people have to pay for bugfixes? How long until licensing is necessary for mods? In future when I download a new weapon model to replace my AK47 in CSS, made by Joe Public for his fun and no money, will I (and he) have to pay a tithe to Valve?

    Another thing is, a lot of this sort of thing just smells of "well, we originally wanted this in the game, but it was cut out at the 11th hour; we'll stick it out there as an add-on, charge (the equivalent of) £1 for it and get some free money and publicity out of it", rather than anything that players necessarily want, will find interesting or will expand the game at all.

    Edit: a mising leter.
    Edited by YourMessageHere at 13/11/06 @ 03:08

  • bloodflowers #14 6 years ago

    Overpriced. Already on the disc. Game went gold with this disabled so you could pay for it later. How many other things are on the disc, disabled? Use the 108kb rule - anytime you see marketplace "downloadable" content at 108kb size, it's an unlock key.