Odds are you’ve heard the news that the season pass for Fallout 4 will be increasing in price from $29.99 USD to $49.99 USD on March 1, 2016. This price increase came alongside a massive DLC announcement including three new add-ons: Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, and Far Harbor. For the sake of keeping everyone on the same page, let’s have a quick recap of what those are:
- Automatron ($9.99 USD) – The “Mechanist” has unleashed a horde of evil robots in the Commonwealth. Defeat them and use their parts to build a new robotic companion.
- Wasteland Workshop ($4.99 USD) – Capture wasteland creatures and raiders, tame them, or battle them to the death. Also includes new settlement options.
- Far Harbor ($24.99 USD) – “Featuring the largest landmass for any Fallout add-on yet,” head off the coast of Maine to investigate the mysterious island of Far Harbor, dealing with synths and the Children of Atom all the while.
The Numbers
Now that you’re all caught up, let’s take a closer look at what we’ve been offered for Fallout DLC this year so far…
Automatron will likely include a few new questlines, some new random enemies to encounter, and the obvious addition of a new robotic companion; easily worth $9.99. Wasteland Workshop suits a niche hobby in Fallout 4, giving settlement fans more items to use and places to build in — this expansion’s worth is debatable.
Far Harbor, on the other hand, could host endless possibilities, making it the subject we’ll be focusing on in this article. Bringing the player to an alternative environment filled with new weapons, crazy enemies, and heart-stopping quests is the true staple of Bethesda DLC.
By going through previously released add-ons, we can estimate just how much content – and the size of each piece of content – we’ll be getting with Fallout 4.
Luckily enough, a fellow GameSkinny-ist has provided examples for the Fallout games in a recent article.
In Fallout 3, Mothership Zeta, Point Lookout, and The Pitt offered entirely new areas — similar to Fallout 4‘s Far Harbor. It also included two smaller add-ons, giving players extra missions in the base game area, much like Automatron. In Fallout: New Vegas, we saw four entirely new areas, and one pack similar in size and value to Fallout 4‘s Wasteland Workshop.
There’s a clear trend here: multiple massive add-ons and one or two small add-ons like Automatron and Wasteland Workshop. Of course we’re looking at a “next-gen” game now, meaning the rules may have changed. Not to mention the price for the big add-ons have skyrocketed. The bigger DLC packs previously mentioned sold for the low-low price of $10.00 a pop. Far Harbor, on the other hand, is selling for $24.99.
The season pass for Fallout 4 is currently selling for $29.99 USD and will be increasing to $49.99 USD on March 1, 2016. Of the DLC we know of, the future season pass price is ~$10.00 overpriced. A general rule of thumb for season passes is that they save you between $10.00 and $20.00 for doing your due diligence.
With this in mind, we can assume that there is approximately $30.00 — $40.00 if we’re generous — of DLC to be announced in the future.
Possibilities?
So what could Bethesda do with $40.00? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we’ll see at least one more massive expansion.
The way Far Harbor is currently being hyped, if Bethesda goes for another “new area expansion,” they’ll need to keep it big, because dropping the size will look weak on their end. On the other hand, players might cringe at a $25.00 price tag on a second piece of DLC, forcing the developer to convert to smaller add-ons in the future. As of right now, future DLC decisions are likely in the hands of Far Harbor feedback.
That being said, I’m also betting on at least one more Automatron sized pack – providing missions in existing areas. These smaller packs are nice for players that have completed much of the base game and are looking for something new to dive into without sacrificing their wallets – or their hard drive space.
Those are my predictions, now I want to hear from you! What do you think Bethesda has up their sleeve? Let me know what you expect to see from future DLC announcements for Fallout 4 and your theories regarding the ever-expanding season pass price in the comments section!
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