Misplaced Pages

#137862

48-407: Happy Home Designer received mixed reviews from critics upon release; critics praised the creative freedom and improved design controls, but criticised the lack of challenge and unrewarding gameplay loop. Many also felt the game should have been downloadable content (DLC) for Animal Crossing: New Leaf instead of a standalone release. The game sold 3.04 million copies worldwide as of March 2016 and

96-599: A cable line. While the GameLine and Sega Channel services allowed for the distribution of entire titles, they did not provide downloadable content for existing titles. Expansion packs were sold at retail for some PC games, which featured content such as additional levels, characters, or maps for a base game. They often required an installation of the original game in order to function, but some games (such as Half-Life ) had "standalone" expansions, which were essentially spin-off games that reused engine code and assets from

144-449: A " season pass ", which allows users to pre-order a selection of upcoming content over a specific time period, and ensuring the customer's ability to immediately obtain the content upon release. As users do not have the ability to fully preview the content before their purchase, there is a chance that the content of a season pass may not be of a sufficient quality to justify the purchase. In multiplayer games, season passes may also segregate

192-464: A game they were heavily advertising on GameSpot at the time. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET initially stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review. However, in March 2012, the non-disclosure agreement that forced Gerstmann to withhold the details of his termination was nullified. Not long after, Giant Bomb (a site Gerstmann founded after leaving GameSpot ) was being purchased by

240-549: A game to this date." Rock Band features the largest number of downloadable items of any console video game, with a steady number of new songs that were added weekly between 2007 and 2013. Acquiring all the downloadable content for Rock Band would, as of July 12, 2012, cost $ 5,880.10. As the popularity and speed of internet connections rose, so did the popularity of using the internet for digital distribution of media. User-created game mods and maps were distributed exclusively online, as they were mainly created by people without

288-519: A mix of such content as a continuation of the base game. In some games, multiple DLC (including future DLC not yet released) may be bundled as part of a " season pass "—typically at a discount in comparison to purchasing each DLC individually. While the Dreamcast was the first home console to support DLC (albeit in a limited form due to hardware and internet connection limitations), Microsoft's Xbox console and Xbox Live platform helped to popularize

336-601: A mixed reception upon its release for that reason. However, by 2009, the Horse Armor DLC was one of the top ten content packs that Bethesda had sold, which justified the DLC model for future games. Where a normal software disc may allow its license sold or traded, DLC is generally locked to a specific user's account and does not come with the ability to transfer that license to another user. In addition to individual content downloads, video game publishers sometimes offer

384-466: A new design similar to that of TV.com , now considered a sister site to GameSpot . GameSpot ran a few different paid subscriptions from 2006 to 2013, but is no longer running those. In June 2008, GameSpot ' s parent company CNET was acquired by CBS Corporation , and GameSpot along with CNET's other online assets were managed by the CBS Interactive division. A new layout change

432-504: A semi-automated moderation system with numerous volunteer moderators . GameSpot moderators are picked by paid GameSpot staff from members of the GameSpot user community. Due to the size and massive quantity of boards and posts on GameSpot , there is a "report" feature where a normal user can report a violation post to an unpaid moderator volunteer. In addition to the message board system, GameSpot has expanded its community through

480-601: A sequel, Happy Home Paradise , was released as DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on November 5, 2021. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer downplays the wider community simulation mechanics of the main Animal Crossing series in favor of focusing on house designing; players work as an employee of Nook's Homes, designing homes for other animal villagers based around their suggestions. As players progress, they will unlock additional furniture elements they can incorporate into their designs. Players can also visit

528-546: A sister site, VideoGameSpot , was launched on December 1, 1996. Eventually VideoGameSpot , then renamed VideoGames.com , was merged into GameSpot . On January 6, 1997, SpotMedia and publisher Ziff Davis announced a $ 20 million agreement allowing the publisher to run content from Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly on SpotMedia's websites. By the following month, Ziff Davis's substantial financial infusion enabled GameSpot to grow to 45 employees. In February 1999, PC Magazine named GameSpot one of

SECTION 10

#1732786677138

576-408: A small cost ($ 1 to $ 5), rather than full expansion packs (~$ 20), as this would allow players to pick and chose what content they desired, providing revenue to the publishers. Microsoft also utilized a digital currency known as " Microsoft Points " for transactions, which could also be purchased through physical gift cards to avoid the banking fees associated with the small price points. Sony adopted

624-459: Is accounted for by digital distribution of emulated Nintendo titles from previous generations . Music video games , such as titles from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, took significant advantage of downloadable content as a means of offering new songs to be played in-game. Harmonix claimed that Guitar Hero II would feature "more online content than anyone has ever seen in

672-488: Is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by

720-816: Is included within the price of the Nintendo Switch Online service's "Expansion Pack", as well as being available for purchase separately. Happy Home Paradise takes heavy inspiration from Happy Home Designer (acting as a sequel of sorts) and follows the player making vacation homes for several villagers, as well as establishments such as a school and restaurant . Lottie returns and two new characters are introduced. The player can use wallpaper on an individual wall as opposed to only all four, have villagers live with each other , among many other new features. The game holds aggregate scores of 66.15% on GameRanking and 66/100 at Metacritic , indicating "mixed or average reviews". IGN ' s Kallie Plagge praised

768-474: The Call of Duty franchise to PlayStation consoles. Some time after a game's original release, a publisher may reissue the game at retail with all of its existing DLC included at no additional charge and, in some cases, exclusive content which may be released as DLC for existing owners in the future. The resulting SKU is often branded with a subtitle to distinguish it from the original release, such as "Game of

816-490: The Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization , enabling the publisher to gain additional revenue from a title after it has been purchased, often using some type of microtransaction system. DLC can range from cosmetic content, such as skins , to new in-game content such as characters, levels , modes , and larger expansions that may contain

864-490: The DLC requiring the downloadable expansion pack in order to work. PCGamesN described it as "a stuff pack for an expansion pack." While video games are the origins of downloadable content, with movies, books and music also becoming more popular in the digital sphere, experimental DLC has also been attempted. Amazon's Kindle service for example allows updating ebooks, which allows authors to not only update and correct work, but also add content. GameSpot GameSpot

912-618: The Nintendo DS's use of cartridges and lack of dedicated storage, most "DLC" for DS games was limited in scope, or in some cases (such as Professor Layton and the Curious Village and Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 ), was already part of the game's data on the cartridge, and merely unlocked. The Nintendo 3DS supported the purchase of DLC for supported titles for Nintendo eShop . Starting with iPhone OS 3 , downloadable content became available for

960-593: The Year Edition", "Definitive Edition" or "Complete Edition". Destiny was reissued twice to coincide with its "Year 2" and "Year 3" milestones and associated DLC expansions The Taken King and Rise of Iron ; a compilation of the game's existing DLC and The Taken King was released in 2015 under the title Destiny: The Taken King - Legendary Edition , while the game was re-issued again in 2016 as Destiny: The Collection to add Rise of Iron . There have also been cases where DLCs were intended to be part of

1008-748: The concept was considered, the development team believed that such a limit placed too much of a burden on the player's creativity. amiibo were also an influence on Happy Home Designer and a sister game, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival , as the development team thought that Animal Crossing amiibo would be "cute", and brainstormed new gameplay concepts for the franchise that incorporated them. The two games also have integration with each other; houses designed in Happy Home Designer can appear in-game within amiibo Festival . Eight series character amiibo were planned for release with amiibo Festival . Upon their announcement, some expressed concerns with

SECTION 20

#1732786677138

1056-439: The concept. Since the seventh generation of video game consoles , DLC has been a prevalent feature of most major video game platforms with internet connectivity. Since the popularization of microtransactions in online distribution platforms such as Steam , the term DLC has become a synonymous for any form of paid content in video games , regardless of whether they constitute the download of new content. Furthermore, this led to

1104-412: The course of a game's lifetime helped increase sales throughout, and had succeeded well with that business-model in the past, but was required to implement fees for downloads when releasing content for their Microsoft-published game, Gears of War . As of 2010 the sale of DLC makes up around 20% of video games sales, a substantial portion of a developer's profit margin . Developers are beginning to use

1152-528: The creation of the oxymoronic term "on-disc DLC" for content included on the game's original files but locked behind a paywall . The earliest form of downloadable content were offerings of full games, such as on the Atari 2600's GameLine service, which allowed users to download games using a telephone line. A similar service, Sega Channel , allowed for the downloading of games to the Sega Genesis over

1200-399: The game for its "freedom to be creative", but noted that the game sometimes felt unrewarding. Similarly, Nintendo Life felt that the "sheer volume of content was staggering", but was critical of the "lack of any real challenge". Game Informer ' s Jeff Cork gave the game a 5 out of 10, saying that it is "a deep dive into Animal Crossing’s ordinarily shallow home-design pool, without

1248-609: The game's data. DLC of this nature revealed via data mining is typically referred to as " on-disc DLC " or PULC ( premium unlockable content ). This practice has sometimes been considered controversial, with publishers being accused of using what is effectively a microtransaction to lock access to content that was already contained within the game as sold at retail. Data relating to future DLC may be included on-disc or downloaded during updates for technical reasons as well, either to ensure online multiplayer compatibility for existing content between players who have not yet purchased

1296-573: The homes they have created. The game interacts with New Leaf , primarily by allowing the player to unlock exclusive furniture through the Nookling Junction kiosk. The game integrates with Animal Crossing Amiibo cards; scanning cards allows their respective character to visit a home that a player had designed, and allows players to design homes for other major characters such as K.K. Slider and Tom Nook . Animal Crossing series producer Aya Kyogoku explained that Happy Home Designer

1344-491: The hundred best websites, alongside competitors IGN and CNET Gamecenter . On July 19, 2000, CNET announced its acquisition of ZDNET , putting GameSpot and Gamecenter under the same parent company. That December, The New York Times declared GameSpot and Gamecenter the " Time and Newsweek of gaming sites". In February 2001, GameSpot was spared from a redundancy reduction effort by CNET which shuttered Gamecenter . In October 2005, GameSpot adopted

1392-403: The infrastructure capable of distributing the content through physical media. In 1997, Cavedog offered a new unit every month as free downloadable content for their real-time strategy computer game Total Annihilation . Later PC digital distribution platforms, such as Games for Windows Marketplace and Steam would add support for DLC in a similar manner to consoles. Nokia phones of

1440-615: The late 1990s and early 2000s shipped with side-scrolling shooter Space Impact, available on various models. With the introduction of WAP in 2000, additional downloadable content for the game, with extra levels, became available. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service on the Nintendo DS could be used to obtain a form of DLC for certain games, such as Picross DS —where players could download puzzle "packs" of classic puzzles from previous Picross games (such as Mario's Picross ). as well as downloadable user generated content . Due to

1488-502: The main game, but they were later stripped out of it in order to be sold as a separate feature. Tomb Raider: Underworld has been criticized for providing two DLCs, exclusive to the Xbox 360 , that were supposedly removed from the original game. The Sims 4 : My First Pet was likewise criticised for containing items that had seemingly been removed from the Cats & Dogs expansion, with

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer - Misplaced Pages Continue

1536-462: The new DLC, or as dormant support code for planned content that is still in development at the time of the release. Downloadable content is often offered for a price . Since Facebook games popularized the business model of microtransactions , some have criticized downloadable content as being overpriced and an incentive for developers to leave items out of the initial release, with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's horse armor DLC having faced

1584-416: The original game. The Dreamcast was the first console to feature online support as a standard; DLC was available, though limited in size due to the narrowband connection and the size limitations of a memory card. These online features were still considered a breakthrough in video games, but the competing PlayStation 2 did not ship with a built-in network adapter. With the advent of the Xbox , Microsoft

1632-535: The platform via applications bought from the App Store . While this ability was initially only available to developers for paid applications, Apple eventually allowed for developers to offer this in free applications as well in October 2009. In some cases, a purchased DLC may not actually download new content to the device, but merely consists of data used to enable associated content that is already present within

1680-494: The player base if it is the primary means of receiving gameplay content such as maps. Microsoft has been known to require developers to charge for their content, when the developers would rather release their content for free. Some content has even been withheld from release because the developer refused to charge the amount Microsoft required. Epic Games, known for continual support of their older titles with downloadable updates, believed that releasing downloadable content over

1728-513: The purchase of ZDNet by CNET , GameSpot UK was merged with the main US site. On April 24, 2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched. In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU (Australia) existed on a local scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. It ceased in 2003. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET.com.au was launched in 2003, GameSpot AU content was folded into CNET.com.au. The site

1776-436: The sale of DLC for an already successful game series to fund the development of new IPs or sequels to existing games. DLC is usually distributed through a console platform's online storefront, such as Microsoft Store , Nintendo eShop , PlayStation Store , or similar storefronts for PC games such as Steam . Platform exclusivity can also apply to DLC, with Activision having reserved a timed exclusivity period for DLC in

1824-476: The same approach with their downloadable hub, the PlayStation Store . With Gran Turismo HD Concept , Sony planned on having the bulk of its content be purchased separately via many separate online microtransactions . The project was later canceled in favor of the full Gran Turismo 5 . Nintendo has featured a sparser amount of downloadable content on their Wii Shop Channel , the bulk of which

1872-450: The same parent company as GameSpot , and that they moved their headquarters into the same building. As part of this announcement, Gerstmann revealed that the firing was indeed related to threats of Eidos pulling advertising revenue away from GameSpot as a result of Gerstmann's poor review score, which was confirmed by GameSpot's Jon Davison. GameSpot ' s forums were originally run by ZDNet, and later by Lithium . GameSpot uses

1920-410: The series moving in a different gameplay direction; however Kyogoku noted that it and amiibo Festival were spin-offs, and don't necessarily represent where the mainline series would go in the future. On October 15, 2021, during an Animal Crossing Nintendo direct, it was announced that paid DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons , called Happy Home Paradise , would be released on November 5, 2021. It

1968-444: The town elements that make the series such a success". GameSpot similarly awarded it a score of 5 out of 10, saying "With what's in the game, Happy Home Designer would have been amazing DLC for New Leaf: it revamps the previous game's clunky design controls, and the glut of new items would give even hardcore fans a reason to revisit their likely neglected village. But as a standalone experience, no matter how many happy homes I design,

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-477: The town just feels barren." During the game's debut week in Japan, it was the best selling video game in the region, with 522,556 copies sold. As of March 2016, total Japanese sales have surpassed 1.48 million copies, total worldwide sales are at 3.04 million copies. Downloadable content Downloadable content ( DLC ) is additional content created for an already released video game , distributed through

2064-540: The viewers in Spike TV 's second Video Game Award Show , and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain GameSpot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to a Compete.com study. In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched GameSpot on May 1, 1996. Originally, GameSpot focused solely on personal computer games, so

2112-461: Was adopted in October 2013. CNET was sold to Red Ventures in October 2020. Two years later, Fandom acquired GameSpot , along with Metacritic , TV Guide , GameFAQs , Giant Bomb , Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures. In January 2023, 40-50 employees were affected by a round of layoffs. More layoffs at GameSpot took place in January 2024. GameSpot UK (United Kingdom)

2160-481: Was fully re-launched in mid-2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in Australian dollars , Australian release dates, and more local news. Jeff Gerstmann , editorial director of the site, was fired on November 28, 2007 as a result of pressure from Eidos Interactive, a major advertiser; Eidos objected to the 6/10 review that Gerstmann had given Kane & Lynch: Dead Men ,

2208-441: Was inspired by the internal process of designing homes for the animal villagers in the main Animal Crossing games, stating that "We had to think about, what kind of things would this animal like? What kind of life do they lead? Trying to figure out what they'd want was very fun, and we tried to think of a way we could get this kind of experience to players as well." Players are not tied to a specific budget when designing homes; while

2256-516: Was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, offering content that was oriented for the British market that often differed from that of the U.S. site. During this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi (Periodical Publishers Association interactive) award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. PC Gaming World was considered a "sister print magazine" and some content appeared on both GameSpot UK and PC Gaming World . Following

2304-674: Was the second company to implement downloadable content. Many original Xbox Live titles, including Splinter Cell , Halo 2 , and Ninja Gaiden , offered varying amounts of extra content, available for download through the Xbox Live service. Most of this content, with the notable exception of content for Microsoft-published titles, was available for free. The Xbox 360 (2005) included more robust support for digital distribution , including DLC downloads and purchases, via its Xbox Live Marketplace service. Microsoft believed that publishers would benefit by offering small pieces of content at

#137862