Marvel Heroes: $129.99 DLC pricing isn't setting any precedent, says dev

Marvel Heroes developer Gazillion Entertainment unveiled two advance DLC packs, priced $129.99 and $99.99. The content adds new villains and boosters into the mix once they're ready between 2014 and 2015, and as such come with no release date. The studio has responded to VG247 on the matter.

You can check out our original report on the matter here.

According to the studio, the $129.99 pack’s estimated value is $425, while the $99.99 pack comes with fewer add-ons, and is said to be worth $215.00.

We asked the studio to comment on the high pricing of content that isn't dated yet, and of course, bears no guarantee of release other than Gazillion's promise that it will come in due course. It'snot too dissimilar to the existing season pass model employed by many games, but comes at what many of our readers have implied, is a heightened cost.

Senior vice president of marketing at Gazillion Ivan Sulic replied to me in an email, "Taking pre-orders for digital goods (even undated goods) is not an uncommon practice. Season Passes permeate the console market, subscription MMOs still exist, and Digital Collector’s Editions are routinely presold well in advance of game launches and sometimes in advance of games even having launch dates.

So, we don’t think we’re setting any precedent with our Marvel Heroes Advance Packs. Really, we just wanted to get something solid out pre-holiday that we felt was a good offer for our fans. We came up with these heavily discounted packs (Deluxe Edition is about 70% off!) that collected content we have scheduled for the coming months – the first bits of which might be released as early as this week.

"In some way, I suppose pre-selling our content like this is not too dissimilar from a book-of-the-month club”.

What's your take on the above.