Should Game Prologues Even Exist?

Prologues to full games aren’t a new thing, but Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes has brought up the argument again as to whether gamers are being purposefully ripped off by studios that have a long development cycle ahead of them.

This happened with Gran Turismo 5 a few years ago, with the studio releasing GT5 Prologue about two years before the full game released. The Prologue featured only a few tracks and cars to wet player’s appetites, but also cost just a few hundred less than the full game at retail. Gran Turismo 5 had been in development for a long, long time, and it seemed like an easy way to get a nice cash injection, preying on the very fans who keep the franchise afloat.

In more ways than one, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is doing the same thing, only this time some vital story information is being reserved in the prologue as well, making it even more harmful to those who choose not to buy in. The Prologue itself sells for half the amount of a retail title, unless you opt for the next-gen copy which costs even more. We’ve already heard about the main story being less than two hours long, but the real problem here is the fact that you’ll eventually end up sending nearly the same amount of money of two retail games just to get the full Metal Gear Solid V picture.

How is that fair on fans of your franchise? Should content like this be reserved for the full game release, or should it come at a greatly reduced cost? Will you fork out close to R1000 (or probably more) for a single game, not taking into account any collector’s editions?

Sound off in the comments below and have your opinion heard, argued with and debated.

Name: Alessandro Barbosa
Location: Johannesburg
Position: Ex-Editor, News

Alessandro has published 1939 posts. Read all of Alessandro's posts.

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