Everybody saw the AA packs coming a mile away, the only ones who didn't were those who weren't paying attention.

Yeah but ME and ME2 are bad examples simply because they were never designed to be modded. DA:O however was and people are using the existing tools to mod DA2 so the whole idea of holding back updated mod tools simply to sell these packs is extremely mean spirited given Bioware's history of mod friendly games. No matter, it will just piss off even more of their fans and I think Bioware, EA and Mr Laidlaw are in for a massive shock when they see the sales figures for DA3.

@FlintlockJazz

What? They're pretty :D

Ok, maybe it was a "waste of money" but what can I say? I'm a sucker when it comes with Dragon Age :/

I for one found this piece of dlc news hilarious.
Good to see that Laidlaw has not lost his touch yet ;<.

Bioware forum quote:
"Oh well, I didn't realize that your opinion is the one that matters. Some people actually liked the item packs in ME and this one.
(..)"
I can't belive that anybody would pay for this shit, talk about throwing money down the toilet.

Again he point to Mass Effect missing the whole point that people wanted a sequel to Dragon Age not Dragon Age made into Mass Effect. Seriously who put that fucker in charge?
Why not? They clearly set up DA2 for the sequel because there is bugger all content in DA2. They are pushing forward confident in the current sales figures and blissfully unaware that the majority were pre-orders by people who wont be pre-ordering again.

Well sadly he is right. I find it hard to blame companies for selling things people want. The real people to blame for this crap are the millions who buy stupid shit like this.

@Delixe
Well I was under the impression that DA2 sells kinda poorly at the moment, but I guess I'm wrong.. :)

As someone pointed out earlier yes it has sold poorly compared to DA:O however they spent only a fraction developing DA2 compared to DA:O so it's likely they have already made a profit. Add in shit like these item packs to bolster the sales and DA2 should earn enough for another rushed, poorly developed sequel.

What, have you lost faith in Bioware? :D

I think it's still going to be a disappointment, despite the smaller budget. For one thing EA paid to market it out the ass and for another there are comments from Bioware employees before release where they say they expect to sell at least 4 million, which they won't. Also metacritic has been confirmed as a big deal within EA with Dead Space getting a lot of flack for not making a 90. DA2 got a 79 on its lead platform, and you have to assume some heads rolled after that.

All that said I doubt it will be looked at as a disaster. I would bet Laidlaw will still head up DA3 and I bet Gaider still writes DA3 and in the end they stick with the "mainstream" direction.

There are now two Bioware's. There is Casey Hudson's good Bioware which makes Mass Effect (which is still great and ME3 is going to be fab) and there is Mike Laidlaw's Bioware which brings out shit like Dragon Age 2.

I can only assume the two good Doctor's are too busy working on The Old Republic to notice how Laidlaw is pissing all over their fans.
The wrong heads rolled early in development. Namely Trent Oster and Brent Knowels.I personally still like Gaider I do think he's a talented writer, after all he wrote most of Origins and if you read between the lines in his interview you can see where the problems were. Namely time and lack of choices forcing the writers to pidgeon hole characters. If there was only one ending then the writers have to build to that.

Laidlaw is dickhead.

Slight off-topic, but is there something wrong with Dragon Age wikia -page? It seems a bit...odd..

EDIT. Oh, it got vandalized...that explains it...

Nevermind then :)

Can the Dragon Age 2 fail get any worse? You know these new item packs? They don't have hi-res textures which means they look like crap on the PC. They are already talking about a hi-res texture patch for the damn item DLC... Jesus wept.

Am I the only one here who enjoyed Dragon Age 2? XD