Haven't seen anyone make a thread about this yet: http://bethesda.net/?-F4SeasonPass#en/events/game/fallout-4-launch-and-beyond/2015/09/08/22 right now. The highlights:

- Like Skyrim, they'll support the game with regular updates, and some of them will include small new features and content and not just bugfixes.

- Creation Kit to hit PC early next year.

- First DLC to come out early next year.

- Promise of at least $40 worth of DLC for Fallout 4, and they're offering a $30 Season Pass to pay for all of it right now.

I will definitely be picking up the season Pass.

Hey don't' forget! They finally officially announced mods for PS4

"We're especially excited these same mods will then be coming to Xbox One, and then PlayStation 4"

Dawnguard + Hearthfire + Dragonborn was 45 dollars, so I assume they will do something similar to that for Fo4 as well given Todd has said in the past they hated doing the Fallout 3 style DLC devlopment.

Yeah, and honestly Skyrim's DLC was so much more well done than Fallout 3's anyway. Dawnguard added so much new stuff beyond the vampire questline. My only beef was how buggy the DLC was; I hope for Fallout 4 they can find a better way of patching it, because the DLC for Skyrim (and the older games?) wasn't patched at all.

On my way to GameStop now.

IIRC, the problems behind patching DLC are Microsoft and Sony being dikes about it and wont let them due to some idiotic reason.

I'm interested in what cards they're holding to announce at least 40 dollars of DLC. I wonder how far along their DLCs are. If one's coming out "early next year" (I assume that means that it'll drop April or May at the very latest), it's probably out of pre-production, or it might just be smaller/built like Dawnguard, without adding as many new assets and areas as in things like Dragonborn.

Well, the blog post outright says they don't know what it'll be yet, so I'm not sure they've started production on anything. But with the Creation Kit, it's actually pretty easy for them to incorporate new content rather quickly; they don't need as much time to pop in new content, it works essentially the same as a modder dropping in a new quest or location.

That is usually how it goes

Knights of the Nine -> Shivering Isles

Operation Anchorage ->The Pitt

Broken Steel -> Point Lookout

Dawnguard -> Dragonborn

The first DLC usually is mostly set in the same area as the base game, but with a few new sub-zones and dungeons, while the second DLC is a new lands DLC.

This plus the fact I would like to know what kind of a corner beth has painted themselves into with this season pass.

What if they wanted to do more DLC beyond a 40 dollar price point but are still obligated to use the season pass? They simply wouldn't do it, its a business after all. They would be losing a somewhat sizable amount of profits the more DLC they do beyond their season pass price point.

I would much rather us just pay as we go, that way if they feel like making another DLC, they have incentive to do so.

I won't get the DLC season pass. I want to know what I am getting.

The DLC will probably be required for some mods, but then we always have steam sales.

I don't mind saving 10+ bucks w/o the need to wait for Goty/ultimate edition.
Already know I'll be buying them all, anyway.

Wouldn't everyone have to buy the Season Pass for that to be a problem? Besides, I'm not sure I'd want Bethesda to do more than maybe $50 or $60 worth of DLC; if they were all as well-done as Skyrim's DLC I'd be shocked, and Bethesda doesn't seem the type to sell more DLC than game content.

And I don't want to imply that the Season Pass is a good deal for everyone. I think it's a good deal for me since I like what Bethesda does and their DLC is usually worth it, but there are plenty of people here who aren't even sold on the base game yet.

If they really don't know what they're doing for DLC, I'm a bit concerned. I mean, look at this scenario:

Business: Hey! Would you like to buy a season pass?

Customer: A season pass for what?

Business: A season pass for the things that we're selling. It's cheaper in the long run.

Customer: Ok. What are you selling?

Business: We don't know yet!

Customer: Why not?

Business: We haven't made it yet. Hell, we don't even know how much of the stuff we haven't made yet we're going to make, or when the stuff we haven't made yet will come out. Money, please!

That's insane.

I'm definitely not going near a season pass any time soon. I'll wait at least until the first DLC launches, probably wait and see what else they have lined up. Not like the pass is going anywhere, and I'd prefer to get at least a look at what I'm getting.

And hey, that's fair. I'm making my judgment based on Bethesda's history; their DLC usually incorporates a lot of fan feedback, and I feel like they really fell into the groove with Skyrim's DLC. They've talked pretty openly about how Fallout 3's DLC model didn't really work for them, and they definitely won't be putting out another Horse Armor.

Another thing to consider, with mods coming to consoles, Bethesda has to make their DLC worth it. For example, I don't think New Vegas could have gotten away with the Courier's Stash or Gun Runners Arsenal DLCs if the console community had access to every weapon and armor mod available on PC (which is not to say those weren't well-valued DLCs on Obsidian's part).

Not everyone would have to buy the season pass.

If you buy the season pass you are already paying for their 40 dollar price point of DLC but at a discount. No matter what they release within what they would reasonably sell at 40 dollars worth of dlc they still make a profit because you already payed for that amount of dlc.

However when they reach the amount of DLC that totals to 40 dollars, and then decide they want to make more, they lose out because you already payed for that season pass. Instead of paying 30 dollars for 40 dollars of content now its 30 for 50 or 60. The more they release the more they lose out.

Sure not everyone bought a season pass but enough did for you to take a hit on the money you would make, the more DLCs you create. I have confidence that bethesda is a trustworthy game dev and they will deliver what they promised to the people who payed for that SP, however im fully confident that they are also a buisness and wont throw out more content if they dont make a return on investment.

No rush to buy the season pass. The few times I've bought one, I've waited until the first DLC was announced - after all, even if the Pass is a pre-order thing, it generally doesn't go away until the first DLC is released. (And with the latest games, the pass seems to stay around forever. Which is a bit odd from a business standpoint - if it's a bonus for pre-ordering/early adopters, you shouldn't still be able to buy it aftewards, right?)

The passes I've bought, I've gotten good value from (Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite....). But I'm definitely glad I didn't jump at Borderlands:Pre-Sequel's... those DLC were disappointing.

That said, I've ended up getting all the DLC for recent Bethesda games, so I can't see the Pass not being a good deal.

edit:

Yeah, the safe way to do that is to accounce your Season Pass for a specific amount of DLC (like "three major story packs" or "two map packs and three additional characters" or whatever. That's how Borderlands 2 managed, giving a good amount of DLC for the pass, but then continuing to release lots more). Saying "this Pass is good for aaaaallll the DLC" isn't as safe. Of course, to give details on your pass, you need to already know exactly what you're planning to do.

I'm normally not a fan of season passes, but Fallout is the exception. I know I'll be buying anything they release for this game, so in the case I'll go ahead and buy the season pass (my first ever).

I'm not trying to suggest there's anything wrong with getting a season pass. I do think it's wrong for developers/publishers to obviously strip content out of their game for the sake of DLC (the later Arkham games), and I think it's wrong for season passes to be revealed without any idea what the content actually is going to be or when it's going to be released, but I don't think it's wrong for customers to buy passes from the debs they trust.

In all likelihood, I will end up getting the season pass. I think Bethesda tends to turn out good (if painfully lacking in some regards) products, including their DLCs. But I'm not a "Shut up and take my bottle caps!" kind of person as a general rule, so I'm not making declarations of sale already. And I see a difference between pre-ordering DLC sight unseen via season passes and pre-ordering a game. Typically with the latter, you actually get to at least see something of the game. I've never heard of anyone going "Want to buy my new game? I haven't made it yet. Don't even know what it's going to be. But you can buy it now!"

I never looked at it like a bonus for pre-ordering. I always looked at it as a lump sum deal. Kind of like the MCU's Phase X blu-ray sets. They're expensive, but you get all the movies for less than you would buying all the movies at the usual blu-ray MSRP of 30 dollars.

Content updates adding new features? Right on!

I have always found that Beth puts out real top-quality DLC content. With the ES series DLCS like Bloodmoon, Shiv Isles, and Dragonborn. Then Fallout 3 DLC like The Pitt and Broken Steel.

I'll purchase the season pass for sure

Let's assume that they're going after a profit margin of double what it costs them to produce. So, they'll make the DLCs for $20 per person. Selling at $30 can be done, because they still get a $10 profit margin per person who takes the season pass, which is likely to be less than 25% of all individuals who will be buying the DLCs, and much less than 100% either way.

Now, they decided they want to $60 worth of DLCs instead. That means they're getting a return investment that breaks even, but only on those who took up the offer early on. Everyone else still has to pay full price. That means, at least 75% of people who end up buying the DLCs will be paying full price. They're still making oodles of cash, just not as much as they might have wanted.

But that value of profit now gets traded for more likely profits later, because they're seen as treating their customers well. That makes people more likely to buy their stuff in the long run, which basically means guaranteed profits... unless their stuff is of terrible quality.

I'm definitely going to be getting the season pass. I'm also excited to know for certain that mods will be coming to PS4, even if it will be after Xbox One and a while after the game's release. But that doesn't bother me too much since I have a feeling that I will be playing this game for years afterward, even without including DLC.

I'd rather just pay for DLC as they release. I am not fond of paying in advance for content which I have no clue as to what it is.

This is indeed correct but the highlighted part is important.

It really all depends on how many people actually pick up the season pass, im going to ball park it in wide majority of users who play at launch will be picking it up. So to get an accurate measurement we would need to know when the sale for the season pass ends.

After that it really depends how much DLC's they sell to non-SP vs SP. The longer the season pass sells for the less they make for future DLC's for the current owners of the game.

But this is all really speculation of buisness on my part, we all know the modding community kept skyrim going for YEARS after it released. So much so that beth even agreed with valve to put a paywall on mods. Which they wouldnt have bothered doing unless it was significant.

With this reputation going foward they can probably afford to put a season pass for 30 bucks now and have 80 dollars worth of DLC later and still make massive profits due to modding bringing old and new users on ALL the consoles and PC.