This week has been pretty rough for Square Enix. The company is already facing fan backlash after it confirmed on Monday that Final Fantasy 15 would be delayed to November, and now, it looks like it will be facing more criticism after revealing that the Ultimate Edition won't come with a Season Pass for DLC.
The Ultimate Edition was the penultimate version of Final Fantasy 15 that fans could hope to get their hands on. Made available immediately after the conclusion of the Uncovered event in March, unless you happened to be up at the time, it was highly unlikely you would be able to get your hands on a copy. With that in mind, fans who managed to get their hands on one expected the bundle to also come with the Season Pass that was recently announced — granting them access to all the DLC for a mere $25.
However, during a Twitter Q&A on Thursday, Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata revealed that the Ultimate Edition won't come with the Season Pass.
Will the Ultimate collectors edition contain the season pass?
- sadly no & we looked into making more UCE but we were told we still can't.— Final Fantasy XV (@FFXVEN) August 18, 2016
To say this is ridiculous would be an understatement. Why? Because as stated before, the Ultimate Edition is the penultimate version of Final Fantasy 15 that fans can hope to get their hands on. In fact, without the season pass, the Ultimate Edition can't really be called "Ultimate." The bundle contains bonuses such as a 192-page hardcover artbook, a statue of Noctis, copies of the full-length film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15 as well as the game's anime spin-off Brotherhood, and bonus in-game content such as a unique weapon and a "travel pack." All of these bonuses makes this edition cost a whopping $270.
Similarly, the Deluxe Edition only has a fraction of these bonuses and costs $90, but also doesn't come with the Season Pass.
Yet, the digital versions of the game, the Digital Premium Edition for $85 and the standard edition, both have the Season Pass packaged in (the latter has a special Season Pass upgrade).
So, what's the big deal, you ask? Why do the most expensive versions of Final Fantasy 15 not come with a Season Pass? Fans didn't even know about the Season Pass back when the release date was announced in March, and now that we do know about it, the natural assumption was that it would come packaged in with the special editions of the game. Guess not.
Of course, fans who were fortunate enough to get the limited-print special editions of FF15 can still get the Season Pass — they'll just need to shell out even more money (when they shouldn't have to) in order to do so. As for what they'll get? The pass will include at least six pieces of downloadable content, three content packs and three episodes. They include DLC focused on Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto, as well as a Booster Pack.
In related news, Square Enix recently announced that Final Fantasy 15's release date has been pushed back by two months. The game will now come out for the PS4 and Xbox One on Nov. 29.
