Back when the idea of Downloadable Content was just a sparkle in someone’s eye we [as gamers] approached the idea with caution. That grumbling feeling we had in our stomachs was proved right when Oblivions’ now infamous Horse armour update went live. Many feared the baseline had been set, but thankfully along the way, the yin balanced with the yang, and the face of DLC as knew it changed.
Of course, we still received some bits of DLC that many have claimed was more suited to a lower price point, or should have been available at launch. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a recent game that left many who purchased the update with a little sour taste in the mouth, and the list goes on. That said, there is some good out there.
Criterion have been great supporting their Burnout Paradise title, with a number of updates that despite being considerable in size were on offer for the fantastic price of free. Grand Theft Auto IV had its Lost and Damned update hit for a massive 1600MSP, yet the sheer amount of work that went into it left many a gamer lauding over it with praise after praise.
It’s clear that DLC can be good and bad, but perhaps it’s the knock on effects that releasing some DLC has that is becoming important now.
Criterion is a good example, having released their first few updates for a price of nothing, their announcement that the Big Surf Island update would come with a cost wasn’t met with howls of disgust, but with honourable mentions of “Yeah that sounds fine, you’ve supported us well so far – I don’t mind paying”. Of course it helped the update was rather good, and it remains to be seen what would have been the case if it was below par.
Thanks to some Energy Drinks (I know, it confuses me as well) we know that the first batch of Modern Warfare 2 DLC (Surprise: It’s a map pack!) will be released in Spring 2010, even though the games not even out yet and won’t be for approximately another 6 weeks. For a game that’s been blasted already for the ‘fleecing of fans’ over its higher than normal RRP, you can imagine many fans of the series might be somewhat disheartened to hear about paying for some more DLC before they’ve even paid for the actual game. But when you have a game that’s so wildly anticipated, and will no doubt sell by the millions and have a collector’s edition that sells for the equivalent of three standard games, I guess you’re in the position to do what you want.
In all I think DLC has reached a state where one could compare it to a six sided Dungeons and Dragons Dice, there’s a chance you could roll the six and a five and slay the dragon and unlock some really nice extra content for a game that would otherwise be sat on your shelf, or you could perhaps strike out and roll a three and a two only to find that you’ve just wasted your cyber money on something that perhaps should have been available from the start.
If done right it’s brilliant, the extra content gets the game back in your console or PC, and from the developers point of view probably helps starve off a bit of the preowned market if the game is supported well enough. Do it badly, though, and not only is the game’s reputation hit but so too is the developers’ – just ask Bethesda.
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