Three examples of how NOT to do DLC
Welcome back. You're a regular here, so why not follow us on Twitter too...
Whether we like it or not, downloadable content is now a major part of the videogame industry, and it won’t be going away any time soon. Of course, PC games have had add-ons and expansions for years, but it’s only in the current generation that developers have seriously been able to bring DLC to consoles.
I’m normally completely in favour of some extra content for my favourite games, even if I have to pay for it, but occasionally I can’t help but feel slightly conned after I’ve made a purchase. Three examples would be the games listed below; I’m a big fan of all of them, but regrettably they are all also examples of how NOT to do DLC.
Nowadays, the fact is that games cost so much to make, DLC is quite often needed to bring in some extra revenue at (usually) very little cost to the developer, and in this way it can even make the difference between a profit and a loss. It’s just a shame that many developers inevitably take advantage of this.
Resident Evil 5
Let’s start with arguably the biggest faux pas any developer can make when it comes to DLC: locked on-disc content. After all, why should gamers have to pay extra for something which is already on the disc? The simple answer to this is that they shouldn’t have to, but that didn’t stop Capcom releasing Versus Mode for Resident Evil 5, just a month after the game’s release last March.
Even worse was that they released a PR statement about this DLC before the game came out, which further annoyed the buying public who felt that it should have been there in the first place. If only they had left it a month or two before telling us, nobody would have cared that much.
I should point out here that Capcom have expressly denied that the add-on is only an unlock key, but as the entire download is a mere 351 KB, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it probably is. However, even if the content isn’t on the disc, it still doesn’t explain why Capcom are charging £3.99 to play online multiplayer, which is already included for free on almost every other major game release this generation.
The upcoming Lost in Nightmares - let's hope this isn't an unlock key too, eh?
Burnout Paradise
It’s no secret that Criterion have done an outstanding job with supporting Burnout Paradise after it released over two years ago (has it really been that long?!), so I almost feel guilty about putting it here. However, no matter how much free content they gave away, it still doesn’t excuse the frankly extortionate prices of some of the later premium content.
Obviously Criterion and EA couldn’t keep dishing out free DLC forever, but to me £7.99 for a single online mode is just ridiculous, and I don’t see how anyone could argue anything different. The numerous extra vehicles are similarly over-priced, with the worst deal probably being £9.99 for nine toy cars. The awesome Big Surf Island did go some way to make up for these price issues, but unfortunately, by then the damage had already been done.
It’s ironic this mode is called Cops and Robbers, because its price is daylight robbery
Assassin’s Creed II
If you ask me, Assassin’s Creed II was one of the best games of 2009, but even that isn’t enough to stop it appearing on this list. After all, since when is it okay for developers to intentionally miss out sections of the main story on the disc, so that they can be released as DLC later? According to Ubisoft Montreal, it’s been okay since November 17th 2009, as the game shipped without Sequences 12 or 13, so the story jumps straight from Sequence 11 to 14.
Ubisoft have said that this is because they ran out of time, and that they thought there was enough content on-disc to keep users happy. In this respect I have to agree, but that still doesn’t explain why the developers released a game which was essentially unfinished. Remember, these add-on packs aren’t side missions, but rather parts of the game’s main story, so if you want to experience the entirety of Ezio’s tale then you have no choice but to shell out on this DLC.
Battle of Forli: New Missions - 6, New Ideas - 0
Again, these are all fantastic games and I’m not taking anything away from the years of love and work that have clearly gone into making them. However, in my opinion making a great game is not a sufficient enough excuse to treat fans unfairly, and cheat them into spending more money so they can have the ‘complete experience’ of a game.
If DLC adds a new dimension to a game then I’m all for it, but if developers are blatantly ripping off the consumer or charge for something which should have been in the original game, then my outlook is not so positive. Let’s hope that in the future developers can learn from their own and others’ mistakes and bring us truly innovative DLC at a reasonable price.
![Final Fantasy XIII's Shiva Sisters [Updated]](http://www.ps3attitude.com/wp-content/themes/arthemia-premium/scripts/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/shiva2.jpg&w=80&h=80&zc=1&q=100)
Ah, the good ol DLC debate.
There was an update for Resident Evil 5 that was released a week before the Versus mode content came out. That’s also when the extra trophies appeared on everyone’s list if they had the game. I don’t think versus was locked away on the disc entirely, but I don’t know if anyone truly knows the answer to that for the console versions of the game.
I never got the versus mode DLC since I didn’t really care for what it had to offer, and I thought the regular Mercs mode and the co-op story were much better anyway and that came with the game.
I would be more pissed if Lost in Nightmares and The Desperate Escape were locked away, but only because the game has been out for a year already. I want that content, and I want it now! I think it’s pretty obvious that those new episodes are not in the actual game though.
Burnout Paradise had a year worth of free DLC that included adding bikes to the game. Criterion just kept on releasing more and more content for no cost and then they stopped. Vehicles for an additional free are not important, but the new Island was pretty awesome. I don’t believe in the whole “the damage has been done” mentality because if that were the case, then improvements couldn’t be done and even if they weren’t the whole idea means that it wouldn’t even matter. The cops and robbers mode was pretty underwhelming but the damage was far from done, and that is clear with the Big Surf Island. I don’t think the price matters as long as the content is good.
As for Assassin’s Creed II, that’s a tough one. While the DLC sounds important it doesn’t really add too much to the game and ACII is clearly a finished product so it doesn’t bother me if 2 sequences from the game were cut, and honestly that sounds more like a gimmick to me anyway.
The whole DLC debate has always annoyed me. There are goods one and bad ones, but I firmly believe that the ones from Burnout specifically are nowhere near the idea of how NOT to do it.
That should say “if they were” not weren’t. Not sure why I can’t edit my comment :/
I knew Burnout being in there would annoy some people, but to me it’s absolutely an example of how not to do it. Yes, free content is nice, but not when the premium DLC is overpriced because of it.
It’s as if Criterion (or more likely EA) were just trying to make up for the money they could have made on the free stuff.
It seems to me that the industry is moving toward episodic content to a greater extent, as exemplified by Assassin’s Creed II. The current model is that of paying a lot of money for the basic product, and then less for extensions of that product. Judging from the history of other products and services that have chosen this path, this business model will evolve to a razor-and-blades model, similar to that of the consoles themselves, where the basic product is sold for less (or even at a loss) and additional material will cost more, but also be more essential to the user experience.
This can also be seen through the perspective of the rising cost of DLC, like that of Burnout Paradise, although that specific piece of content has not been regarded by the consumers to be as essential as the publisher deemed it.
There is however a movement toward lowered cost of digitally distributed material, for instance the Apple app store, but this can be attributed to lower production cost of that type of content, as it is more limited than full-scale game production.
Excuse my ramblings, they are merely the result of some thoughts collected over time.
/J
In my mind I like to see DLC as an optional extra – no matter how hard developers and their marketing friends try to engineer things otherwise.
So I won’t be buying the ACII extras. In truth, it looks like more of the same.
I agree with JanBjork vision of the future. Developers wanting a regular income via DLC – which itself will create a production-line industry. How horrible will that be for creative developers and game designers?
It’ll make the market really messy as well. I like to finish a game and move on, occasionally going back. But to be enticed into buying a series of half-baked games followed by an irregular or steady stream of DLC – It’s like turning gaming into watching a TV series.
It’ll be interesting to see how long gamers put up with having to buy half-baked games.
I’m not interested in the Assassin’s Creed games, and while I have Resi 5, I didn’t bother with the Versus mode DLC.
However, I absolutely have to agree with the comments on Burnout Paradise. Criterion did amazingly well with free additional content for the first year, and built up a lot of goodwill with gamers. But then they went and ruined it with some stupidly overpriced content which seemed like the were trying to recoup the costs of all the free stuff they’d given away previously.
I bought the Party Pack almost as a kind of ‘thank you’ to Criterion for all the free stuff they’d already given us, but after that, it just went nuts. As you say in the article, the vehicle packs are ridiculously over-priced, and I’ve no idea at all why some of those vehicles, when bought individually, are so much more expensive than the others.
I also bought Big Surf Island, as I felt it was reasonably priced. But again, it only served to show how over-priced the car packs were. It costs £9.99 and includes a whole new area and 8 new cars, while the Legendary Cars pack costs £6.29 for just 4 cars. The other packs are similarly over-priced.
I want to get my trophy count for the game back to 100%, but I’m not willing to pay those prices for the car packs in order to do it. I’ve been waiting for them to release all packs in a discounted bundle, but we’re 2 years on now, so it’s looking unlikely that they’re going to do that.
The real kicker is that we’ve had to spend time (and I’m sure in some cases, money too) downloading all this content anyway – regardless of whether we wanted it or not – in order to play online.
You make an excellent point about the price of Big Surf Island highlighting just how overpriced all the other packs were. For £9.99, you can either get nine toy cars or a whole new island – I know which one I’d choose.
As I said in my Burnout Paradise Retro Review, the DLC doesn’t really add much to the experience of the game. And for those prices you would expect more.
I also agree about the Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC. I think it should be free since it was going to be in the game in the first place, and without it you have a incomplete game.
Haven’t got RE5 so I don’t know about that.
Thing is, as long as people keep putting out money on extra content – overpriced or not – the industry will keep providing said content.
Only when DLC does not provide a valid return in most cases will game devs and publishers re-assess the whole issue of DLC.
Personally, I’m a bit of a sucker for DLC…
Me too if I’m honest, which is why I get annoyed when I feel I’ve been ripped off.
I wasn’t interested in Burnout Paradise, so I can’t speak for that game, but I really didn’t mind the RE5/Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC.
I think what’s worse is the new “feature” they added to White Knight Chronicles today (day or two after the game is out), that for 4.99, lets you alter your appearance. That should be free.