Is downloadable content becoming excessive?

[rayvio]

DLC has its good and bad points
ideally it's a great way for developers to give additional content that they otherwise would have been forced to completely cut out of the game due to deadlines
in reality it's all too often a way for publishers to make additional money by cutting bits out of the finished game and selling them separately afterwards

there's also a rather vile tactic where they give free DLC to people who buy the game brand new and sell that DLC for a price high enough to make buying the game second hand more expensive than brand new when combined with the DLC. a rather stupid tactic too since it's more likely to encourage piracy than sales

Witcher 2 is definitely a great example of how DLC should be handled. WoW too, look at all the content patches we've had over the last six or seven years and they've all been free (expansion packs excluded of course). granted we pay a monthly subscription, but does anyone honestly believe EA won't be trying to push out paid DLC for Old Republic?

personal experience I've found very few DLC actually worth paying for. there's a few exceptions like Lair Of The Shadow Broker, Bring Down The Sky and Soldiers Peak (although I got two of those for free) and some are obviously not worth paying for (entirely my own opinion of course) like Horse Armour or Weapon Pack 1443435 (where gamebreakingly powerful weapons appear in your inventory with no effort at all) and some look like they might be good but turn out not to be

I also dislike the practice of having DLC continue the story and essentially making it mandatory. DLC should be additional and optional content, either telling side-stories or giving additional information. Think of DLC like the extra features on a DVD movie release. you wouldn't expect to have to buy the DVD for the ending of the movie, but you might get some deleted scenes
DLC like Arrival (Mass Effect 2) and Witch Hunt (Origins) which continue the main story should, in my opinion, be free if they're not part of the main game

[Deleted]

Depends on what the DLC really consists of. If it's some kind of cosmetic additions - it's okay, but I would be mad if, let's say, Codemasters released F1 2011 and made some racing tracks availible in a DLC package only.

[-Zait-]

I don't really mind so long as the price is fair.

[PACOX]

How could you leave Witcher 2 out of that list? Simply the best example of how dlc should be done.

The only reason why I left out the Witcher 2 is because its free. If they didn't to release something with a price tag on it, I'm sure it would be worth every every penny. The Witcher 2 is one of the prime examples of a studio that takes pride in their game. They are willing to patch in small slivers of content into the game instead of hoarding it all until their is enough to justify $$ for.

[pickley]

Rockstar is one of the only game companies to do DLC the right way.

Full length episodes for a reasonable price.
Even with LA Noire where they released smaller DLC such as guns and outfits, it was included in the $10 pass that gives you access to all the LA Noire DLC so it balanced out.

[PACOX]

personal experience I've found very few DLC actually worth paying for. there's a few exceptions like Lair Of The Shadow Broker, Bring Down The Sky and Soldiers Peak (although I got two of those for free) and some are obviously not worth paying for (entirely my own opinion of course) like Horse Armour or Weapon Pack 1443435 (where gamebreakingly powerful weapons appear in your inventory with no effort at all) and some look like they might be good but turn out not to be

DLC like Arrival (Mass Effect 2) and Witch Hunt (Origins) which continue the main story should, in my opinion, be free if they're not part of the main game

Lair of the Shadow Broker was the ME2 DLC I truly enjoyed. I wouldn't pay for item packs neither but they are legit IM IF they were obviously made after the game was released or were previously preorder bonuses.

I agree that Arrival (haven't finished DA:Origins so I don't know how Witch Hunt affects the game) could've been free. It didn't add much to the story in my eyes, but certainly wasn't worth the price tag neither. They could have easily made a better video or webcomic of it and achieved their goal, a minor story arc which connect ME2 to ME3.

[exstarcraftfan]

I prefer good old traditional expansion packs.I am totally against DLCs(unless it is free).

[pickley]

I prefer good old traditional expansion packs.I am totally against DLCs(unless it is free).

Ballad of Gay Tony is DLC would you be totally against that?
Undead Nightmare
Shivering Isles

[Magivante]

DLCs are just another way companies can drain more money from gamers. Do we care though? Nope. We're too stupid to realize we're being scammed.

[exstarcraftfan]

DLCs are just another way companies can drain more money from gamers. Do we care though? Nope. We're too stupid to realize we're being scammed.

Yeah its just scam(but as long as players will keep buying them they will continue to cut out content from the original game to sell it as DLC for more $$$)

---------- Post added 2011-07-24 at 10:42 AM ----------

Ballad of Gay Tony is DLC would you be totally against that?
Undead Nightmare
Shivering Isles

Shivering Isles was a full expansion pack thats 100%(and not a Horse Armor).

I never heard about undead nightmare.I know that the first title has something to do with GTA 4 but I dont play such games(especially not something called like that) but I would buy a new Carmageddon.

[Deadlycaster]

as people have said, if it isnt too game-breaking not that the dlc's i do not mind them. obviously cause i can choose not to get them

[Dontdotmeiv]

Although some games pretty much require you to buy downloadable content to be able to stay competitive and up to par with most people, can't think of which games off the top of my head now though :P

[Magivante]

Yeah its just scam(but as long as players will keep buying them they will continue to cut out content from the original game to sell it as DLC for more $$$)

I don't buy them. Only time I'll get a DLC is when they release a "Game of the Year" edition for a game that comes prepackaged with it. Otherwise, I'll just avoid it no matter how badly I want the cool looking new armor, mount, etc. The pre-order thing is getting really bad as well. Now, it's not AS bad as DLC, but the fact that you end up missing content because you can't afford to shell out $60+ the week before it's released, is very depressing. To top it all off, a lot of companies are offering a "Collector's Edition" of games that have absolutely no collector's value to them. More importantly, why would you collect any of it? The only people who buy that memorabilia are the pseudo-gamers who think they're bigger fans because they have more money than you to waste. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't cutting out content to put in those three things thus forcing gamers to spend $40+ for all the minute, additional features.

[Deleted]

I think DLC is great, and don't mind the cost - provided I feel that I got my moneys worth from the original game in the box.

What that means depends on the game. I tend to measure it in gametime.

A FPS single player campaign such as COD or Halo? 10 hours plus
A large scale RPG such as Elder Scrolls or The Witcher? 25 hours plus
A online game such as Battlefield or COD? Lots more, but parhaps with less varierity.

If I buy an FPS for my 600SEK (thats 94 usd) and I get about 10 hours of game time for it, or more, then i'm happy. If I then have to pay extra for more content, that just makes sense to me.

[Deleted]

Too bad this is the future of gaming. Most DLC is usless but sometimes its worth it.

[Mechazod]

Ballad of Gay Tony is DLC would you be totally against that?
Undead Nightmare
Shivering Isles

All three of those were released on disk so were not DLC only.

[pickley]

All three of those were released on disk so were not DLC only.

All three were released on disc a while after they were DLC, for a while they were DLC only.

[exstarcraftfan]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles is the largest official expansion pack for the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Announced on January 18, 2007, the expansion was developed, published, and released over the Xbox Live Marketplace by Bethesda Softworks; its retail release was co-published with 2K Games.[3] It was released for Microsoft Windows in a boxed retail edition on March 27, 2007, while the Xbox 360 version was released digitally on the Xbox Live Marketplace.[

[Wilian]

Good DLC:

The newest for FO:NV, 5-7 hours new gameplay for 2-3e

Bad DLC:

Half a hour - hour "companion quest" for DA2 that was already in the gamefiles but had to be unlocked via DLC payments.

Too bad it's far too easy to cash in on sheeps for this stuff so they can keep up with it and it's going worse and worse all the time.

[Shanks120y]

I was bored the other day and decided to have a look over Xbox live to see if there were any decent arcade games and I noticed that Fable 3 had two bits DLC for half price, Traitors Keep and Understone. The usual cost for the two would have been around $14AU so I thought hey 7 bucks why not. After playing through both, Traitors Keep was worth the money but Understone was far from worth it.

But there was something I didn't realise at first that made both of them a rip off in my opinion, both bits of content were on the disc already and you were just paying to unlock them. Some people might find this acceptable and that's fine, but I found it disgusting that I had to pay extra money to access content already there.