There are many different views surrounding DLC. The views vary depending on who is looking at it. I will lay out some general viewpoints on DLC, and discuss them in further depth.
When a consumer sees DLC certain things run through their head:
- If it’s free, it is picked up without question.
- If it costs money, many people feel more then $10 is too much.
- If it is released at the same time as the game and it costs money, many people won’t even buy the game because of it.
When a developer releases DLC, there are a few reasons:
- They want to boost their sales and make more money through the DLC.
- They didn’t have enough time to finish and release the rest of the game later
- The game is good enough to continually add more stuff to extend the play time of the game.
The Consumer’s viewpoints broken down:
Free DLC: Pick it up! even if you don’t have the game or don’t like what it is for, pick up the free DLC anyway. DLC that is free doesn’t always remain free. After you download it once, you can always delete it and redownload it.
The Price: The price is a big factor that determines whether a person purchases DLC.
- A good price is about $5. Someone sees $5 DLC they are more willing to look at it and look into if they want to buy it.
- $10 DLC is looked at only if the DLC is for a game your really enjoyed.
- More then $10, and it better be a bundle. A single piece of DLC for more then $10 will only be purchased by the wealthy. Or, you really really enjoyed the game, and the DLC is massive!
DLC released along side of the game: If it’s not free, many people feel cheated out of the game and they feel that the company is taking as much money as they can. This gives companies a bad name and companies should never do this! Many people don’t even bother picking up a game if the company Charges for DLC on the same day. What is even worse, is when a company charges for DLC that is already in the game, and all you doing is buy a key that unlocks that bit of content.
The Producer’s viewpoints broken down:
They want to boost their sales and make more money through the DLC: This is not a smart idea, you will make more money in the short run, but prolonged practice will cause a decrease in sales when people begin to realize that you are taking as much money as you can out of their pockets. Many developer’s reputations are permanently scarred because they practiced this.
They didn’t have enough time to finish and release the rest of the game later: This is fine, if handled correctly. Do not pull a chunk of the game out because you couldn’t finish, and then release it later. This was seen in Assassin’s Creed 2, where the developers pulled out 2 entire sequences because they didn’t have time to finish them. They then released them later on as DLC for $5 each. The price is right, but they were supposed to already be in the game, so you shouldn’t be charging for them. God of War 3, had to cut a chunk out of the ending of the game due to time restraints, but the developers are saying that if they get around to finishing it, they will release it for free. This will work for them in the long run very well. It will get people to hold on to their copy of the game until the DLC is released, and when it is released other people will buy more copies to play it.
The game is good enough to continually add more stuff to extend the play time of the game: This is perfectly fine. In games like Fallout 3 and borderlands, the game is good enough and popular enough for DLC to be released. It will keep the game popular as well as add more to it. The DLC that was added to Fallout3, and Borderlands is big enough to constitute being DLC. The armory of general knoxx was about a gigabyte of memory and only for $10. This is how you properly release DLC.
