Legal Opinion: Why DLC is the Future of Gaming

[News Portal]

games.on.net's resident gaming lawyer explains that DLC, far from being the scapegoat of publisher ill-will that everyone makes it out to be, is actually the solution to a lot of our gaming worries. Read on to see how DLC is the future of gaming.

Read full article by Patrick Vuleta

[vcatkiller]

The DLC must be worth buying

This. I don't want to pay $10 for a bit of cosmetic garbage that affects nothing, or one or two tiny multiplayer maps. (I don't even play the mp stuff in a game anyhow) What I do want is something that will extend the life of the game. Gimme that and I'm likely to jump in and buy your DLC and be happy about it.

That and I have a real beef with locking a chunk of the game that's on the disc and then just calling it DLC. This is likely to just make me avoid the game like the plague. Yeah I'm looking at you EA and Capcom, you won't see me buying/playing either of your games from hereon in.

[Drakand]

I’m sure, for example, that some would pay good money for a Kelly Chambers romance DLC

we know maybe you should develop a mod to put her in Skyrim as every female character

good article though, makes a lot of sense of an issue that is normally clouded by people being pissed off at loss of past golden days good stuff.

I used to love expansion packs and DLC never quite seems the same but the way you've set it out, i'm understanding and liking it, thanks!

[shlaimon]

bring back expansion packs, you know with real content. I hate DLC, it almost forces you to buy it sometimes. It sucks.

I didnt even read the whole articale because DLC isnt even at the stage of being worth the amount of money that is paid for it and its being claimed the future of gaming. How sad....

[GroggDogg]

I didnt even read the whole articale because

so why comment on it?

[Drakand]

bring back expansion packs, you know with real content. I hate DLC, it almost forces you to buy it sometimes. It sucks.

I didnt even read the whole articale because DLC isnt even at the stage of being worth the amount of money that is paid for it and its being claimed the future of gaming. How sad....

if you didn't read the article then you haven't given it a chance to pursuade you.

[akira675]

Good DLC is not shipped on the disc with the game.

[At0mic]

Not entirely persuaded.

For our part, gamers shouldn’t pine for the ‘good old days’ of store-bought expansion packs, but look forward to high-quality DLC.

Why not? The best expansion to a game I've ever played was Half Life: Opposing Force. It had a cool embossed front cover, a neat manual including stuff like Murphy's Combat Laws, a bunch of new weapons which distinguished it from just another campaign, and it was of a good length. Brood War, Yuri's Revenge, there are plenty of full expansions out there, but I've not see the same kind of product with DLC that's given me as much of an experience as a larger (but more costly) expansion pack.

There's some good DLC out there but in my opinion, the vast majority of it is fluff, the kind of fluff you can't really get away with in an expansion pack for the most part.

[Toasty Fresh]

I'm quite happy for DLC to thrive... if it's stuff like the Shogun 2 expansions of late, the Fallout expansions, or the BF3 map packs. They're quite good value for money. I would rather it die if they're asking the same price for this stupid CoD map pack ****, or Mass Effect appearance garbage.

Also, I'm shamelessly going to say that I am quite fond of certain "couple-of-bucks" DLC such as the Oblivion player home DLCs

[shlaimon]

DLC is the pits, its the reason we get half complete games for twice the price of the US and still need to pay for DLC to "fix it"

No article can persuade anyone with a clue. DLC is Killing the Future of Gaming.

[Tim Colwill]

DLC is the pits, its the reason we get half complete games for twice the price of the US and still need to pay for DLC to "fix it"

No article can persuade anyone with a clue. DLC is Killing the Future of Gaming.

The article actually states that DLC as it is now could stand to improve, but as a model for solving the problems we as gamers find upsetting, it's perfect.

[shlaimon]

DLC is the pits, its the reason we get half complete games for twice the price of the US and still need to pay for DLC to "fix it"

No article can persuade anyone with a clue. DLC is Killing the Future of Gaming.

The article actually states that DLC as it is now could stand to improve, but as a model for solving the problems we as gamers find upsetting, it's perfect.

DLC has created these problems in the first place.

[RSOblivion]

DLC didn't create the problems, it started a few in CoD by forcing players without the DLC to get kicked out of MP games etc...

Using DLC as a battering ram is going to alienate customers, using it to build on the game is going to attract customers and provides a much more fluid service than shop bought stuff. The whole shop mentality is one borne of convenience anyway, but it's falling out of favour due to high costs compared to online and now price fixing to try to recoup losses from online retail sales.

DLC can be used for positive or negative (EA is probably the worst offender here, though Activision are chasing hard with the CoD map packs...). Personally I'd rather release DLC after about 1 month of game release with new stuff completely to diversify or extend both single and multiplayer aspects (assuming the game has both) or to focus on single or mp for each pack. It means the primary game can be retailed for less, attracting more purchasers and the DLC is keeping the revenue up for the company to produce more for the game and support is continued for the game longer after release.

But that's just my view

[Sathias]

DLC is the pits, its the reason we get half complete games for twice the price of the US and still need to pay for DLC to "fix it"

No article can persuade anyone with a clue. DLC is Killing the Future of Gaming.

DLC has nothing at all to do with the reason why we pay more for games. The US gets the exact same DLC that we do.

[Commander Boom]

What advantages for consumers does DLC offer over expansion packs?

Sure, I can see how it's great for publishers - they get all the lovely bonuses that we hate DLC for. They can nickel and dime the weak of mind or will with pretty cosmetic content, or frustrate the rest by withholding significant content behind an overpriced wrapper.

I don't see any advantages of DLC over expansion packs, bar greater profits for the impoverished, wholesome, and consumer-friendly game publishing business.