Also I don’t think its a matter of getting DLC to “work” per se, as its been done on consoles now. It’s a matter of getting PC gamers to bite, since we have become quite accustomed to free updates to our games. A quick look at the massive shit storm when it was assumed that the Survival DLC update to Left 4 Dead would be a pay-for package shows that in many circles, its still quite taboo. But I quite like that shit storm, as it shows that PC gamers seem to be much more discerning than most; I really do believe that EA would not have even dreamed of releasing their games on Steam w/o DRM otherwise.

And I agree about the whole thing with making DLC out of content thats already physically on the disk, that is quite heinous.

Odious even!

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However, I’m not *entirely* certain that letting the market decide wouldn’t work.

In the RED CORNAH, we have Valve. Free ongoing updates for TF2, Left4Dead and their other staples. Result? They are beloved of the PC gaming community and we rub them with money.

IN THE BLUE CORNAH, we have some other company that the community *even percieves* is shaving content. Result? Angry Internet Men arrive en-masse and try to eat their faces.

Now, what is crucial here is the part that’s hard to predict.

A sensible human, considering these results, would change their tactics.

However, sensible humans haven’t done so regarding the howling shitstorms of incendiary discontent regarding some antipiracy measures, so clearly some other metric is being applied.

THAT’S the problem.

In part it comes down to the relationship between companies and their shareholders. Piracy is such an (imaginary) bugbear at the moment that corporations need to have a response if their shareholders as “What are you doing to protect our profits from piracy?”

Having an answer, even if it doesn’t do any good, is likely to be a bigger motivator than actual results.

If DLC becomes in vogue, companies could well feel pressured when shareholders ask “How are you using DLC to increase our profit margin?” *even if it isn’t.*

So yeah, there is a conflict between what is motivating the decisions being made, and actual results, in some of these cases.

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There will be good and bad examples of it, no doubt, but as a whole we will have to see how things go. Thankfully, in spite of all the opinions we may have, it is still our choice to buy it or not.

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In fact my main annoyance with DLC so far has been platform exclusive DLC on multi-platform games (grrrr…Tomb Raider Underworld, and GTA4).

So the fact that the PC is on board is good with me :)

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Not sure what you’re getting at with regards to the pricing. The price point seemed bang-on for the 12 hours of game I got, that you can pick up the base game for a similar price is hardly suprising given it’s been out for nearly a year. Fair point about not being able to re-sell or share it though, but that’s really a wider sticking point with digital downloads than a Lost and Damned, or even DLC, specific issue. For what it’s worth I’ve got no problems with the lack of re-sale, I still own all of the games I’ve ever bought, but not being able to lend downloaded games does bug me from time to time.

If you only buy games at full retail price, then the price point is pretty good. My point was there’s a vast market out there for second hand sales, and price reduction on the high street, neither or which apply to DLC. I was using it basically as the example of the general problems with digital downloads, and how even the most extensive content provided at a (seemingly) reasonable price still has major drawbacks. However, those drawbacks affect the consumer, and benefit the publisher. Which means that even the shining star of DLC is still, looking at it cynically, a way that Rockstar could get more sales (at potentially more profit, it depends on how deals were worked out) by putting an expansion like this as DLC rather than retail, to the detriment of the “quality” of what we received (due to drawbacks of the medium).

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If you think DLC means you are going to be able to buy less of a game for less money and add more later, you’re living in la-la-land. The worrying thing is that you will get less game for the same money and then be offered the rest later.

I have heard reports from developers that they have been told to separate out some finished content before the game ships for packaging as DLC after launch.

I know games are expensive to make, and people can accept that time constraints may have forced a game to ship with 4 multiplayer maps, but finding out that they finished 8, but decided that your $50 only gets you 4, and the other 4 are extra, is going to piss people off.

It can be used as an underhanded way to up the cost of a game, offering the rest and calling it extra. That’s what worries me.

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With regular 3A titles, the process is similar, I don’t feel entitled to extras just because I purchased the game. I do feel entitled to patches and updates for the existing content though.

My worry is that developers may blur that line, or focus on DLC’s instead of entirely new games. Why employ the risk of a new IP, or even adding yet another sequel number to your flagship title when you can just ever-incrementally expand your existing product for no risk.

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The Lost and Damned recieves a lot of praise for being excellent DLC, but at £16 it’s as expensive as buying a second hand copy of GTAIV, and you can’t trade it in at your local game store when you are done, or lend it to your friend, the pricing is fixed and you don’t actually get any physical product (and hope that your HDD doesn’t break). It is by far the fastest selling DLC, and I wonder if it might actually have proved more profitable than if they made it a cheap (say, £25) retail expansion.

Not sure what you’re getting at with regards to the pricing. The price point seemed bang-on for the 12 hours of game I got, that you can pick up the base game for a similar price is hardly suprising given it’s been out for nearly a year. Fair point about not being able to re-sell or share it though, but that’s really a wider sticking point with digital downloads than a Lost and Damned, or even DLC, specific issue. For what it’s worth I’ve got no problems with the lack of re-sale, I still own all of the games I’ve ever bought, but not being able to lend downloaded games does bug me from time to time.

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