There are some glaring problems with DLC (downloadable content).
1. They are non-transferable: If you buy a game, then buy the DLC, and later sell the game, then that DLC is essentially a sunk cost. And let's face it, almost all games these days have some DLC coming out. Some games have DLC available suspiciously right after the retail release.
2. "Hey, can I borrow...": Since DLC is bound to your account and available almost exclusively through download, you can not let your friends borrow or try the DLC before the purchase. This is a purely a blind purchase, leads me to number three.
3. No returns after purchase. Hardly any other product in any market has a no-refund policy. Some companies such as Best Buy prohibit returns on open PC software to prevent someone from buying software, copying it, and returning it. However this is impossible to do with console game DLC.
4. Horse Armor: It's hard to believe that some people were willing to pay money for something as obscure as a graphic upgrade in a single player game, which can't even be shown off to your friends, except if they are in the same room. The success of horse armor certainly helped open the door to massive DLC sales.
5. Incomplete retail games. Some companies release DLC suspiciously soon after the retail release. I'm skeptical, but it seems like there's a temptation to release a game before it's actually complete and then charge extra for a DLC. What should have cost $60 will now cost $65-70 or more. Of course, it would be hard or nearly impossible to prove this. After all, there is no standard of how much play a retail game should give. We will never know what was cut from a retail game before release, either.
Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV have released their DLC in retail form, which gets much praise from me, as it costs the same price, but it circumvents all the conventional DLC problems. Good job Bethesda and Rock Star.
3 comments:
Good post. I agree for the most part. I'm pretty choosy about which games I buy because I know that DLC will probably be released for them. If I don't think the game is good enough to warrant the extra cost, I don't buy it. For the games I do buy, I usually enjoy being able to extend their lives by adding content.
Rockstar can be commended for offering their expansions in retail form, but I think Fallout's GOTY Edition just contains the download codes for the expansions. Too bad they didn't go the extra mile.
I've never really dealt with DLC for a few reasons. These being a few, another is because i'm poor.
GTA: Episodes of Liberty City contains the two GTA DLC as stand alone games, which is a great idea. I didn't know Fallout just contains the download codes, which is kinda lame.
I agree with you Ben. If a great game will have have good DLC, then I'll ignore all the reasons I listed in the post, because then it will easily be worth the 'hassle' of the new technology.
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