Video game DLC has become both a major revenue stream as well as a major cause for concern amongst gamers throughout this generation. Companies left and right have been releasing additional content within weeks, sometimes even days of launch, raising questions as to why it didn’t come included with the game itself.
Veteran game development company, id Software is already planning to release DLC for Rage, even though the game doesn’t release until September. During an interview, id Software’s Design Director Matt Hooper had this to say about maintaining play value with his team’s upcoming product:
Then the co-op adds a lot too, and then from there you build on it with “What do people like about Rage?” and then you offer them DLC, so we think we have a strong offering.
This is becoming such a popular trend that it’s hard to act surprised. Games haven’t increased in price much despite inflation, and increased development costs, but is that reason enough to charge an arm and a leg for added content? It’s understandable that developers want to add additional content to the game post-launch rather than having to start from scratch with a new product, but why not just take a little longer to launch and package the added content with the full product? Is it really that difficult?
How do you feel about DLC and its overwhelming prevalence this generation?
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