The founder of the studio behind Just Cause 2 has spoken about DLC, his feelings about Just Cause 2‘s DLC and on the “forced” addition of multiplayer functionality in today’s games.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Christofer Sundberg has questioned the use of downloadable content in today’s games, saying that proper DLC that adds value is great, but that very few games have compelled him to purchase DLC and also that he feels that developers use DLC as a means to include content that they didn’t have time to include in the game. He says that “not that many” games have been “truly successful” with DLC.
Just Cause 2‘s DLC is described by Sundberg as “standard stuff” that didn’t motivate players to keep playing the game. He says what keeps Just Cause 2 going is the game itself, which saw 100,000 unique players each week as of March of 2012, and has some players who have accumulated over 200 hours of playtime. The freedom of exploration in JC2 and ability to play for shorter or longer lengths of time is what he feels keeps gamers coming back to Rico Rodriguez’s adventure. He also said that DLC isn’t needed to keep players engaged with a game if the game itself is well-executed.
As for multiplayer, Sundberg said that “the big thing now” is for developers to “force” the inclusion of multiplayer into games that are “really single-player games” to combat used game sales. He further claims that this practice makes “absolutely no sense” as it just “consumes budget” and that it “does not add any value, except on the back of the box.”
Sundberg’s comments likely will resound with gamers who have been unhappy with the integration of both DLC and multiplayer in this generation of consoles. How do you feel about these issues? What games from this generation do you think have handled DLC and/or the inclusion of multiplayer best?
