Years in the past...
Let's shoot back to the days of the NES. Games were simple, but just as much a form of art as they are today. Don't let uninformed people try to tell you that games were cheaper back then though, since games had just as high prices in the late 80s and early 90s as they have today, sometimes even higher: Street Fighter 2 sold for $74.99 USD, and Final Fantasy V was an impressive $88.00 USD![1] What you could rely on back then, though, was that your money went into a full game.The era of Downloadable Content (DLC) Begins
In today's world, the concept of a "full game" has changed and taken on a slightly different meaning. As the internet became more popular, game developers quickly tried to find a way to use it to enhance the experience of playing games - Enter DLC. It's hard to really pinpoint where DLC started, but from my own experience, early DLC ranged anywhere from simple things such as maps, characters, or extra weapons, to entirely new single player scenarios. Typically, these small additions to the game were free, and even today, some companies like Valve provide free DLC for their popular titles such as Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Portal 2.Paid DLC: A blessing or a curse?
It's sort of a given that when a concept is introduced, someone is going to try and monetize that concept, and DLC is definitely no exception to that. Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with asking consumers to pay for DLC - it's only logical that if you put work into a professional product, consumers should expect to pay for it. On the positive side, it's a great way for developers to make extra money without having to release a full game, but on the other side of the spectrum, recently the industry has been plagued by developers releasing DLC for games while the DLC is already on the disc. Notable examples of this are Street Fighter X Tekken[2] and most recently, Resident Evil 6[3]. This insistence on forcing consumers to pay twice for their game is something that I have likened to if you bought a toy, and then you had to pay money to open the box and play with it.Next post, we'll go further into the realm of DLC and its implications on the industry. For my readers in the United States, have a happy Thanksgiving!
References:
[1] Jeremy Parish, March 30, 2012: The 90s Game Comparison Charticle
[2] William Usher, July 6, 2012: Street Fighter X Tekken Disc Locked Content Unlocks July 31st for $19.99
[3] Jason, October 8, 2012: Capcom Responds to on-disc DLC found in Resident Evil 6
One of the worst abuses of the DLC era is the practice of releasing what's essentially an unfinished game on its intended date, then releasing a patch that fixes everything they didn't have time to fix. I can recall Bully: Scholarship Edition and Fallout: New Vegas had no shortage of crashes before their respective updates were released.
ReplyDeleteGames that are tailored for smart phones often use a different form of DLC. For example games with their own form of currecny such as the iphone version of plants vs zombies allow the user to purchase currency in the game with real life currency. Casual players will likely not pay the extra few bucks but enthusiasts have the option of either spending many more in games hours to acquire the game currency or they may just pay the extra few bucks to quickly unlock the rest of the games secrets.
ReplyDeleteAnother trending twist on downloadable content is the ability to purchase the full versions of games on their release date, dubbed Digital Download by some. Although this allows players to access content from the convenience of home, it replaces their ability to purchase a physical copy unless they pay again. How do you feel about this concept?
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