DLC. The three letters many gamers are very much afraid of. Why? Well, this is because of Downloadable Content gaining a negative reception due to consumer’s opinions surrounding money and greed.
While it can be argued that these huge gaming corporations are seen as the stereotypical high and all mighty bad guys. We must remember that these are real talented humans who develop these games as a livelihood. Game designers, developers, producers, or anyone involved in the creation of games, all need money to live on. Just like any standard job. Gaming is a business like any other. DLC is added for consumers to spend more money on a product as according to various statistics, game sales drop rapidly after their initial launch. In short, Downloadable Content makes consumers keep investing the game they’ve already bought to get maximum ‘value’, and to entice completely new buyers and hype up that more content is coming to the game, so it’s worth buying. This means more money for developers, who can then go on and create more new games and drive revenue sales.
DLC did not begin to exist as we know it. In the early days of the gaming world, before the internet graced us with its accessibility, DLC was but a myth, maybe a prospect of the future. If games were to have extra content in them, it was through pre-established special editions or behind mysterious cheat codes shared by gaming magazines or word of mouth. This extra content usually ranged from extra characters to play as, new worlds to explore or even fun and whacky modes for us to have a blast in.
It’s not all corporate greed, however, as various DLC have their place and are widely loved by their communities. Some DLC keeps a game in relevancy long after its release or it could bring new life to a once “dead” game. Developers can work hard on these DLC to really make them the best they can be and for them to truly enhance the game. Besides, it is their job to work on these videogames, they are paid to do so. It is only natural that they would want to make the most amount of money out of their game.
Overall, is DLC really that bad? That depends. The value of the content, company ethics and of course, that price tag. It’ all up to you gamers at the end of the day, stay safe!