My unpopular opinion is that DLC is not, in and of itself, bad. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it! If you do want it - great, no problem! In a world without DLC, you either have to buy the whole game, or not. If you tried it and didn’t like it, you have wasted the whole price of the game. Whereas in a DLC system, you’ve spent the price of the base game, but that’s effectively just a fraction of the total game price. You risked less.
What is a problem - and what I think most people who think they’re mad about DLC are actually mad about - is charging a price that isn’t commensurate with the amount of content you get. If a full game is “worth” $60, and it’s split up into a $20 base game and 4 $10 DLCs - great, everyone is (or, should be!) happy. But if the publisher charges $60 for $20-worth of base game and then charges for DLC on top, you should be pissed - but you should still be pissed about that mispricing even if the DLC didn’t exist. Yes, DLC is the reason why that pricing strategy is adopted - but that doesn’t mean that DLC itself is inherently bad. There are possible implementations that are not flawed.
Most AAA base games cost ~60 dollars for the base game and the DLCs add on top of that.
I’m not gonna be mad about the price, a game is cheap in terms of hours entertained compared to a good movie which costs about 10 dollars for about 2 hours of entertainment.
The issue is not the price. The DLCs is also not inherently bad, like you said. For instance, Borderlands 2 is known for having an excellent base game and an exceptional bunch of DLCs, one which became so loved and popular that it became its own spin off game (Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands).
The issue is that companies use DLCs as an excuse to charge money for small amounts of content. They make smaller games, still charge full price, then make DLCs that are relatively small and charge a lot for them.
Using the above example, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands have DLCs that cost 10 dollars and feature a single dungeon (that takes ~20 minutes to complete) with a boss that was an enemy in the base game which got enlarged slightly and given more damage and HP. The community understandably was pissed - but they kept buying every single DLC they pumped out, which reinforced the behavior.
They make smaller games, still charge full prices, then make DLCs that are relatively small and chare a lot for them.
So you agree with me, then, that the problem is publishers charging a disproportionate price for the amount of content being purchased?
DLC isn’t modular like that, you aren’t buying a fraction of the product and then completing the full thing with DLC. You’re still buying the base full priced game, and then DLC is typically additional content expanded upon that.
Your generalization doesn’t hold. Take Cities: Skylines (a city building game; compare it to Sim City) as an example. The base game cost €30 at launch [1]. It’s a (kinda [2]) functional base game, however, it’s somewhat flat.
If you’re interested in more challenge building industries (instead of just zoning industrial zones and that’s it), you buy the industries DLC (currently €15) where you need to juggle supply chains. If you’re bored by just plopping down some parks to make people happy, you buy the Parklife DLC (also €15), which allows you to be more creative in providing recreation opportunities. If you’re an old Transport Tycoon player and want to create the perfect public transport network, buy the Mass Transit DLC (€13).
The base game is fully functional without all these DLCs, and each one focuses on an aspect of the game into which some players might want to dig deeper, but not others.
[1] According to https://steampricehistory.com/app/255710 [2] I say “kinda” because it does have flaws. However, these aren’t fixed in DLCs, so my point still stands.
Slaps the hood of Baldur’s Gate 3 this bad boy can fit so many wildly exceeded expectations for a complete AAA-title at launch in 2023
Wasn’t it also early access? At least some part of it? Or am I remembering the wrong game.
The first of three acts was in early access for nearly 3 years
Yup! A couple YEARS early access even, afaik!
I’m confused why people are upset at early access. It can be done badly to sell a game that isn’t finished for full price.
But Larian has always done early access this way: first act for testing. And it works great.
Well there is Hope with games like Baldurs Gate 3 and most indie titles
Indie is the way to go. The number of times I’ve been disappointed with “AAA” games is ludicrous.
You just have to be VERY careful with buying them day 1. I mostly just wait for a “complete edition” or “goty edition” or smth and THEN wait til that is cheap.
There’s a reason they changed the name from expansion to DLC.
I remember the launch of mass effect 3 in 2012, when EA and Bioware removed all the prothean companion content (very relevant to the story) from the base game and sold it as 10€ day 1 DLC. They even boasted about “releasing a game for 80€” back then IIRC.
