Day One DLC. Whats the point?

[Soviet Heavy]

What exactly is the point of having day one DLC in a game? If it is ready to go at launch, then why bother keeping it separate from the rest of the game?

Just curious. No I am not talking about Mass Effect 2. I know that the Zaeed DLC is delayed.

I can understand releasing something maybe a week or two down the line, where you have time to fine tune it, maybe to come along with a bug patch, but releasing something separate even though it is complete alongside the game at launch doesn't seem to make much sense.

 

[delet]

As always, the answer is money. How do you make more money on something? Release something with the game that should have been ready (and is actually inside the game for some of them.)

 

[Woodsey]

There isn't one as far as I can tell - The Saboteur one is the most ridiculous I've seen.

Why not just include an option in the menu to turn nipples on/off?

 

[Mokuren]

I can understand releasing something maybe a week or two down the line, where you have time to fine tune it, maybe to come along with a bug patch, but releasing something separate even though it is complete alongside the game at launch doesn't seem to make much sense.

Maybe it's some sort of premium content that was meant to release with the game from the beginning?

I don't know, it's the only decent reason I can think of. If it's a patch, it must be some sort of last-minute fix that somehow couldn't make it before the game was released, but that's really stretching it.

 

[hazabaza1]

Well, if it's free, maybe they had finished the content after shipping out the game?

If not, money makes the world go round.

 

[Amnestic]

There are a few reasons. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.154083#3719305]

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know. I don't know enough about video game development and production to really say why they would do that or to criticize them for doing it.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

There isn't one as far as I can tell - The Saboteur one is the most ridiculous I've seen.

Why not just include an option in the menu to turn nipples on/off?

So, an option to have nipples poking through shirts as if cold and an option for normal weather nipples?

 

[DoctorNick]

Newest generation games are only getting more expensive to make, so companies are trying to find new sources of income.

While I understand the logic, I still kind of find it ham-fisted.

 

[Marter]

There isn't one as far as I can tell - The Saboteur one is the most ridiculous I've seen.

Why not just include an option in the menu to turn nipples on/off?

It gives people a reason to buy the game new.
It means that Pandemic can state that "only people who want the nudity will download it"
It means that there is far less controversy from over-protective parents/average protesters.
It means that Pandemic makes a couple of dollars off of used game sales if the person who bought it used wants nudity.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Is your theory that, from the time the first release copy is pressed, they wait about three days and release the game?

I'm just curious. How much time do you think passes between pressing the first "Gold" copy of the disc and the commercial release? Is it so hard to fathom that, in some cases, new stuff was made after the final disc was made? You can't just keep adding stuff, after all. We call that Duke Nukem Forever.

- J

 

[Altorin]

the reason is that games Go Gold months and months before their release, and when a game Goes Gold nothing else can be added to the disc - they're released to the producers and made mass amounts of copies.

The Developers, instead of just sitting on their butt for months while the design team is mostly working on the next installment, will make DLC in the interim. This DLC is available Day One because the devs have been working on it for the months after the game was locked down in Gold.

There are exceptions.

Capcom was a notable exception last year, where the content WAS on the disc, and SHOULD have been free, but they wanted to charge for it. But I think this is not the norm. Some will charge for Day One DLC, but Bioware, specifically, didn't charge for any of their Day One DLC, and even gave free access to non-day one DLC, as their Cerberus Network Card gives free access to those who bought new.

the reason why the "free" DLC is only free if you buy new, and don't buy used or Pirate (although I'm sure in short order the free DLC will be free via piracy anyway).. is to put some compensation for the publisher/dev team for Used Games. They currently aren't obligated to any money big Second Hand dealers make on their games if they resell them.

 

[The Bandit]

the reason why the "free" DLC is only free if you buy new, and don't buy used or Pirate (although I'm sure in short order the free DLC will be free via piracy anyway).. is to put some compensation for the publisher/dev team for Used Games. They currently aren't obligated to any money big Second Hand dealers make on their games if they resell them.

It's actually clever enough where I'm not even pissed off about it.

 

[Spleenbag]

There are a few reasons. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.154083#3719305]

This person has it right. Please, people, read this post. Learn why Day One DLC exists without just firing off "money-hungry" and "nickel-and-dime" catcalls at the developers.

 

[Altorin]

I don't know. I don't know enough about video game development and production to really say why they would do that or to criticize them for doing it.

that's actually the best thing to do.

If you don't know, don't make an ass out of yourself by loudly proclaiming that what you don't know about is done wrong.

If you want to learn however, there are several good posts in this thread, particularly Amnestic's link to a forum Mod Explaining it, and several posts under that in the linked thread is an actual quote of a game dev explaining it.

 

[Altorin]

the reason why the "free" DLC is only free if you buy new, and don't buy used or Pirate (although I'm sure in short order the free DLC will be free via piracy anyway).. is to put some compensation for the publisher/dev team for Used Games. They currently aren't obligated to any money big Second Hand dealers make on their games if they resell them.

It's actually clever enough where I'm not even pissed off about it.

My policy when it comes to free "screw the used game market" DLC is, just know what I'm buying... be an educated shopper... because Gamestop clearly aren't going to play fair when it comes to used game prices and the Screw the Used Game Market DLC.

So I see a game like DA:O, it has that sort of DLC in the Stone Prisoner patch. I know the price of that patch is 15 bucks if I buy it used... so unless the used game is 15 bucks less (and it currently isn't), I won't buy it.

It's a shame that the used game market isn't playing fair, but once this becomes standard, they'll eventually have to.

 

[Fappy]

To prevent people from pirating the game in some cases.

 

[Altorin]

To prevent people from pirating the game in some cases.

I don't think it's that at all really.

Game Devs have to know that their DLC will be pirated almost as easily as the game themselves.

It's a matter of timing.. using workers to the best efficiency.. and sometime's it's about getting money.. Day One DLC should probably be free... I'm not saying their time isn't worth the money.. just doesn't seem worth it on Day One, when I just bought a brand new game for 70 bucks and are being asked to pay more to see it all..

If it's part of a promotion that I missed, like a collector's edition, etc, then yeah, ok, I get that.. I'll pay, but if it's not.. it hurts a little.

I totally understand why they do it, I'm just really happy Bioware made their Dayone DLC new for new users.. I just hope they make that a policy from now on.

 

[delet]

As always, the answer is money. How do you make more money on something? Release something with the game that should have been ready (and is actually inside the game for some of them.)

The answer is not always money. Sometimes the developers create something that ultimately doesn't make sense or looks out of place in the final game so they cut it out of the finished version and then decided to sell it as DLC rather then just throwing it away completely. I think all of peoples complaints about DLC are largely baseless unless we are talking about EA style DLC where they use games like The Sims to suck as much money from the consumers as possible.

There's no excuse for Day-1 DLC though. If it's readily available on launch, it should be in the game. Hell, you can just add an 'extras' menu and put it there if it doesn't fit. I enjoy DLC to an extent, but on Day one it's unacceptable.