DLC, how will it affect replay value years from now.

[Epona]

I was thinking about DLC and what a pain it is to keep up with it all. If I reinstall Dragon Age: Origins on my PC and I remember my account info then I can retrieve my DLC but what about my Oblivion DLC on the 360? What if I bought a new slim 360, would my DLC carry over and if so, how many hoops will I have to jump through to make it happen?

Now, with all that in mind, how about remembering and retrieving DLC 10 years from now?

Take your SNES Chrono Trigger cartridge and pop it into any Super Nintendo or even one of those knock off DUO machines and you can play the full game. No account info needed, no long term server support from Square or Nintendo, etc... Compare that with modern day games.

Is DLC really worth all the hassle, now and in the future?

 

[Irridium]

Well, almost all games eventually get a "GOTY" release with all DLC packed in, so there's that.

But it will be a ***** to re-download years into the future.

As for your 360 question though... yeah you'll be able to get it. Just sign in with your account and re-download. But to use the DLC offline you'll have to transfer licences. Which is a bit of a pain.

 

[Epona]

Well, almost all games eventually get a "GOTY" release with all DLC packed in, so there's that.

But it will be a ***** to re-download years into the future.

As for your 360 question though... yeah you'll be able to get it. Just sign in with your account and re-download. But to use the DLC offline you'll have to transfer licences. Which is a bit of a pain.

Yeah, something about only being able to transfer licenses once per year and all that jazz. Hoops I'd rather not jump through and in the past, I didn't have to jump through them. Remember when the GOTY edition was the original release? No need to buy the same game twice to avoid the DLC hassles.

 

[CCountZero]

Frankly, I'm not worried about what DLC will do in ten years, but rather what it is doing right now.

We're seeing games no longer featuring Mod support, largely due to it being a direct competitor to DLC.

I've bought my fair share of DLC, and I've been happy to do so seeing as one usually gets a decent quality standard, but I really don't want to lose mod support.

 

[TheLoneBeet]

Well. It's already been said that you can re-download your DLC if you get a new console or PC.

It's not exactly farfetched to say that in the future acquiring "old" games will be easier than it is now because of digital distribution.

I think it's great for replay value. Hell, there are games I've beaten this year that have put out DLC since then and I want to go back and replay them with the DLC. It's not the same just loading your file and playing through the DLC because you've become detached from the game. That might just be me though. I keep all my games because trade-in value is bullshit compared to the value of replaying them when I've got nothing new to play.

TLR - DLC is a reason to replay, and always will be.

 

[Epona]

Frankly, I'm not worried about what DLC will do in ten years, but rather what it is doing right now.

We're seeing games no longer featuring Mod support, largely due to it being a direct competitor to DLC.

I've bought my fair share of DLC, and I've been happy to do so seeing as one usually gets a decent quality standard, but I really don't want to lose mod support.

There are many problems with DLC and this is certainly a big one. I didn't mention all the problems with DLC because I wanted to focus on how it's gonna affect the future when you wanna go back and play a game you love.

 

[godofallu]

My problem with DLC, especially on 360, is the space required. I have an original 360, which means I have an original hard drive. That's 12 gigs people. Not nearly enough for DLC.

Now if all this DLC just came to me in disc form that would save me a ton of room. Same thing goes for xbla games.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Well. It's already been said that you can re-download your DLC if you get a new console or PC.

It's not exactly farfetched to say that in the future acquiring "old" games will be easier than it is now because of digital distribution.

I think it's great for replay value. Hell, there are games I've beaten this year that have put out DLC since then and I want to go back and replay them with the DLC. It's not the same just loading your file and playing through the DLC because you've become detached from the game. That might just be me though. I keep all my games because trade-in value is bullshit compared to the value of replaying them when I've got nothing new to play.

TLR - DLC is a reason to replay, and always will be.

depends on the DLC, and how much/whats added,
like for you CoD/MW players, map packs add new areas to play in, master and generally piss other people off in, HOURS of extra game time right there.

while, say, a weapon/armor pack isn't gonna add much play time, that is, assuming the gear is even worth using in the first place

 

[Epona]

Well. It's already been said that you can re-download your DLC if you get a new console or PC.

It's not exactly farfetched to say that in the future acquiring "old" games will be easier than it is now because of digital distribution.

I think it's great for replay value. Hell, there are games I've beaten this year that have put out DLC since then and I want to go back and replay them with the DLC. It's not the same just loading your file and playing through the DLC because you've become detached from the game. That might just be me though. I keep all my games because trade-in value is bullshit compared to the value of replaying them when I've got nothing new to play.

TLR - DLC is a reason to replay, and always will be.

Digital Distribution only makes it easier to retrieve DLC if the servers are still up but at some point they will all be shut down. None will be up forever and I would say that in 10 years, you won't be able to get most of the DLC available today. Even DLC from big companies like BioWare or Bethesda may be unavailable. Hell for a long time Bethesda took away the PC DLC for Oblivion.

What if you can't play Oblivion from any other console than the 360 (not backward compatible) and Microsoft won't even let a 360 connect to Live anymore for security reasons because the 360 has been hacked to hell and back?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I was thinking about DLC and what a pain it is to keep up with it all. If I reinstall Dragon Age: Origins on my PC and I remember my account info then I can retrieve my DLC but what about my Oblivion DLC on the 360? What if I bought a new slim 360, would my DLC carry over and if so, how many hoops will I have to jump through to make it happen?

Now, with all that in mind, how about remembering and retrieving DLC 10 years from now?

Take your SNES Chrono Trigger cartridge and pop it into any Super Nintendo or even one of those knock off DUO machines and you can play the full game. No account info needed, no long term server support from Square or Nintendo, etc... Compare that with modern day games.

Is DLC really worth all the hassle, now and in the future?

On the slim thing, after 4 years, my friends 360 finally red ringed. He got a slim and a data transfer module to transfer his profile and all his saved and DLC data onto his new hard drive.

All he had to do was log into his account on his new slim and his account on the Xbox 360 site.

When he transfer that that stuff, it broke the licensing agreements basically thinking that he was illegally copying the info, but being logged onto his profile and the site, re-uped those agreements and recognized that he just had to put them on a new hard drive for some reason. Well also, he had to do partial redownloads, of certain ones.

It was a hassle for him, because he doesn't have a good enough internet connection to get on Live and be on the site at the same time. He had to do it at a friends house. But, with more and more people getting the fast internet, that becomes less of a problem.

If it happened to me, I would just borrow his transfer gizmo and take all of two minutes to sink up, and maybe 5 to 10 minutes to redownload anything. I don't see that as a hassle.

As for in the future, I don't think Microsoft is going anywhere, so there will be dedicated servers up for redownloading DLC for quite some time.

I wouldn't be surprised I could still do it 40 years from now, though by that time I expect to be a 65 year old man complaining about kids and their newfangled Holodeck games. That, or yelling at Holodeck characters to get off my holographic lawn. That being because I will be living in a holodeck instead of a house. Think about how much space on the planet that would save. A holodeck can bring endless space, in a space that is at the smallest 15 feet by 15 feet. That is after we develop an endless clean energy source.

 

[finalguy]

DLC is great, it extends a games life and replay value and i really dont mind buying them.
as for you questions:
xbox transfer cables and moving ur gamer tag over to a new machine make it pretty easy to keep you dlc, in fact easier then your save games. until xbox cloud later this year, if you xbox box dies or ur chrono trigger battery goes out, they are gone forever.
as for the 10 year question, we can look to pcs and digital downloads. most sites now have digital lockers, meaning that even in 10 years you'll be able to get ur stuff. this has happened to me with blizzard games, stuff i registered many many years ago, i can download right now, good thing too cause ive lost alot of the disks(who hasnt gotten a scratched or lost disc to a game before then u wanted to go back and play)
but if you dont want to do any of this, theres still good news, game of the year edtions and complete edtions companies offer years later usually have all the dlc and the most up to date version of the game and usually for like $20.

 

[finalguy]

My problem with DLC, especially on 360, is the space required. I have an original 360, which means I have an original hard drive. That's 12 gigs people. Not nearly enough for DLC.

Now if all this DLC just came to me in disc form that would save me a ton of room. Same thing goes for xbla games.

not to sound harsh but maybe 5 years of use is enough, break down and buy a new drive for $99.

 

[Irridium]

My problem with DLC, especially on 360, is the space required. I have an original 360, which means I have an original hard drive. That's 12 gigs people. Not nearly enough for DLC.

Now if all this DLC just came to me in disc form that would save me a ton of room. Same thing goes for xbla games.

I'm in the same boat my friend. It's primarily why I started playing more on my PC and PS3.

not to sound harsh but maybe 5 years of use is enough, break down and buy a new drive for $99.

When I can buy a 1 terabyte(1000 gigabyte) hard drive for my PC for $60, there's no way in hell I'm paying $99 for a 120 gigabyte hard drive.

 

[Epona]

It was a hassle for him, because he doesn't have a good enough internet connection to get on Live and be on the site at the same time. He had to do it at a friends house. But, with more and more people getting the fast internet, that becomes less of a problem.

It's a hassle for everyone because it's alot of jumping through hoops that you shouldn't have to. For one thing, you should be able to use your DLC on more than one 360 just like you can use your discs in more than one 360. Was the DLC purchased with fake money or was it the same money that you bought the DVD with? Tying DLC to a single console has actually prevented me from buying a second 360. Doesn't Sony let you put 5 devices on your account so they can share DLC and downloaded games? I am not asking too much here.

So you can transfer your DLC but then only once per year. Ridiculous and in 10 years it will be even more ridiculous as most people will be trying to play their old games on a different console and not remembering all the BS they have to go through to play content they paid for.

As for in the future, I don't think Microsoft is going anywhere, so there will be dedicated servers up for redownloading DLC for quite some time.

Microsoft not going anywhere doesn't mean all DLC will be available as long as Microsoft is around. For example, I wanted to buy Halo 2 for the PC and Microsoft doesn't sell it anymore. You can watch the trailer on the Games For Windows Live site but you can't buy it. Microsoft is still around though so why aren't they selling it? It's only 4 years old. See my point?

if you xbox box dies or ur chrono trigger battery goes out, they are gone forever.

The battery only keeps the save files. The game is fine with a dead battery. Further, you can replace the battery for just a few bucks and then the game is good as new.

If your Xbox breaks, buy another one and your disc based games will work fine. It's the DLC that you have to jump through hoops to get through. You won't have any DLC problems with games prior to this generation. You wanna play Dark Cloud in 10 years? Shouldn't be hard to find a working PS2. No need to worry, the whole game is on the disc.

as for the 10 year question, we can look to pcs and digital downloads. most sites now have digital lockers, meaning that even in 10 years you'll be able to get ur stuff. this has happened to me with blizzard games

Well Blizzard is the exception to the rule. Blizzard wouldn't have killed online support for Xbox games but Microsoft did.

 

[Veldel]

My problem with DLC, especially on 360, is the space required. I have an original 360, which means I have an original hard drive. That's 12 gigs people. Not nearly enough for DLC.

Now if all this DLC just came to me in disc form that would save me a ton of room. Same thing goes for xbla games.

I'm in the same boat my friend. It's primarily why I started playing more on my PC and PS3.

not to sound harsh but maybe 5 years of use is enough, break down and buy a new drive for $99.

When I can buy a 1 terabyte(1000 gigabyte) hard drive for my PC for $60, there's no way in hell I'm paying $99 for a 120 gigabyte hard drive.

One reason I wish the 360 could have memmory like the PS3 i hate how assinine the cost to upgrade is my 120 gig I prob wouldnt of even got it if someone hadnt bought it for me.

 

[Vault101]

in the long term the dlc simply wont be available because it simply wont be economically viable to keep them hosted for the company for the simple fact of how many people will actually play them.

its a small minority that plays old games and yes im one of them

mabye..though I guess with digital distribution, theres no reason why in the future you could get thease old games digitally (and hopefully thr DLC as well), I mean the interent sure as hell isnt going anywhere anytime soon

as for the games in their current form...I guess the easyist is GOTY editions...other than that, yeah it would be pain

though you ahve to aks oyurself how important is the DLC?

 

[Vault101]

DLC is great, it extends a games life and replay value and i really dont mind buying them.
as for you questions:
xbox transfer cables and moving ur gamer tag over to a new machine make it pretty easy to keep you dlc, in fact easier then your save games. until xbox cloud later this year, if you xbox box dies or ur chrono trigger battery goes out, they are gone forever.
as for the 10 year question, we can look to pcs and digital downloads. most sites now have digital lockers, meaning that even in 10 years you'll be able to get ur stuff. this has happened to me with blizzard games, stuff i registered many many years ago, i can download right now, good thing too cause ive lost alot of the disks(who hasnt gotten a scratched or lost disc to a game before then u wanted to go back and play)
but if you dont want to do any of this, theres still good news, game of the year edtions and complete edtions companies offer years later usually have all the dlc and the most up to date version of the game and usually for like $20.

while you are right in one respect, DLC can still be a bad thing when exploited

it is a grey area as to weather or not they really should have jsut kept said DLC in the game, though somtimes it feels bleedingly obvious

My biggest problem with DLC is that I think it is killing expansion packs.

Since expansion packs cost more, they pretty much have to have good content to be worth buying. But since DLC is cheaper most DLC is just some crap that you don't really care about, so a lot of games no longer get good expansion packs but just crap DLC instead.

A great example is Civ 5. Civ 4 had one of the best and most content rich expansion packs ever created (Beyond the Sword) that really impacted the way the game is played, but all the while all Civ 5 has had is crap DLC (though Civ 5 does at least have fantastic mod support).

I think that comes down to how good the DLC is, because DLC is basically expansions packs in new from

like for example all the DLC for fallout 3 or New vegas, I see that as pretty much an expansion pack becausw the game feels very complete (well not quite so much in FO3's case) without it, THATS good DLC

same for ME2 (though I am split over the Idea of having VERY plot revelvant stuff in DLC...I mean I wasnt able to acess it untill I got a PS3)

but you are right in that because the platform is digital they can get away with more pointless crap, plus youre definetly right about modding