How To Improve DLC’s Dark Side

While DLC is a great feature of this generations consoles, there are a few ways it needs to be improved. Once you initially get through your game, be it single or multiplayer, there is always that option to prolong the life of the title by adding extra features into the game. I really like knowing that once I finish my game, that there is already content on the online store waiting for me. Regardless of what people say, DLC is just a way of keeping your bought games fresh so that you’re more likely to keep them in your collection.

But there are a few problems with it too. Firstly if a company is wanting to sell its retail game to any or all gaming platforms, then incoming DLC should be available to those platforms all at the same time. There should be no securing of the content so the competition misses out for 6 months, or even longer in the cases of Fallout 3 and the expansions to Grand Theft Auto 4. PS3 users know all too well the gripe with having to wait. Exclusivity is now starting to affect both consoles, with the recent announcement of preorder DLC for the PS3 version of Mafia 2. Being gamers means that whatever our preferred platform of choice, we should be given the same choices for a game sold on other platforms.

The Betrayal of Jimmy, Mafia 2 Exclusive DLC

Another major issue which came from Capcom, was the inclusion of DLC on the retail disc you bought, but in order to access it, you had to pay for an unlock key. This to me goes against the consumer. Sure, we never truly ‘own’ the game but we are paying for what we are told comes in the game itself. If DLC is to continue this unlock key issue needs to be rethought by developers or simply not used.

The elephant in the room comes down to storage space. Without this turning into a slinging match, it does seem this generation has accommodated for the lowest common denominator, and that being the DVD9 storage medium that resides with the Xbox 360. Now people will instantly bring up the fact that the PC uses that same medium, but what most people forget, is that a PC game can come on multiple discs, all ‘unpacking’ its data and installing it to the hard drive. An Xbox 360 game does not utilise this. You can image the disc of sorts, so it frees up the spin of the DVD tray, but that’s it.

As a result, no matter what platform you game on, it’s an issue. Gaming companies in recent times, Capcom and Square Enix both revealing the cut content simply because of storage issues. This becomes a problem because they can release this content as DLC, but why should we pay for it? It was already part of the game, working and capable on anything larger than a DVD9 storage medium.

Many people are unaware that Microsoft charge for additional discs to be printed. It is why games like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto 4 and other massive sandbox world games after a while feel like there’s something missing. It’s because of this, that games aren’t allowed to expand, and so DLC becomes the only option for some of these developers. By still using their hard work and making a quid off of it, they ship it to the digital store and hope for the best.

Episodes From Liberty City

This would be my biggest gripe with DLC. Not the fact it exists, or that some of it appears in droves for some games, while for others in dribbles. But the underlying notion that developers want their games on the Xbox 360 due to the fact it’ll sell on the platform, but the downside is unless they stick it to one disc, it’ll cost either extra for the consumer or developer, for the game to expanded. And the side effect of that is that the PC and the PS3 platforms suffer along with it.

Last generation and generations before it, DLC existed primarily on PC in the form of Expansions. Still hitting its stride, nothing held the PC back as it had the best platform to game on. This generation, even the mighty desktop computer is plagued with the hindrance that, in order for money to be made, multiplatform developers must bow to the runt of the litter. And once you are on your knees, the DLC bat comes in swinging.

This is why ‘some’ PC developers ignore the consoles entirely, and that PS3 exclusive studios are not held back on the scope and scale of their games. I only hope that in the future, like in previous generations, a platform on the bottom of the pile will get its own version, and the superior platforms get theirs. And to some degree, while I love DLC, hopefully it may somewhat disappear to a degree as content will be added or should I say, left in the game as it was first intended.

Written by Ben Kage