It seems Capcom has been listening to its customers regarding the much maligned DLC (Disc Locked Content) issue. Capcom USA Senior Vice President Christian Svensson recently said that Capcom is reevaluating its On-Disk DLC strategy. The strategy will not go into effect immediately apparently. I guess we'll have to wait for the coming months to see what Capcom has in store for us.

Capcom USA Senior Vice President Christian Svensson said:

Hey guys,
We’ve been getting several questions, here and elsewhere about the future of on-disc DLC.
We would like to assure you that we have been listening to your comments and as such have begun the process of re-evaluating how such additional game content is delivered in the future. As this process has only just commenced in the past month or so, there will be some titles, where development began some time ago and that are scheduled for release in the coming months, for which we are unable to make changes to the way some of their post release content is delivered.

Sources: Capcom Unity Board & Shoryuken.com

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@nacthenud

It would cause extra expense no doubt, but it would also cause extra revenue as well. That's no different than having the team work on DLC after the game goes gold which would not be a problem. The flaw with this whole analogy is that things simply aren't done this way. People are not hired on specifically for DLC during the main game. They are resources being used up to facilitate the making of this faux DLC.

The way to go about creating the best game possible and thus generating the best response to your game isn't by figuring out what is suitable for a core product and having everything else be a paid extra. If you make your game to the best of your ability people are more likely to want to buy future DLC from you.

Posted by

Stephen

on: 05/17/12, 02:12

@Stephen
Everything needs a budget, right? So in scenario one, Ono goes to Capcom and says, I want to make a fighting game with 60 characters on a $60, all available from the get-go. Considering the projected sales, can you give me X amount of man-hours to finish it? Capcom's reaction would probably be something along the lines of "Hell to the no."

In scenario two, Ono says, okay, 40 characters on a $60 disk and 20 as much-much-higher-profit-margin DLC. NOW can I get X amount of man-hours? I'm thinking that Capcom is much more likely to grant his request. Whether the DLC is developed and released concurrently or post-release doesn't really matter.

It's possible that, in this age of costly games, a lot of games might not even get MADE without some DLC revenue possibilities. Which sucks, but...

@nacthenud
That's pretty chintzy, but I'd rather the price discrimination affected only non-gameplay areas such as this.

By the way, I don't want any of this to come off as a personal defense of DLC. I pretty much despise most uses of paid DLC.

Posted by

Anand

on: 05/19/12, 04:43