The last few weeks, as well as the last few years, the article where DICE mentions “We’ll never charge for DLC…” statement has come up when it comes to free content in games. You all know I have pretty much focused on Battlefield and I will here in this article as well, but I will also be covering DLC in general and my thoughts on it and the industry.
You may not agree with everything I have to say on this topic and that is OK, but hopefully you will look through everything I have mentioned and see why I stand where I do.
First I want to cover what DICE said in the article:
“We don’t ever want to charge for our maps and insisted to EA that this attitude was crucial when it came to keeping our community happy and playing together,” DICE senior producer Patrick Bach told Xbox World 360 magazine.
Here is the link:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/241306/dice-well-never-charge-for-battlefield-maps/
So after looking at the article and what is said above, what is missing? You may have noticed that no where does it say that DICE would NEVER charge for DLC. You can Google this article and read it from other sites and the same thing is shown. DICE said they do not WANT to charge for DLC. They never said that they wont or that everything will be free, yet time and time again people bring up this article about how it should be free and how DICE are liars. Once again, people not doing any research and wanting to read what they want into an article.
The other issue is that as much as DICE wants to give stuff away for free, the decision is not theirs. I’m sure they have a lot of say with EA on their product, but in the end it is up to EA to decide pricing and marketing, not DICE. DICE could come out and say “EVERYTHING FREE!” and unless EA says OK, it is not going to happen. So, enough with the “DICE said this or that” statements because it’s not what they said and it is not their call anyway.
DLC is part of the game
A lot of people say that the DLC is already made and it’s just being held back to be sold later. So there is all this content and then it is removed and “given” or sold later. In all honesty I feel this is tin foil hat talk. DICE did do something like that in Bad Company 2 with some of the DLC already being in the game files and just not unlocked. The thing is they admitted that and that there was some micro-transactions in the game as well. The rest of the DLC was downloaded. They were able to complete some and get it on the disc or download so that it was waiting there.
When you compare previous content on other Battlefield games you will find that you get roughly the same amounts over and over again. Also, back in the “good ole days” you never knew if you were getting any additional content. A lot of times the team that made the game was moving on to the next one after release. You had a couple people maybe working on a patch, but a lot of times you did not even get that.
Call of Duty was the only FPS game that regularly released free content. DICE had DLC to purchase all the way back to 1942. They would add a couple new maps in a patch, but most the time it was something to purchase.
So looking at history, DLC has not always been free or parts removed from the game, but were actually things worked on.
DLC Divides the Community
This seems true at first and it does make some sense. You cannot play on a map that you do not own and if people refuse to purchase the DLC then they are not playing with their friends, so you have the “Haves” and the “Have Nots”.
The issue I have with this comes down to choice. You don’t have to purchase anything. If you go with this idea then actually everyone NOT buying DLC is causing the divide in the community. They WANT to divide the community and make the game fail because they are not purchasing the rest of the game. I already wrote how DLC hasn’t been free in the past, so these people not buying the DLC just wants to divide the community.
The other issue is that if DLC divides the community, so does game modes. Some people only play hardcore. Some only play Rush mode or other game modes only. These extra features that we like to have are dividing the community and there should only be one game mode. Since I am the king I get to decide, so from now on if you are not playing Hardcore Conquest in Battlefield, you just want to divide the community.
My final argument about this idea is that if DLC divides the community, so does the next game release. People sometimes don’t go to the next game and are playing the older game. So any game past 1942 is only designed to divide the community.
So as you can probably see, DLC is an option that you don’t have to purchase.
Final Thoughts
I was going to cover a couple more things stated about DLC, but I really think I have said all that needs to be said. The gaming industry is just that, an industry that has to make money. I like to have free stuff as well and sometimes we would get free things from these companies, but sometimes you had to pay money as well. All the companies and developers have done it in the past and continue to do it.
I am concerned about micro-transactions in the industry as well as “pay-to-win” purchases and is something I do not support. That is my opinion and choice, so I don’t play games with those things. That can be for a post another day. The bottom line today is that nothing is always free and we have choices on what we purchase.
Crunch Time 