Siliconera Speaks Up: DLC — yay or nay?

Are you willing to pay a premium price for DLC if you truly enjoy a game? Or should there be standard pricing?

Jenni: I’d like to be strong and say that I’d only pay standard pricing for DLC, but since I’ve already caved and purchased Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King DLC (and possibly even My Life as a Darklord DLC in the future), I’ll cave and admit I’m willing.

I won’t do it all the time, but if there’s a game that I genuinely enjoy, I know I’m going to be playing for a substantial amount of time and I have some spare change or Wii Points lying around, I’ll cave.

Louise: I don’t mind DLC as long as pricing is fair and it doesn’t limit or gimp the original game if I don’t buy it. If I’m paying full price for a 360 game, there’s a certain amount of gameplay and content that I expect to be on the disk. Extra song packs in games like Rockband are acceptable in terms of DLC for me. If a game feels incomplete or the publisher is pushing DLC such as super powerful weapons or armor in an RPG then I would get pretty ticked off.

For example, with Street Fighter IV, I’m actually pretty happy with the DLC. I didn’t buy any of it because I don’t care much about costumes, but I can understand why other players would want to buy it. At the same time, I’m not at a disadvantage because I didn’t buy the costume. If Capcom had released other characters as DLC, I would probably feel differently.

Laura: I’m not all too familiar with DLC, since I generally stick with good ol’ games that aren’t connected to the internet, or at least, games that can be played without an internet. If the game has an internet multiplayer option or something, I generally don’t use it.

So anyways, theoretically, if it was something I really, really wanted but couldn’t get elsewhere, then I would probably pay the premium pricing. I mean, I’d love to pay only standard, but the companies have their situations and reasons as to why something’s priced higher.

Spencer: I usually don’t buy cosmetic enhancements like costumes or anything like that. Like Louise I understand why people want to buy them though. The only kind of DLC I’ve felt satisfied with are side stories or extra levels.

Nippon Ichi went overboard with extra characters for Disgaea 3, but The Raspberyl Chapters is an example of “good DLC”. It’s a full blown expansion pack for $20. Selvaria’s mission pack for Valkyria Chronicles was excellent too since it turned the tables on the story and put players in control of the enemy.

What I hope publishers do in the future is sell International version extras as DLC in North America. For example, we might not get Final Fantasy XIII International Lightning Strikes Twice Edition or Kingdom Hearts III Truly Final Mix, but we’ll get the extra dungeons and the inevitable bonus movie that hints at the next Kingdom Hearts spin-off.

Ishaan: It really depends on the content that’s being offered. On the one hand, you have Dragon Quest IX with new downloadable quests each week for free simply to help decrease the amount of trade-in on the game in Japan. It’s great value for money overall, but it’s there because it needs to be.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the the DLC in My Life as a Darklord, which is something I’ve — much to the dismay of many — bitched about on multiple occasions. Would I want extra stuff in my Crystal Chronicles game? Of course I would. My Life as a King had great DLC and everyone loved it. Darklord, however, is a tower defense game, and if it’s not suited to downloadable content that offers genuine value for money, well…they shouldn’t have made it tower defense in the first place?

Needless to say, I’d much rather pay for weekly quests than for costumes and tower defense units and spells. Premium pricing even, depending on the rewards offered by the quest.

Street Fighter IV is another point of contention. Having to pay for costumes is really pretty lame, but you wouldn’t hear anyone say that about paying for a “Separate Ways” scenario in RE5. It comes down to reward and the value and the satisfaction that the extra content offers.