While the game's leadership team is busy working on the sequel or a new game , the company is able to keep developers employed and generating additional revenue.
So why should you care if me and my developer friends are able to stay employed? Because it directly translates to better games for you. Wardell has experienced firsthand how DLC has played a pivotal role for Stardock in recent years. Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes , released in , "is where it really took off.
We could either make a Fallen Enchantress 2 , which, while the game did well, it didn't do well enough to justify that—especially since the choice was either between working on Fallen Enchantress or working on Galactic Civilizations 3 , it was a no brainer.
The team was going to work on GalCiv 3. Because users on the forums would constantly list off things they wanted in the base game, and we were happy to put those in but those engineering hours have to be paid for.
And so we funded that through DLC. Eighteen months since launch, Legendary Heroes ' base game is still receiving substantial, free updates for all players. Version 1. But it was paid for by this thing called the Battlegrounds DLC. Game development is a team sport. DLC sales can improve job security and keeps talented people working together. The strength of any game team is dependent not only on the talents of its individual members but how well those members work together.
The simple act of allowing a team to continue working together with shared tools and processes instead of spreading out to other studios once a game is completed will improve team cohesion and ultimately, game quality. Additionally, developers who do not live under the anxiety that they will be axed as soon as a project they've devoted years to is released will be happier, less distracted and work harder.
I'm not very spiritual but some part of me is left inside that game… and it pains me when I have to move on. Because, if I have too many scripters, now I have a plethora of games and I can say 'you know what, why don't you make DLC for this game? And [that DLC] will make the fans happy. Additionally, by freeing a team from the traditional hire-and-fire cycle of game development, DLC increases the amount of energy and focus spent on any game's development.
For a charge that is typically less than the price of a full game, expansions can inject new storylines, quests, playable characters, accessories, maps, sometimes even entire worlds to explore. These are meaningful enhancements to the original game, whether adding hours of gameplay or increasing replayability with more variety.
Expansions update the game at a modest cost, which has always been and continues to be a great way to extend its life until a sequel arrives.
Being a person who grew up in an era where a game purchase meant getting an actual game, or at least the equivalent of one, almost any other form of paid DLC just looks like unnecessary or downright useless to me. Should you choose to buy skins or loot or player cards or game passes, by all means, please enjoy it. My preference is to simply ignore it. Yet, try as I might to look the other way, the manner in which companies are increasingly force-feeding DLC via the in-game experience has made that an impossible task.
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