If you try and find DLC for Nintendo products, the list is pitiful compared to the PS3, 360, and PC no matter how you look at it. DLC is wraught with satisfied customers but is also a controversial practice. Reggie Fils-Aime weighed in on this while being interviewed by AOL Games Blog.
“When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they’ve had a complete experience. We’re unwilling to sell a piece of a game upfront and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later. That’s what they don’t want to do.”
Most gamers will nod in agreement while some like to have more postgame content for a low price. If a $5 DLC adds ten hours of content to a game, then that’s some good value. Back years ago, the closest we had to DLC was expansion packs, which is what The Sims was built on with one game at full price, and a total of seven expansion packs. At British pricing back them, the whole shebang would cost you 170 quid if bought individually. Think about that for a moment.
Nintendo has pitched in their two cents on the subject of DLC and the opinion is that they’re not keen on having someone pay more for a game that they just bought. I personally dislike paying cash for a single thing, like what Nippon Ichi is doing for Disgaea 4, but I would have no problems paying for new chapters to a game or completely new areas. Personally I think that the hours of content DLC should add should be equal to or greater than its price in dollars.
Chris Hernandez
I agree with Reggie. Most developers are really just releasing DLC to make a little extra money to cover current and future development costs, but very few actually make content that is just for the fans.
The worst practice is unlock keys that you have to pay for to get access to content that is aready on the disk.