When DLC2? If we knows...

[Emmanuelexe]

Hello, i know its too early to ask that but i was curious, do we know when they could release the DLC2 of the game later? like Q1-4 next year?

First DLC was hard but i enjoyed it, these little robots were challenging and the final fight and story was cool :) (especially the final boss theme)

They really know how to make weird and very cool atmosphere!

[ragnarok]

Originally posted by Emmanuelexe:

Hello, i know its too early to ask that but i was curious, do we know when they could release the DLC2 of the game later? like Q1-4 next year?

First DLC was hard but i enjoyed it, these little robots were challenging and the final fight and story was cool :) (especially the final boss theme)

They really know how to make weird and very cool atmosphere!

That's an easy Q: most games have their DLCs about 6 months apart. The range can be anywhere between 5-7 months though.

Look at Doom Eternal: the base game came out in Mar 2021, and the DLCs came out in Oct 2021 and March 2022 respectively.

The Callisto Protocol did the same thing: the base game came out in Dec 2022, the DLC came out at the end of June 2023.

Atomic Heart is following a similar pattern: the base game came out in Feb 2023, the 1st DLC came out at the beginning of Aug 2023.

Under that logic, the 2nd DLC will be out by Feb 2024, the 3rd by Aug 2024, and the 4th by Feb 2025.

[acowsik]

Originally posted by ragnarok:

That's an easy Q: most games have their DLCs about 6 months apart. The range can be anywhere between 5-7 months though.

Look at Doom Eternal: the base game came out in Mar 2021, and the DLCs came out in Oct 2021 and March 2022 respectively.

The Callisto Protocol did the same thing: the base game came out in Dec 2022, the DLC came out at the end of June 2023.

Atomic Heart is following a similar pattern: the base game came out in Feb 2023, the 1st DLC came out at the beginning of Aug 2023.

Under that logic, the 2nd DLC will be out by Feb 2024, the 3rd by Aug 2024, and the 4th by Feb 2025.

For a single player game, the gap looks way too spaced out. If its a multiplayer game where people are constantly playing it, people lose touch with the story and that continuity gap exists.

[ragnarok]

Originally posted by acowsik:

Originally posted by ragnarok:

That's an easy Q: most games have their DLCs about 6 months apart. The range can be anywhere between 5-7 months though.

Look at Doom Eternal: the base game came out in Mar 2021, and the DLCs came out in Oct 2021 and March 2022 respectively.

The Callisto Protocol did the same thing: the base game came out in Dec 2022, the DLC came out at the end of June 2023.

Atomic Heart is following a similar pattern: the base game came out in Feb 2023, the 1st DLC came out at the beginning of Aug 2023.

Under that logic, the 2nd DLC will be out by Feb 2024, the 3rd by Aug 2024, and the 4th by Feb 2025.

For a single player game, the gap looks way too spaced out. If its a multiplayer game where people are constantly playing it, people lose touch with the story and that continuity gap exists.

That's how it is with most single-player games anyway. The Metro Exodus DLCs also followed the same pattern with the 1st DLC released about 6 months after the base game, and the 2nd DLC released 6 months after the 1st DLC release.

[acowsik]

Originally posted by ragnarok:

Originally posted by acowsik:

For a single player game, the gap looks way too spaced out. If its a multiplayer game where people are constantly playing it, people lose touch with the story and that continuity gap exists.

That's how it is with most single-player games anyway. The Metro Exodus DLCs also followed the same pattern with the 1st DLC released about 6 months after the base game, and the 2nd DLC released 6 months after the 1st DLC release.

Damn... 2 yrs for all DLC is a long wait... sigh

[ragnarok]

Originally posted by acowsik:

Originally posted by ragnarok:

That's how it is with most single-player games anyway. The Metro Exodus DLCs also followed the same pattern with the 1st DLC released about 6 months after the base game, and the 2nd DLC released 6 months after the 1st DLC release.

Damn... 2 yrs for all DLC is a long wait... sigh

The only way I can think of it being shorter than 2 years would be if the developers understand that this wouldn't be considered normal. Usually games only have 1-2 DLCs, and as a result the last DLC is released about a year after the base game. Once you go BEYOND a year, it's possible people might lose interest.

In short, 4 DLCs can be considered pushing it, and people might end up saying that this can just be an expansion pack or something. After all, that's what happened with the Spider-Man Miles Morales game. The developers knew that it was too large to be its own DLC unless you were willing to release 10 DLC packs or something, and the fans would NOT tolerate such a thing.

But still, it depends on the developer. So if you want the DLCs out faster, you can hope that the developers would have the mentality I just wrote. However, I'm not holding my breath for that, which is why I'm not planning to buy the game until at least the 3rd DLC is out.

[acowsik]

Originally posted by ragnarok:

Originally posted by acowsik:

Damn... 2 yrs for all DLC is a long wait... sigh

The only way I can think of it being shorter than 2 years would be if the developers understand that this wouldn't be considered normal. Usually games only have 1-2 DLCs, and as a result the last DLC is released about a year after the base game. Once you go BEYOND a year, it's possible people might lose interest.

In short, 4 DLCs can be considered pushing it, and people might end up saying that this can just be an expansion pack or something. After all, that's what happened with the Spider-Man Miles Morales game. The developers knew that it was too large to be its own DLC unless you were willing to release 10 DLC packs or something, and the fans would NOT tolerate such a thing.

But still, it depends on the developer. So if you want the DLCs out faster, you can hope that the developers would have the mentality I just wrote. However, I'm not holding my breath for that, which is why I'm not planning to buy the game until at least the 3rd DLC is out.

You have a point there but the DLCs are not part of the main story playthrough if that is your concern. They are launched as standalone episodes from the main menu. But ofc they use your upgrades unlocked during your main game playthrough to some extent (some upgrades are unlocked and some aren't)

[ragnarok]

Yeah but remember DLCs don't always have to be separate stories. Some DLCs (like the Metro Exodus ones) have you play as different characters, while others (like the Marvel Spider-Man ones) continue with the same character.

For example, if we had known the Annihilation Instinct DLC was going to have you play as someone entirely different, the fans' reaction might be different. Of course, that too would affect how the fans' interest would be as time passes.

My gut feeling is that after the 2nd DLC passes, we may have a better idea as to when the remaining 2 DLCs would come out. If the developers see that the fans' interest is waning, they might try to push the remaining DLCs out faster. But that of course is assuming they never had a set schedule for the 4 DLCs' release in the first place.

[acowsik]

Originally posted by ragnarok:

Yeah but remember DLCs don't always have to be separate stories. Some DLCs (like the Metro Exodus ones) have you play as different characters, while others (like the Marvel Spider-Man ones) continue with the same character.

For example, if we had known the Annihilation Instinct DLC was going to have you play as someone entirely different, the fans' reaction might be different. Of course, that too would affect how the fans' interest would be as time passes.

My gut feeling is that after the 2nd DLC passes, we may have a better idea as to when the remaining 2 DLCs would come out. If the developers see that the fans' interest is waning, they might try to push the remaining DLCs out faster. But that of course is assuming they never had a set schedule for the 4 DLCs' release in the first place.

Am kinda keen on where the devs take the story with the next 3 DLCs.. the fact that they had alredy announced 4 DLCs even before the game released indicates they have already got a clear vision of things... hopefully the next DLCs bring even more interesting stuff...

Annihilation Instinct in terms of difficulty was definitely harder than the main game...

[ragnarok]

Well that's how it's supposed to be with DLCs. I'm willing to bet we'll have to confront Zakharov in one of them, since even in the Walk Away ending he still survived.

Oh yeah, one of the other reasons why games tend not to have this many DLCs would have to be the "time" factor. Even with open world games like Marvel's Spider-Man, you can see the "City never sleeps" DLC is much shorter compared to the base game.

Look at the Annihilation Instinct DLC, which is about 2.5-3 hours long, compared to 12-15 hours for the base game. Now, if we assume ALL the DLCs are the same length, then if you do the math you'll see that the DLCs together are about 10-12 hours long, almost as long as Atomic Heart itself.

If so, you'd think the fans would be asking "Well why didn't you just combine all 4 of them together into an expansion pack and just release that a year after the base game came out?"

[RanceJustice (Kyo)]

I will be very impressed if the developers maintain that each of the planned DLC will be "expansion/campaign" style, like the first one was. As I understand it, Annihilation Instinct expanded the story and is taking place after the end of the base game which is great to see, given the discussion I read about the varied ending choices. If the next 3 DLC are also campaign style, adding more story into the game world, trying some new mechanics, adding new weapons/gear etc.. that would definitely be something I'd like to support.

Regrettably, many games these days that launch with planned DLC "season/battle/expansion etc... Passes" fail to deliver on content heavy "expansions" for every update. Some of them are often something like cosmetics, or perhaps a less complex alternate game mode like a "survival / roguelike" etc.. with maybe only 1 or 2 of 4 scheduled DLC to be an expansion style story campaign. While there's nothing wrong with new cosmetics or alternate modes, I'd rather see that come in standard content patches or as bonuses instead of taking up whole "slots" in a DLC rollout schedule that could be better filled by denser content.

Should the remaining DLC all be content heavy "expansion" style, I think it would be received very favorably by potential buyers and reflect well on the devs. However, until we see evidence of what DLC2 will contain, everything is up in the air.

[ragnarok]

My hope is for at least one of the DLCs, we finally get to kill Zakharov as I'm not expecting him to lose with dignity. I'm also expecting something to be worked out between P-3 and Zinaida.