Point of free DLC

[Bikanel desert]

Some games have free DLCs with things like extra weapons or costumes or stuff like that.

But why not just put those in the game to begin with? Is there a reason

Just curious

[Mad Scientist]

Usually because it comes out / is created after the game releases, so it's a higher version than "1.0".

Day 1 however, that makes no sense. Nor does Day 1 for-purchase DLC (as that clearly should be included in the game)

[Wolf Knight]

Patch = you have it and you cant turn it off, does not matter if you wanted it nor if you like it, its now part of the game no matter how much you may hate it.

DLC = looks nice on the store page saying FREE DLC, and you can turn off the DLC if you want. you also dont have to take the free dlc if you dont want it at all.

[Bikanel desert]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Usually because it comes out / is created after the game releases, so it's a higher version than "1.0".

Day 1 however, that makes no sense. Nor does Day 1 for-purchase DLC (as that clearly should be included in the game)

Right... But many games receive updates that add extra items/areas etc.

I guess it's just a choice that some devs make

[Bikanel desert]

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

Patch = you have it and you cant turn it off, does not matter if you wanted it nor if you like it, its now part of the game no matter how much you may hate it.

DLC = looks nice on the store page saying FREE DLC, and you can turn off the DLC if you want. you also dont have to take the free dlc if you dont want it at all.

Agree for "big" things but how much can you hate, or how much trouble can an extra optional helmet or cosmetic item can be?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Bikanel desert:

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Usually because it comes out / is created after the game releases, so it's a higher version than "1.0".

Day 1 however, that makes no sense. Nor does Day 1 for-purchase DLC (as that clearly should be included in the game)

Right... But many games receive updates that add extra items/areas etc.

I guess it's just a choice that some devs make

A fair amount of popular games do that, others do skins/purchase based DLC (usually cosmetic and not game breaking advantage items) in order to keep the game changing and allow more creativity, or a "just because" DLC (purchase or free).

I get what you're saying though, why not just merge it? Who knows, probably what Wolf Knight said. Sometimes "FREE" really does get more attention.

[Bikanel desert]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Originally posted by Bikanel desert:

Right... But many games receive updates that add extra items/areas etc.

I guess it's just a choice that some devs make

A fair amount of popular games do that, others do skins/purchase based DLC (usually cosmetic and not game breaking advantage items) in order to keep the game changing and allow more creativity, or a "just because" DLC (purchase or free).

I get what you're saying though, why not just merge it? Who knows, probably what Wolf Knight said. Sometimes "FREE" really does get more attention.

[Crazy Tiger]

I can imagine developers use it to check interest in such things. Amount of people who added it to the game can give a nice indication, I think.

[Bikanel desert]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

I can imagine developers use it to check interest in such things. Amount of people who added it to the game can give a nice indication, I think.

Good point actually

[Chompman]

Some people may not want additional content in their base game if it's not required.

Also merging "free dlc" will change the games version and can have issues for multiplayer if the games need to be the same version across multiple game launchers or cross play with consoles.

[Bikanel desert]

Originally posted by Chompman:

Some people may not want additional content in their base game if it's not required.

Also merging "free dlc" will change the games version and can have issues for multiplayer if the games need to be the same version across multiple game launchers.

True. But what I mainly had in mind were single player games and small "inconsequential" dlc like a cosmetic item.
Think nier replicant for example, where they put the automata costumes as free dlc when it could have been just an ingame option.
So I just wondered if there was a technical or other reason for it.

[Drab]

It's advertising for the base game.

[crunchyfrog]

There can be a whole host of reasons why this happens.

As others have said, apres-release it can simply be stuff that wasn't there originally (and as art departments are usually the first teams to finish on game development this isn't unusual).

But you will also see games get these right up front.

Some reasoning is very simple - they will often be sweeteners for pre-orders and "day1" buyers. Other times they could be exclusives for certain retail outlets.

If you think about this it becomes easy to see why they'd do this - statistics.

If you want to work outhow effective a certain retailer or method of sale is, then you bung something exclusive in their version and watch to see how many times it gets downloaded.

Often with the "day 1" and pre-order bonus stuff these continue way after release. As I buy a lot of games on the cheap, especially on other platforms, I will regularly buy, say PS4 games that are unusued and still have their day 1 DLC available.

In fact, the exclusive per store thing went even further back than the days of DLC too. Many PS1 games, especially games like NASCAR games had exclusive store-related contect. Although they were dealt out by means of a pre-baked in unlock code. So ALL versions of the game had them, but only the outlets applicable published them.

There's also other small promotional reasons too.

Right here on Steam many years ago, one of the first seasonal sales that offered certain freebies if you bought enough games involved this. There were a number of indie games especially that had individual and unique bits of DLC should you meet each threshold.

For example, Beat Hazard had a gold ship skin, purely aesthetic. Zombie Driver HD had a couple of bits of DLC that were just maps. They were pretty neat.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Bikanel desert:

Some games have free DLCs with things like extra weapons or costumes or stuff like that.

But why not just put those in the game to begin with? Is there a reason

Just curious

Time. And Hindsight. Are common reasons.

When things get oput into DLC or expacks it tends to be stuff that had to be cut from the base development due to budget/time constraints. It's basically an answer to the development problem of feature creep. The core game is defined, and certified, for release date and everything else is added as dlc which has its iown development cycle.

Hindsight is also a factor. SImp[ly put. They might honestly not have thought of it at the time. When DLC is done well it can feeel like it was always meant to be a part of the game. This is an illusion created by good design. Much in the same way the illusion that something was always meant to be a trilogy or saga is created by writers. When done right. When done wrong it can feel disjointed and tacked on.

Resource Management is also another thing. DLC Is also a way to break in new dev team hires,, and to keep existing dev teams productive between major projects. It makes a great entry point for new team members because the systenms, lore, aesthetics, etc have already been codified allowing them to focus on gameplay, level,, or item design. Basically they are mini-devoprojects.

Why give it away free? PR, and user engagement.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Usually because it comes out / is created after the game releases, so it's a higher version than "1.0".

Day 1 however, that makes no sense. Nor does Day 1 for-purchase DLC (as that clearly should be included in the game)

DLC like that is often developed after a game goes gold. As in, it's ready for certification by all platform holders so they cannot add content into that build anymore.

Certification can be lengthy, thus development teams have extra time to create additional content. Being smaller in size than the base game, that content can also be finished in time to get certification inline with the release of the base game.

[Nepgear]

One reason is it saves some disk space for people who don't want the weapons or costumes or whatever. A notable example would be the high resolution texture pack free dlc for rainbow six siege which is >30GB and only useful for ultra setting on a high res display. It's nice to not have to download that if you don't want it or can't use it.