Ono:DLC Just A New Form Of Something Already Existing

If we had to choose the single most controversial topic in today’s gaming industry, DLC would easily take the crown. The greed of some developers/publishers is despised on a daily basis by gamers all around the Web, leading to memes and the likes (an example can be the featured image we have chosen for our article, with Da Vinci’s Gioconda slowly cut away in smaller “DLCs”).

An interesting contribution came today from legendary developer Yoshinori Ono, known for his contribution to the Street Fighter series and today working on PS4 exclusive Deep Down. In an interview published on Capcom’s Investor Relations website, he expressed his belief that DLC is just the natural evolution of the sequel/expansion format.

DLC is essentially a form of paid service that enables users to continuously get the most out of their games. In the past we didn’t offer DLC, but instead sold sequels or updates as packaged versions. With a game like “Street Fighter”, we ended up releasing new packaged updates about three times a year. Reflecting back now, that sounds like a lot of updates for a packaged title, but basically that’s the idea behind DLC. I don’t think the emergence of DLC was something that came about suddenly, it’s just merely become easier to distribute additional elements and content on the computer system level. Basically, we’re seeing the new form of something that has existed all along.

I have to say that I understand his point of view. DLC, in itself, isn’t a product of the devil but just a way to add more content to games, which has been done since forever. The main difference is that DLC is distributed through Internet and as such, it can be broken in smaller chunks with less risk of failure for a publisher. This translates in some publishers choosing a more aggressive and, admittedly, more greedy strategy, but it is not necessarily the case of every title; there are quite a few examples of developers supporting their games with free DLC.

What’s your opinion on this heated argument? Are you with Ono or not? Let us know by adding a comment below.