Home Culture Press Start: The Cost Of DLC
Press Start: The Cost Of DLC

Press Start: The Cost Of DLC

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Press Start
Welcome back to your Monday dose of gaming culture. Before I jump right into this weeks’ topic I would just like to say a quick thank you. Over the last two weeks especially you guys have gotten very involved in the comments section below and have given some feedback on your opinions, with some agreeing and others disagreeing and I have to say I am so pleased to see that. For me, it means I didn’t bore you with what I was writing and you guys enjoyed it enough to interact. So please keep it up guys. I love interacting with you and that is a big part of why I started this column. That, and I like video gaming (sure who doesn’t?).
Let us get back to the topic at hand this week. This week’s topic we will be looking at DLC for games and if it’s worth the price or not. I’m choosing this topic as the last two weeks were very heavy loaded. There are two ways we can look at this; the first being that we buy a more expensive complete game at the start that could be anywhere up to €100 or, second of all, we can buy a standard €60 game and pay for all the extras later, if that is what we want. Obviously there are games that have 50 odd DLC add-ons that are all completely random little bits to add to your game and there are some games that offer a whole new mini game itself. These prices then, of course, vary with the little DLC being roughly €5 and the bigger content being anything up to €25.

The question I’m trying to ask today is more suited to the bigger DLC components as, let’s be honest, €5 for a small add-on isn’t really that much and you don’t necessarily want it anyway. However, what about that €25 add-on that offers you extra quests, maps, characters and even sometimes a continued or different story ending? This is where I want to delve in and explore because this is where you start spending bigger money after already spending €60 on the game.
Let us look at games such as Borderlands. I bought this game for roughly €40 and I bought all the DLC, which brought it up to €65. This, in my opinion, is well worth it and each add-on gave you at least 6 hours game play. It was also always a different story with new maps, characters, weapons and cars, which I thought was the best deal for DLC as it is priced just right and you get tones of extra content, all for the price of a normal priced game. However, looking at titles like Dragon Age: Inquisition, buying the game on its own is €80! Then there is the DLC. One DLC in particular is set at a hefty €15 which literally means you are just short of paying €100 for a game and one DLC. Going back to Borderlands, you get a game and at least six DLCs for €35 cheaper. €35 is a huge difference in money, especially for what you are getting.
I understand that DLC also has developers and people working away to create the content and people have to be paid (I wish we could live in a world where all games are free and never-ending but, hey, a gamer can dream). The people buying these games don’t have an endless supply of money. I know everyone has heard this over and over but it is hard times and people are trying to pay for all the other non-gaming necessities in their lives. So when it comes to buying what technically is a luxury item, people don’t want to be spending a tonne of money on top of an already expensive item, especially if the value is not worth their money.

There are, obviously, many other games with different pricing limits, but I just wanted to show what I think are the two limits that seem to be the lowest and highest in terms of price. Surely there is another way to make content with some of these games cheaper, especially since they don’t have to pay packing or shipping fees as it is all online with DLC these days. Another thing that gets me about this is some DLC that offer small things can be extremely expensive. For arguments sake, a solid gold gun for a game will be €10 and it does absolutely nothing other than it is gold. That didn’t require anything other than a quick colour change, but obviously that is more down to the developers or their partnered company such as Sony or Microsoft.
To sum up my review and opinion overall I think most DLC is priced very suitably but there is certain content out there, and I hate to say it, but it’s usually EA that just rip you off big time and give you very little for what you are paying for. Unfortunately, unless people stop paying and playing, which they wont, they will continue to charge what they want and we’re the poor chumps who will continue to pay for it.
What do you guys think? Do you agree with me? Are DLCs too expensive? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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