How DLC Expansions Represent a More Sustainable Business Model for the Gaming Industry Than Developing Entire Sequels

Opening a sentence with something like ‘in a fast-paced market’ isn’t really my thing, but the ‘fast-paced’ thing is indeed true. DLC expansions have become more feasible in this race to churn out content. We can call them mini-sequels if you will.

There’s more feasibility in that. For one, they save a lot of cost for development. And when you are working on something you have already worked on, there’s really no basics. There’s a home advantage to developers when this is the case.

That’s a Better Option Than Developing an Entire Video Game

When major AAA experiences are failing in the market, developers should take one step at a time. Doing so will only help them think better and deliver an experience the audience will like. Only if they had treated Modern Warfare 3 as a DLC, it could have been a bigger success.

There’s a reason DLC expansions are becoming more popular. Companies have a better chance at monetization, especially if the game is already a hit among the community. There can be just cosmetics like those in Far Cry New Dawn or an entire new world like in the Shadow of the Erdtree.

Look at the recently announced Dying Light: The Beast. Yes it was supposed to be a DLC expansion for the second game; it became a standalone video game instead. There’s around 18 hours of gameplay in there. It is essentially a DLC but it is so large that we cannot really call it a DLC.

Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales falls under this category too. It is a spin-off and continues the story where the first game left off. Simon Rutter, Sony’s vice president, too, confirmed this in one interview. Maybe that is why it is often compared to The Lost Legacy.

Another game that arrived in the form of a DLC expansion would be Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Though the story, which takes place in an alternate history, wasn’t really on par with the expectations, it received pats on the back for its gameplay.

Some DLC expansions are lost in time now. Call of Duty: Ghosts brought Extinction which is far better than the Zombies story arc in the popular military shooter today.

AAA experiences today are failing to live up to the fans expectations, thanks to games like Astro Bot for saving the day. But these DLCs can serve as better options. They are fun, especially when we are talking about beloved video games like Marvel’s Spider-Man.

DLCs Expansions Will Stretch the Lifespan of a Video Game

Success isn’t guaranteed anywhere, even when it’s smaller DLC expansions we are talking about. Far Cry New Dawn did give the developers the opportunity to give the acclaimed series a post-apocalyptic world, but it wasn’t really a fun experience. There wasn’t really a turnaround for fans in it.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was also praised, but again, the narrative met with a negative reception. The way I see it, developers have ease working on the gameplay but the story isn’t really a cakewalk when it comes to expansions.

With the same tools and systems at your disposal, it is fairly easy to develop an expansion pack rather than diving entirely into a whole new world. Yes, there can be issues when adding new features but that isn’t really necessary until a need arises.

But these expansions can increase a game’s lifespan significantly. Of course quality matters there too. Otherwise, ‘Turning Point’ becomes really an end point for a game, similar to what we saw with Battlefield 2042. Even if the developers were able to repair the game, there wasn’t anywhere left for it to go.

The future for video game DLCs is bright. No doubt there will be free content but it can’t go on forever so we are going to have paid content slipping in for the audience. If the users are praising a free DLC for their beloved game, they are very likely to be paying for more.

The video game landscape is changing and developers would find it more feasible to keep a game alive for long than make a new one.

What do you think about the DLC expansions in video games? Do they have a sustainable future? We would like to know about it in the comments section below.