BioWare has piped up to justify the release of DLC for games on the very same day they're released. Mostly, according to them, it's about time.
Speaking to Ars Technica BioWare's Mass Effect 2 project director, Casey Hudson, said, "People may not be aware of it, and people may say if you have content available day one, why not put it onto disc? What goes out on disc, it takes about 12 weeks to debug and certify and get into the trucks to go out into stores. That gives us a period of 8 to 12 weeks where we can make content, but we can't put it onto the disc because it's already out there. But we can insert it digitally, day one."
That's two to three - count 'em, three - months between a developer finishing up a boxed game and release. Three months when they could be working on another project entirely, or they could be bringing you post-launch DLC.
'But, doesn't DLC have a long lead time, too?!' someone is crying, somewhere on the great wide Internet. "It's down to a matter of two or three weeks—it makes a big difference", Hudson said. So, that's that.
Of course, it's one thing when the DLC in question is free, as a huge great chunk of ME2 launch-day DLC was, but it's another when folk are having to pay for it. Remember Resident Evil 5's versus mode pack, anyone...?
(While we're on the subject of DLC outrage, can we all just take another moment to bear our teeth at 2K over the on-disc BioShock 2 'DLC'?)
Speaking to Ars Technica BioWare's Mass Effect 2 project director, Casey Hudson, said, "People may not be aware of it, and people may say if you have content available day one, why not put it onto disc? What goes out on disc, it takes about 12 weeks to debug and certify and get into the trucks to go out into stores. That gives us a period of 8 to 12 weeks where we can make content, but we can't put it onto the disc because it's already out there. But we can insert it digitally, day one."
That's two to three - count 'em, three - months between a developer finishing up a boxed game and release. Three months when they could be working on another project entirely, or they could be bringing you post-launch DLC.
'But, doesn't DLC have a long lead time, too?!' someone is crying, somewhere on the great wide Internet. "It's down to a matter of two or three weeks—it makes a big difference", Hudson said. So, that's that.
Of course, it's one thing when the DLC in question is free, as a huge great chunk of ME2 launch-day DLC was, but it's another when folk are having to pay for it. Remember Resident Evil 5's versus mode pack, anyone...?
(While we're on the subject of DLC outrage, can we all just take another moment to bear our teeth at 2K over the on-disc BioShock 2 'DLC'?)
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