Kyle Orland:

This one issue causes a somewhat comical amount of frustration for a small segment of vocal gamers. They fill up comment threads and messages boards with outrage at the injustice of it all. Kotaku commenter TreyTable summed up the level of vitriol nicely when he described his reaction to on-disc DLC, “The best way to fight this trend is to put a company out of business, even Capcom. That’s how one can fight this bullshit.” Another commenter MarkoPolos put it more bluntly, “How about fuck Capcom?” But the most common complaints about on-disc DLC start to break down once you take a closer look at them.

I basically agree with his reasoning, but I think he misses the bigger point – DLC is how publishers have managed to raise game prices without creating a giant backlash. It’s a good thing for everyone. Developers who might otherwise be laid off have the opportunity to justify their continued paycheck. Consumers who don’t want the extra content aren’t forced to pay for it, and continue to pay the same retail prices they’ve been paying for the past three decades. The studios and publishers are able to appeal to a wider portion of the gamer spectrum by providing a way for those who love their game and are willing to pay more to see more of it to send them money, not to mention letting them tap into the used market to some extent. I’m not aware of any data on how DLC has affected the average total price paid by consumers for games this generation, but I suspect the model’s success is reflected in the enormous budgets companies have been investing in development.