EA Planning To Release Paid DLC Before Boxed Games

[Bushido]

According to Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, Visceral head Nick Earl has been talking up a new intiative being planned by EA to release paid DLC as a precursor to a finished boxed product.

The paid DLC would act as a sort of extended demo that would enable EA to gauge consumer reaction and the market potential of prospective games.

Pachter penned the following in a note to investors: "Mr. Earl revealed a strategy to release premium downloadable content (PDLC) as a product for sale prior to the release of a packaged product.

"The PDLC would be sold for $10 or $15 through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and would essentially be a very long game demo, along the lines of 2009’s Battlefield 1943. A full-blown packaged game would follow shortly after the release of the PDLC, bearing a full retail invalid.

"Mr. Earl believes that the release of the PDLC first limits the risk of completing and marketing the full packaged version, and serves as a low-cost marketing tool," he added.

The initiative is part of an overall strategy to save EA money, which includes their $10 initiative - successfully implemented in Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - as well as moving future development to cheaper locations such as Montreal and China, and their acquisition of casual games maker PlayFish.

"This time, we think that EA is on the right path," concluded Pachter.

Source: http://www.x360a.com/news/news-4709-EA- ... Games.html

My opinion:
Sure, make even more money of Games. Moneywh..es.

E: I felt like creating a topic for it.

[Kryptonyte]

[blinking]RAGE!!!!!!!![/blinking]

[Dekar]

I haven't seen any DLC I liked so far. The ones for Mass Effect 2 were total crap and barely integrated into the storyline. But I have no problem letting them do it - no one forces us to don't click me them. I might look into the Alan Wake DLC since the game was awesome and I think they might become nice. But usually DLC are just paid cheats and/or totally imbalanced. (Mass Effect 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3...) The gta4 ones are probably decent ones though, but I haven't played them yet.

[Bartimaeus]

Fallout 3 had a few nice ones. Mass Effect's pretty much sucked. Fable 2's sucked. Actually, scratch that - Fable 2 just sucked. The DLC was okay.

What else has DLC?

[Dekar]

About every second game available? One else I know is the Magic the Gathering DLC - it is around 100kb in size and unlocks some imbalanced card decks beating all other supplied decks hands down. It's only 100kb since they are included in the original game, you could play against them but never get them. -> Fail DLC