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Squilliam on 17 June 2010
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MaxwellGT2000 said:


I skimmed the article but they DO claim some things are DLC when they are on the disc and the download simply unlocks them... but a lot of companies are doing this now, and downloading a code is still technically downloadable content, thats how the legal system would see it as well.  

Eh I say this very often, I HATE DLC!  I think DLC is the worst thing to happen to the game industry simply because previous generations "DLC" would be either things that would be on the disc from the store and required you to do some crazy stunt to unlock a skin for your character, or be a patch on PC games that would give you the new game update as well.  

That's simply how it worked and now it's about not only charging you 60 dollars a game but wanting to get even more by offering day one DLC that can be upwards of 10 dollars or more.


But DLC is another economic concept: Price discrimination. It means that people who are willing to pay more for a premium product pay more and people who are not willing to pay more get a more basic product. Its actually one of the better things added to the games industry because instead of charging $70  for the same content as an example they can charge $60 as the base price and $80-90 including DLC and provide extra value for those who want it whilst gaining extra revenue without putting off those who don't care for the frills.

You see it all the time in anything where the seller has a monopoly or close to it. The seller of any IP has a state mandated monopoly on that content and is therefore free to price discriminate. Its the reason why there are hard/soft cover books, the reason why Microsoft has 7 different versions of the same OS on the same disc and why DLC exists.

Btw I still don't agree with what Dice did here, however.



Tease.