14 DAY TRIAL // Burnout Paradise is still going strong and it's mostly due to the way Criterion understood to offer extra content for its arcade racing videogames. Immediately after the release of Burnout, the development team stated that it planned to launch a lot of new content for the title for quite some time.
A lot of developers are making such claims, but few deliver on them. Criterion was one of the few companies that understood that it needed to create brand loyalty before it could extract more revenue from its fans.
So, for almost one year, all the updates for Burnout Paradise, ranging from new cars to fresh game modes and even the addition of motorbikes as raceable vehicles, were free. Players understood that something good was given to them, so the game saw constant playtime, with a lot of people enjoying multiplayer matches and with copies of the title still being sold.
Now, it seems that Criterion has moved to a new model. It has released a boxed copy of the game, including all the previous updates, and has brought Burnout Paradise to the PC. It has also made downloadable content with a price tag attached.
The upcoming Cops and Robbers DLC, which is set to offer no less than 33 new police cars, shaped after those used in various countries, will apparently cost 800 Microsoft Points, which is 10 dollars in real world money, when it is released on April 30. The fans of the videogame, who have long received such things for free, might be put off by the rather high price.
Criterion is also creating a new content pack, called Big Surf Island, which is set to add a whole new area for racing. It currently has no date attached but it will probably also cost 10 dollars when it arrives.