Epic Games Comments about Gears of War 3 On Disk DLC

Some fans of Gears of War were disappointed to see that the developers at Epic Games had the time to create and include DLC on the game disk but still charge for it but a leading executive at the company says that his team is not ashamed of doing that.

Speaking to Kotaku about how DLC for Gears of War 3 was handled Rod Fergusson, who is an executive producer on the game, said, “We’re not saying that everything on the disc is the product. The disc is another delivery mechanism. We had begun DLC packs early enough, and with the extension to our schedule. It meant we had that stuff done before we shipped. We felt it was a win/win, because no one is going to have to download anything huge when the DLC comes out.”

He added, “I think the thing that makes it muddy for people is when it’s on the disc. We could have left it off and said, ‘Hey, here’s another disc.’”

Of course, Fergusson is ignoring the reality of digital distribution and the fact that putting content on the disk only to have it unlocked later after payment is a sign that video game developers have less and less trust in the long term interest of the player base.