14 DAY TRIAL // How early is it too early to be talking about downloadable content for a videogame? It seems that the limit has just been set at seven months, as a representative of development studio Codemasters has talked about DLC plans for DiRT 2 even as the game is slated to come out no sooner than September 2009.
Gavin Raeburn, who is the senior executive producer at Codemasters, has stated for CVG that “We have plans to launch a number of small DLC packs soon after launch which players can use to personalize and augment the boxed game.” Raeburn has not made any comments on exactly what the DLC would contain and has not mentioned any price for the downloads.
It's interesting to see that the developers are thinking of what they can add to their game after release even during the development process, as they are still working on the final form of the game. It shows that more and more people in the videogame industry are beginning to understand that the loyalty of gamers can only be obtained by continuing to support a particular title after release through interesting and engaging new stuff.
The model that Codemasters should probably follow is that of Criterion. The developer has created a ton of new content for the open world racing game is has designed, Burnout Paradise. Only recently have they begun to charge money for the DLC that they released and only for those packages adding significantly to the game. One model that Codemasters should not follow is that of Skate 2 developer Black Box and publisher Electronic Arts. The first piece of DLC they put out was designed to open up the game and unlock all the content in the skating game.
Now, we can only hope to hear from developers announcing DLC for games that have not even been confirmed as in development yet. Thief 4, anyone?