Відео

I love expansions, personally. I love when im able to come back to a game i love and have new experiences.

Do you lore secret about anthem? Was the shaper secret ever fleshed out?

I love DLCs and was bummed Veilguard isn't getting any, though I do understand why, but DLCs have really fun potential and I always want more

I feel like a good story dlc or expansion pack feels like a love letter to the fans. The studio shipped their game, they made their money, fans are already happy and then they can focus on additional content within a finished framework and really focus on a dense story ark. But there are still a lot of ways to fuck this up via price/scope/unsatisfying/disappointing. I really like them but I also see how they don't seem to be interesting for a publisher when a new fifa/EA FC player pack generates more money

Do you think marketing plays a role? like you aren't going to do a marketing push for a small DLC but you might for a expansion pack 'size' of thing? I think we have seen 'relaunches' from things like TV shows; and the Expansion might be another way to try and capitalize on that. I'm also wondering if build process and support costs factor in. Like if you have a game that has 25 possible DLC configurations; QA is going to be more expensive as they have to test for all those configurations. Also how expensive is it to maintain the builds and make sure they aren't breaking (even if its just the automated stuff)? Further more I'm wondering if DLC is getting remade into cosmetics and microtransactions in in-game stores. First of all, selling currencies 'gems' has like the best return on investment, and cosmetics are often just something you can get through the store. I know it might sound strange to try and do that with a single player game but well that hasn't stopped Ubisoft from trying. And even if it is only in a publishers online catalog... its probably better to focus talent to microtransactions instead of small DLCs. anyway; I'm probably just thinking too much.

I love major DLC's. Tiny mtx packs? Not so much.

First of all i want to thank you Mark and BioWare for amazing game(VailGuard)i m at the beginning of ACT 1 and i love it.Second i always buy DLCs and Expansions for games what i like or love for the story but i buy cosmetics too(but not Japanese DLC cosmetics because they cost like fuill game LOL)im sad that VailGuard will not get story DLC but i hope we will get DA5 sometime in future

Pokemon yellow lol

There definitely is an opportunity cost considering a lot big RPG studios have multiple projects going on but looking across the industry I think CDPR abd FROMSoft have done expansion-sized DLC with Phantom Liberty and Shadowbof the Erdtree but I do think your right that there is less of a trickle of smaller DLC.

I wish there were more expansion dlcs, games just take WAY too long to make and its annoying to wait another 5-8 years with little to nothing in between for the next game from our favorite devs. Like Cyberpunk was supposed to have more expansion DLCs but they ended up axing them and pouring the resources back into the witcher 4 and cyberpunk orion, its been 4 years since cyberpunk and we still dont have any of those games in sight, last time i checked neither of those games are in full production which is kinda sad. Same thing with Veilguard i doubt there will be any big update with ME 5 any time soon or even the next 2 years for that matter. I think Idsoftware handled this the best with Doom eternal constantly having updates by constantly adding master levels, a brand new horde mode, constant new skin updates that you get by completing challenges and 2 expansion dlcs which ended up shaping it into my favorite FPS game of all time.

Mr. Darrah, It's always enjoyable to hear your perspective on the game industry and development! Thanks you!

Another big piece of evidence in this might be Spider-Man 2. It looks like they had one or more DLCs planned, but they ultimately decided against it. Part of that was obviously the leak, but they also clearly judged that it wasn't worth it economically.

I think you're on to something. Story DLC has had this problem where if it's very relevant to the game's universe it's criticized for being "required" or "should have been in the base game" because we think of DLC as optional content. Notably Trespasser for Inquisition and From Ashes for Mass Effect 3 received this criticism. But if you make story DLC that's not very relevant to the universe it's not as interesting to the players. Expansion packs were generally marketed more like a new chapter of the game, so there was an expectation that an expansion pack would include story that is essential to the game's universe.

I prefer DLCs/Expansion packs without it we wouldn't have the Trespasser DLC in Dragon Age Inquisition or other previous DLCs I loved from DA 2 and DAO. I think if there is added DLC and the ability to add mods you make a lot of players very happy. BG3 just got way more interesting with mod capabilities.

There's been an expected amount of DLC for Starfield (smaller Creations and Shattered Spaces with more to come). I don't see anything about Bethesda modernizing for better or worse. lol

I do think that small DLCs have just borne out as not making sense in economics of scale. Bethsoft seems to have switched largely to things that are at least mini-expansions, CD Projekt seems to have shifted to them between the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk's semi-expansions. It seems from an outsider's perspective like small pieces of content still have a lot of inherent cost in production that doesn't scale down to their size. I do think RPGs in particular work worse with small bites of content, the core loop of an RPG bears out over a long period so a good small piece of DLC is harder to make work, not that BioWare didn't do good work with DA and ME's content. I've noticed that even Japanese companies have been doing this, Final Fantasy 7 Remake only had one mini expansion, Rebirth had none, Final Fantasy 16 had two mini expansions that aren't quite "expansion pack" sized, but are bigger than the old DLCs we used to see in the late 00s. I can't help but feel like DLC has ended up making the most sense at live service endless cosmetics and larger pieces that are in a space almost in between old DLCs and old expansion packs. BTW loving Dragon Age the Veilguard, I wish I could tell the team what a great job I think they did but i hope a positive sentiment is reaching them.

I would love to work back on expansions, they had good balance of being big enough to have enough time for some impressive stuff but also not being too big to invite feature creep and the inevitable "we have a map twice as big as the previous game and 16 times the detail".

I remember Skyrim (13 years ago) having just three DLCs, two expansion-sized (comparable in size and content to Morrowind's two boxed expansions) and a smaller house building DLC. It was the exception at that time compared to BioWare's releases and Fable 3. Though The Witcher 2 didn't have any paid DLC at all as it was bundled into free content updates to lure players in after a rocky launch. CDPR were more anti-DLC at the time too. Do you think this practice over time lead to slower initial adoption as players learned they could just wait for a "complete" version? Sometimes I wonder if this is what lead to such a strong focus on pre-order bonuses including post-release DLCs.

I don’t mind whatever they decide but Mark I don’t think I can wait another ten years between stories!!! 😅

I like story dlc's and expansion packs. Never cared about cosmetic stuff.

That is sad. Sometimes Story Dlc's feel like true sequels that we don't get much of anymore. But i am very excited for Mass Effect. I liked the writers of Dragon Age as persons in podcasts and interviews... but I hope Mary DeMarle will be the most involved in the writing for Mass Effect.. i found myself wanting to go back to Baldur's Gate 3 while playing Veilguard and i currently am playing BG.. i felt the same while playing Andromeda.. that game made me leave it mid playtrough and replay the Trilogy..

I think the Witcher 3 definitely mixed it up - lots of free 'dlc', mainly cosmetic stuff, and then 2 large expansion packs (blood and wine could easily have been the witcher 4 and I don't think people would've complained). I love that but understand the implications. Following the apparent 'no dlc for Veilguard', which is fine (and I've not completed Veilguard yet, but am really enjoying it), I hope there will be an expansion pack (I'm hoping it would revolve around Morrigan and the HoF and what they've been up to) :) Haha a dream, love these games!

(Pa)Trick Weekes and his team of writers along with Corinne Busche and some other names ruined Dragon Age. All we wanted was to slay ugly and scary darkspawn and Gods and maybe save the world.. have the ability to roleplay as any kind of protagonist you want to be. Be defeated but rise, have good companions and maybe be betrayed. Finding good well written characters that inspire us. Travel to Thedas and get a better understanding of the great lore written and created by some genius minds in the past. What we got? A disney Pixar looking Dragon Age that instead of being inspired by Fantasy and it's past, it is inspired By twitter/reddit/tumblr politics and self politics/agendas and self problems inserted in the game .

I bought all the dlc for fallout 4 far harbor was better than the main story. If game company's are deliberately holding back content so they can make more money selling as a dlc then that's not good but if the dlc is a genuine after thought because they have come up with an idea later after the game has been released and I really want more out of the game also I think it can be good. Although I won't waste my money or time if it's just 1 hour of extra game or weapons pack or clothing.

I always wanted the old way of expansion packs. Now a day I would not call them that anymore. For me an expansion pack is a hard copy of an expansion, for a game I have a hard copy of. But on the other side, the line between DLC and microtransaction are a bit blurred. If I could wish anything I want. I would first get rid of all this pre-order stuff. Imo is it harming the players that lost trust in your studio. Harming them is not the way to get the trust back. Then I want a complete game. One that feels really finished. This will take the most work, but it will pay of Imo. Because after that game, I would love a new expansion of the map, and a new story every year. Make it half price of the base game, as all the elements are already there. And do this every year, until the new game comes out. I know you need real good story writers for this. But look at Genshin Impact. If it works for a free to play game, how could it fail for a RPG?

I like the chunky DLC’s myself. I don’t do live service games, and for me to play a dlc, like you said, it needs to be relevant enough for me to put down what I’m doing. I really like hearing your insights.

I would suspect that another contributing factor is that mobile games and popular gacha games (like Hoyoverse stuff) made core Console/PC audience much more sensitized and weary of small and cosmetic DLCs. In addition to rising costs, people likely buy less of them because of negative emotional connotations.

I love the idea of an expension pack sized DLC, like Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty, ot witcher 3: blood and stone. I think Ubisoft also does this pretty well in modern AC games, and Far cry games. also sony's horizon games. I liked the idea of adding sizable content with some more game mechanic and story. In this regard I think bathesda is going backward, pushing for more smaller story content and paid mods with inflated prices. like paying 7 dollars for one bounty mission with broken reward. Even their most recent "expansion" was a bit light on main story content, and lacked any meaningful story or gameplay impact. On the other hand I think Trespasser from Dragon age inquisition is some of the best expansion sized DLC available, it expanded the lore, introduced a new sympathetic villain, the best soundtrack in the series. Tespasser is so good It definitely a most own for the story of inquisition to feel complete, but off course that can be dangerous having an essential part of the story locked behind a DLC.

In the case of Baldur's Gate 3 their success has established themselves in the gaming community and they no longer need to lose a portion of their revenue to that license but rather move on to creating their own IP like they said. Like what CD Projekt Red did with The Witcher to Cyberpunk 2077. As for everyone else I got to remembering what you said about developers being sick of working on the same thing and since games are taking longer to make they surely would be extra sick if they had to work on a DLC. Dreadwolf/Veilguard took 10 years so they must be super sick by now.

Yay another video from you!!! Love these, they make my day! 😊

I think we passed the DLC age and arrived at the remaster/definitive edition age.

If we go back to "smaller number, larger experience" type of DLC, I'm fine with that. A concern I have is that it's a further continuation of the issues plaguing the (western) AAA industry - that games are taking longer and longer to make and release, due to the cost of graphical fidelity, the need to throw everything at every game because studios can't take a single flop etc. One of the things that was nice about DLC is you had that period of a year or so where a studio would be giving you new experiences before they needed to go dark again to focus on full development for their next title. Veilguard is a huge game, admittedly, but we might not hear anything from BioWare for another 4-5+ years until next Mass Effect is ready.

I definitely feel like as DLC have gotten larger in scope over time, the terms 'DLC' and 'Expansion Packs' have started to blend together into one. Maybe an exception to this is the Sims franchise that seems to adhere to it's pack nomenclature fairly strictly. I'd be very curious to see how the attachment rate for a simulation game like the sims compares to an RPG. But yeah it's pretty clear that the DLC model has diminishing returns as scope (and player expectations of scope) increases. I am very eager to see what the future of non live service games holds. It is still pretty refreshing to see the AAA space move away from the "everything needs to be live service/live service adjacent" space which seemed to be so prevalent in the mid 2010s. I'm a little disappointed we're not going to have more story content for DA:V. Guess I'm just going to have to replay it to scratch that itch. :) Thanks for posting, as always.

I do love a good story DLC, I think 1-2 is enough though. One thing I really miss from bit more olden times gaming is the the modding tools given to players, like they had with Dragon Age Origins. That tool is/was 10/10! It gives such longevity for a game and fans an outlet to show their love. I used to make my headmorphs in the toolset and import them into the game to create a custom playercharacter. Inquisition, most likely rather accidentally, also did a service for fandom for having one skin texture that was only shared by 1 npc, the elf woman who is there when you wake up after the prologue. I just started with Veilguard and I gotta say what they did with hair is spectacular! No spoilers xD I'm only couple hours in!

I like the great 'meaty' ones....it's gives the feeling " i get something for my money", a reason to play the game again, another point of view (per ex. Trespasser), ....i would per ex. skins not really see as dlc( even it is)....but i not play live Service games.

Always preferred big expansion packs, as someone who got into PC gaming in 2006/2007 as DLCs were starting to become standard I've also noticed a trend of some big singleplayer games continuing to improve upon the base game with free yet significant content updates post-launch, the most notable examples being No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk, and most recently BG3 added quite a bit of content (expanded endings, additional dialogues, etc) via free updates. ME3's free Ending DLC comes to mind as well. I wonder if Cyberpunk's recent expansion would have been a feasible product if CDPR hadn't first rehabilitated the base game's reputation with so many major gameplay updates post-launch.

That's not always a good thing.. Andromeda was in desperate need of more story dlc especially about the "quarian arc" side of things and maybe more story growth to the Ryder twins...that probably would've made the game better the same as tresspaser made inquisition better and made the Inquisitor better gave them more depth. In this instance the dlc was the nutella on a pancake. It made the food better For Veilguard though.. i am kinda happy that they are moving on to Mass Effect and the tweets about the mature tones give me some hope... So far I am about 20 hours in Veilguard and i find the story good but the writing, dialogue, companions and the tone a bit lacking.. but I am still have fun with the lore&combat and visuals and that carries the game so far.. But I don't think i would want more of this game at the end

My sense is that 1-2 hour story DLCs probably cost more to develop than their price point is worth. They still come with brand new levels, occasionally some new gameplay mechanic, cosmetics, voice acting, etc. It shouldn't generally cost exponentially more on the dev/design team to take that story DLC and give it more game hours, especially since they get to charge 3x the price. I believe it is more resource effective to have 1 expansion with a new game world than 3 story DLCs each with bite-sized game worlds, since those 3 bite-sized worlds still have to be unique from one another. This means stretching your creativity and dev time, vs simply expanding on something you're already working on.

Expectations are even higher now with Phantom Liberty (Cyberpunk) and Shadow of the Erdtree (Elden Ring). Just look at the comparisons people were making when Shattered Space (Starfield) came out and it wasn't nearly as grand.

From a purely consumer perspective , i always enjoyed post release content like addons and dlcs. More often then not it turned out be the best parts of the game. I also like it when a developer uses post game content to experient with new directions like a harder or more story dense expansion knowing that the audience will be mostly fans of the base game.

All my fav games have DLC, so i'm pro DLC, more story was always the best❤

I like dlc😊

I'm not a fan of dlcs. I dont want to return to a game that I played a year ago to pick it up again. Still haven't touched Iki Island, Burning Shores etc. I also just generally don't approve of paying for things that should be a basic feature of the game (like how all the cool weapons in AC valhalla cost money). I vote with my wallet

So this Taash character doesn't like necromancers so it is incapable of addressing the necromancer of the group by his name or title, instead it gives him disrespectful nicknames like "death mage" and "corpse guy" meanhwile of course demanding the use of proper pronouns from everyone otherwise she gets angry and Isabela has to do push ups to feel sorry and apologise. The writing in this gane is so weak, shame for a Triple AAA Bioware game. The writers from Bioware and not only seem that they can't separate personal issues with their work. David Gaider and many others are very missed by the OG community.

Thanks for your insight

So far it hasn’t cracked 100k active on steam, PS might / probably did better… I think it’s likely around 600k-1M sold. Believe PS store and steam take 30% cut…game in development for 10 years, minimum 200M development cost + marketing…it’s going to be difficult to break even for this game.

I hope they will never touch DA:O. There should be some laws that prevent degraded devs to remake and change masterpiece.