John-ShepardSome gamers see day-one downloadable content as a little suspicious; i.e., why am I paying extra for something that seemingly could've been included in the game?
But obviously, day-one DLC still seems to work, and BioWare views this tactic as a perfectly viable way of monetizing players. In speaking at GDC Europe and as summarized at Eurogamer , BioWare online development director Fernando Melo said that in point of fact, gamers want that extra stuff.
"Fans do want more content. From the moment the game launches. They tend to say 'I want it now!' So it needs to be there when it's ready. They choose when to pick it up, day one or later."
Mass Effect 3 launched alongside the From Ashes DLC pack, and the earlier gamers bought that extra content, the more dialogue options and content there was available for each squad member. Melo added that day-one DLC also makes sense from a development standpoint, because writers and concept artists who were finished with their work on the main game can just keep working on more content.
Further, Melo believes the Online Pass is just another iteration of day-one DLC, and says 11% of all revenue earned from Mass Effect 2 came from EA's Online Pass. He also said an "analogue" to the Pass system is free-to-play, which features a premium layer of service. But what's your take on the idea of DLC being available immediately upon a game's launch? And how's about "freemium?"
