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Naughty Dog Won’t Travel Down A Dangerous DLC Road

Call us biased, but just about everything we hear from Naughty Dog impresses us.

As you may or may not know, the developer doesn't plan to offer any single-player downloadable content for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception . Why? They'd rather work on a whole new game.

Game director Justin Richmond told Eurogamer that every time they tried to come up with a campaign expansion, they'd always devise a "five-hour level." Naughty Dog community strategist added- "Dialing back our ambition is difficult." And Richmond finished:

"We'd rather build out another game than we would do episodic content. We're so small that we can't afford to have a whole team working on DLC."

Naughty Dog remains small in comparison; they have a team of about 90 people, which is especially tiny when compared with other teams working on blockbuster projects. But the reason we say single-player DLC is a dangerous road should be obvious: it's a slippery slope; developers might start leaving out more and more content to release it later as paid DLC.

Some have accused designers and publishers of doing this before, but it's mostly limited to the multiplayer modes, which are ever-evolving experiences anyway. When it comes to single-player, no gamer wants a gimped adventure because the game makers got this episodic idea in their heads. No, we'll get the full entertainment package with Uncharted 3 and we appreciate that.

Related Game(s): Uncharted 3

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Him
Him
12 years ago

Now these guys are just plain awesome. Thank you so much for not going to the DLC path.

Yukian
Yukian
12 years ago

I've never played any Uncharted… From what I've heard and read about them I know that I should be whipped a thousand times for each game… I'll do it someday…

But is this a subtle hint that they may make another Uncharted (excluding the PSV one)?…

Helghast
Helghast
12 years ago

Same with me. Even my Xbox friends yell at me for not playing Uncharted. I was going to pick up the Uncharted dual pack to beat the first 2, then get U3, but some stuff came up and I just cant afford to do that right now. I will get to it someday.

shadowscorpio
shadowscorpio
12 years ago

Beautiful. Hope devs follow suit.

Alienange
Alienange
12 years ago

Episodic DLC… I wasn't mad at it until Assassin's Creed II. Sure Prince of Persia cut out the ending and sold it later, but only after buying the first ACII DLC did I realize what a rip off this was. Thankfully ND is not going this route. They've got class and that's why I like them.

Lawless SXE
Lawless SXE
12 years ago

Great to hear. That being said though, I feel that an episodic route would be excellent for some games… Kind of like how it was handled in Siren: Blood Curse. And SP DLC isn't so bad when it's done properly, as it was in Enslaved with the Pigsy's Perfect Ten expansion or whatever it was.

Add obligatory complaint about not having access to any SP DLC and I'm out.
Peace.

thj_1980
thj_1980
12 years ago

Well Fallout 3 broken steel is an example of poor choice.

New Vegas too since I hear you cannot continue the game after you beat the final level, so make sure to make multiple saves.

wenezz
wenezz
12 years ago

im gonna go and get my tv, ps3, and a couch and occupy time square…. yaow!!!

Lawless SXE
Lawless SXE
12 years ago

Uhh… do you ever make any sense? I don't think that I've yet read a comment that's, you know, relevant.

frostface
frostface
12 years ago

He makes perfect sense. Unfortunately because of shitty media in America, most Americans either haven't heard of, or get the down played version, of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which the rest of the world knows more about.

If I was stateside right now that's were I'd be.

Lairfan
Lairfan
12 years ago

I'm surprised the rest of the world hasn't figured out how much of a fraud it is yet. Considering their media is "so much better."

TheAgingHipster
TheAgingHipster
12 years ago

These guys are a class act if I ever saw one. Good on ya, Naughty Dog. Thanks for not nerfing Uncharted.

firesoul453
firesoul453
12 years ago

This is so awesome!!

I am so glad that they are not making single player DLC!!!

Eld
Eld
12 years ago

This is something I can respect and appreciate.

dmiitrie
dmiitrie
12 years ago

I know I'm in the minority here, but with certain exceptions (like zero-day), I like DLC. I think it's a good thing when a developer is still adding new content to a game 3, 6, or even 12 months after release.

Plus, with the quality that Uncharted always displays, I'd be very willing to pay a little extra for an additional 5 hours.

Riku994
Riku994
12 years ago

Off topic, this is the 10,000th article…

Lawless SXE
Lawless SXE
12 years ago

Well I'll be…

Ludicrous_Liam
Ludicrous_Liam
12 years ago

..damned. How about a 1001th article to celebrate!?

clockwyzebkny
clockwyzebkny
12 years ago

I have to praise ND for being thoughtful to the consumers Not a lot of developers think this way
On the other hand DLC SOMETIMES is beneficial. My ideal DLC would have been more episodes to play in Heavy Rain But we all know how that turned out….

Qubex
Qubex
12 years ago

What a ticklish statement… I am grinning from ear to ear… awesome Naughty Dog… I have Uncharted 3 in my sights on the 1st day of sale…

I hope the Dog starts on Uncharted 4!

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

Twistedfloyd
Twistedfloyd
12 years ago

I'd love some single player U3 DLC. Am I the only one? Only thing is that it would dwarf U3 and that's one thing I DO NOT WANT! So if ND was bigger, and they had a separate team doing it, I'd totally be down. But since they don't, and it would make U3 not as good as it could be, then there's no reason for it.

So good on ND for not doing this with the team that they have. It'd be ludicrous to sabotage the sequel to one of the greatest games of all time with thrown together DLC for a little bit of extra money.

Can't wait for U3!

Lairfan
Lairfan
12 years ago

This is an excellent way to look at it. ND once again shows their class and their dedication to giving us a full and complete single player experience. Keep up the good work ND.

Nas Is Like
Nas Is Like
12 years ago

Since when is DLC bad, especially when it's free?

I didn't expect some of the responses in here to be like that. I for one have no problem with DLC. It's all just optional (key word here) extra content that is either free or costs a bit of money, usually not too much, to be able to enjoy the game even more. I for one am all for it. I remember in the Gran Turismo 5 update article Ben had a few weeks ago some people said they're gonna go back to the game and play it again because of the DLC. And what's wrong with that? Nothing.

Gabriel013
Gabriel013
12 years ago

I don't mind dlc released many months after the game hits the stores because that is another tool to help deter gamers from trading in their old titles.
ND also shouldn't rule out the scope for expanding the existing stories.

That being said, I support the focus on making whole games.

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