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In our modern age of online-capable gaming consoles, downloadable content (DLC) is becoming increasingly common. There’s no denying this fact. But is this a positive trend? On the outside, it would appear so. DLC allows developers to continually provide their users with new content for games that might otherwise be put back on the shelf quickly after their release. In theory, it’s a wonderful system to potentially add a great deal of longevity to a game over time. Unfortunately, developers don’t always use this concept in a way that’s fair to their users. That’s right. DLC has a dark side.

I remember when Beautiful Katamari came out for Xbox 360, several news sites were reporting that DLC that included entirely new stages were contained in a file too small to be the stages themselves. The files were most likely doing nothing more than unlocking existing content already on the disc. This wasn’t the first time a situation like this occurred, but it received added attention due to the fact that buying all the DLC would move the game from “budget title” status to the normal sixty dollar price tag. It was a game of deception.

Sadly, this kind of practice is becoming commonplace. Games are getting released the same day as their first DLC pack, at times. Things that in days past would be unlocked as a reward for your actions in the game, are now unlocked by how much extra money is in your wallet.

Worse still, DLC is even used sometimes to manipulate our actions. Soul Calibur IV had console “exclusive” characters. The Xbox 360 version had Yoda and the PS3 version had Darth Vader. Despite that there was clearly a space for the absent Star Wars character of your choice on the character selection screen, the game’s director, Katsutoshi Sasaki, states that they had no plans to bring the absent players to their respective versions through the use of DLC. People desperate enough to play as both Yoda and Vader bought both versions of the game. They were in for a surprise. Months later, new Soul Calibur IV DLC was released that contained the absent characters. This just happened to fill the suspicious empty spaces from earlier. Now why would they say they had no plans to do something if they already prepared for it in advance? Hmm.

Another example of this manipulation, though much less severe, is Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Their DLC packs are all free. Truly they must be generous to give us new content for free, right? First off let’s take a look at the content itself. Each new pack contains a new support character to be used in Vs mode.  So what’s wrong with that? Well, as you progress through the single player story mode, you will take on the role of several different characters in the battles. In some of these battles, your support characters are people that will later be released as DLC. All the DLC will do is allow you to use these support characters in Vs mode battles instead of the specific story mode battles featuring them.

What is the advantage of holding back this already existing content if no money is even exchanged for it? I wondered that myself, that is, until I read Dave’s article on used games. Think about it. If that content was unlocked through normal progression of the game, somebody could blow through the single player, unlock everything, and exhaust those new multiplayer features in a relatively short amount of time. After this, they might trade in the game for something new, allowing the next guy to pick up the used copy at a reduced price. As Dave pointed out in his article, the developer sees none of this money. If the developer lures the purchaser of their game to hold on to it because free DLC is coming, the amount of used copies on store shelves would be lessened.  Now it’s all coming together.

This is not to say that all DLC is bad. The rhythm genre, for example, has legitimately been able to provide its fans with new songs to rock out to as additional copyrights are acquired. Games like Little Big Planet are able to add entirely new gameplay mechanics such as the “paintinator” featured in the Metal Gear Solid pack. DLC can truly be a wonderful thing. But sadly, some developers are going to continue abusing this system of exchange and frankly, I don’t see a light at the end of that tunnel.