Overheard@GDC: The Cliff Bleszinski Pie Analogy

If companies were to call it what it truly is (ULC- unlockable content), I bet consumers wouldn't be so quick to gobble up the pie, let alone pick up the fork.

Damn this narrow vision of theirs. Games without DLC are not becoming "rare," he's just looking at the sector of the industry he occupies

Aside from the fact that its not going to endure. DLC "hooks" are not something the consumer wanted or asked for, and when the industry figures out they have no impact on sales at all, they will go away.

"And sometimes theres a third, even deeper level, thats the same as athe first"

"What?"

"Like with DLC"

Summary: We're going to milk you for as much as we can with DLC, and if you don't like it go fork yourself.

Then that's a fairly expensive fork.


The fork should be $20.

This isn't a poor analogy, just a disturbingly telling one. This, clearly, is how the game industry sees DLC, which is itself a response to getting massive amounts of profits taken away from under their noses by GameStop. If you want to do something, however small, to encourage the industry to change, buy your games new and don't buy DLC. Not that I think what these game companies are doing is good or even excusable. I'm not paying $60 for a goddamn fork, I'm paying $60 for the pie.

The fork is your money, and the pie is more of your money.

Too many forks are being released this spring for me to bother worrying about keeping this one for Cliff's pie

Hot damn you people are whiners. If you don't like DLC, you don't have to buy it. And get off this stupid notion that you're getting less game because of it. Even without buying any DLC we still have more AAA, incredible titles than we can even keep up with these last few years. They are all deeper, and just as long as they've ever been (inevitable that's what she said coming).

It's not like the DLC is the stuff that we used to get for free. No SF game has ever had alternate costumes before. None of the numbered Resident Evil games have ever had MP before. Fallout 3 and Oblivion were 50 hour games before any of the DLC, AC2 was already twice as long as AC1 before any of the DLC, etc etc.

Yeah, I don't like hooks of any kind. Assassins Creed II felt incomplete and all these add ons just piss me off. Give me a full expansion pack on a disc if you want to do something like that. All these little DLC's are annoying and expensive which keeps me from buying them.

Darn, to late for the party...

I'm glad to tell everyone that the pie has arrived!!!

So, can I have just the DLC if I eat it with my hands?

just more and more proof that $60 starter kits are well on the way

All this is does is tell gamers to wait for the Game of the Year Edition.

DLC is interesting and it does expand the experience but at the end of the day I can't help feeling that I'm missing a piece of the game without it. Sadly, though, that feeling doesn't make me purchase games and their DLC but rather wait until the game is FINISHED and snag the complete package for ~$30.

I am a completionist and a collector so if a game is incomplete at launch, as many are, then I simply skip it until it is complete and sometimes, thanks to ole Father Time, I just plain skip the game altogether.

I'm not learning to keep my games as I already knew to do that; I'm learning to not purchase games new at full price as there is way more game headed my way.

The Tiger Woods series has been taking away main "courses" for years, let alone the pie.
EA Restaurant - 2006: Full course meal; steak, potato, salad. Pie extra
EA Restaurant - 2007: Full course meal; steak, potato. Salad and Pie extra ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................EA Restaurant - 2010: Full course meal; plate. Steak, potato, salad, and pie extra.

I can't stand DLC. If it was important for the game then why isn't it in the game to begin with? So some games it makes some sense, like new songs for Guitar Hero 3000. But for the majority of games it is pointless. Generally when DLC comes out for a game, I've already finished playing it and have moved onto the next game.
Why would I return to a previous game just for an extra 1 to 2 hours of missions; or for a shiny new outfit?
For me, there is no incentive to get the DLC unless it adds a good 6 hours of new, varied game play, and released while I'm still playing the game.
On that note, games should take at least 20 hours to complete. I feel jibbed if I can finish the game in one day.
I'm all for developers including a code with a new version of the game to download free DLC that second hand buyers can't get without paying for. But other than that I have never been inspired to get any DLC for any game, and don't see that changing anytime soon.