But what this should herald for most of us is the ultimate example of DLC done wrong. None of this is to say, of course, that a game maker can’t charge what they like for their game, their DLC, their box art, their communications, their support, or anything else.

Yes, that’s over $3,000 if you were to buy all of the game’s DLC when most of it is on sale. The results, and keep in mind that most of these are on sale for nearly half off, are hilariously expensive. And then I saw how much DLC there was.Īs you can see at the bottom of the image, there are 230 available DLC options for sale. Dovetail Games were even generous enough to have a special on the DLC. It’s US$45, which is fairly standard for niche titles with a hardcore fanbase. But then I came across Train Simulator 2016: Steam Edition. They, like many anime brawlers, have an absurd amount of costume and armour packages that are far more expensive than they should be. My first thought was the Dynasty Warriors series. This all becomes evident as Kotaku’s Alex Walker went on a quest to find the most ridiculous DLC costs for games on the market today. Thompson once imagined he could see the crest of hippie culture along the Rocky Mountains before its eventual recession, I too can see the crest of DLC greed in our time in the insanity of Train Simulator 2016‘s laughable DLC offerings. Some makers legitimized these concerns through their actions, but others did wonderful things with DLC that gamers would not wish to be without. Most concerns centered around game makers charging for features that once were included in the games for the original asking price. I remember when the wave of DLC started and the general negative reaction brought by the gaming public to it. When digital distribution became a thing some years back, game makers came up with DLC as a way to achieve several goals: extend the shelf-life of games, make games more saleable through the promise of extra content, and, of course, make more money. We only occasionally talk about video game DLC, or downloadable content, here at Techdirt. Mon, Oct 5th 2015 11:16pm - Timothy Geigner

Train simulator 2016 steam sale