On-disc DLC is “just plain greed” – analyst

Gamers, being gamers, have a whole lot to complain about games, with one of the most controversial subjects lately being on-disc DLC. Is it saving you bandwidth or is it selling you something you already kind of technically own? Industry analyst Michael Pachter is going with option number two.

“Yeah, it’s just plain greed,” he said on the latest episode of Pach Attack over on GameTrailers. “The answer is that simple. I think that DLC has been so successful that publishers are trying to get a jumpstart and if you put it on the disc it allows them to unlock it when they feel like it. A few years ago, we didn’t see DLC for typically six months after a game launch and I think it was Red Dead Redemption, but Take-Two kind of pioneered and launched DLC like a month after the original title and it was super successful, now you’re seeing a lot more guys do it.

“The stuff on the disc, some gamers feel entitled to because they bought the disc, so they should have a right to anything that’s on the disc, and that’s a dicey one, you actually do own the disc and I think, theoretically, if you could crack the code on the DLC you probably would be allowed to access it without paying. And I’m not even sure that’s stealing because you did, in fact, buy the disc. That’s about as close as you can get to legal piracy.”

I just suddenly had the best idea ever. I’m going to flood the gardens of my apartment complex, hire a galleon, and plunder my own flat dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. I always wanted to be a pirate, and now I’ve got clever legal loophole. I suppose I might get into trouble for the water, but it’d be totally worth it.