The first instalment of 2K Games’ aggressive downloadable content plan for recently released Bioshock 2 was released yesterday bringing with it new multiplayer characters, a higher rank cap and weapons upgrades.
According to Shack News buyers quickly noticed that the DLC download itself was a lot smaller than usual (23KB on PC, 108KB on Xbox 360 and 103KB on PS3) which suggested that the package, which costs roughlyR40, was embedded on the game disk all along.
2K Games quickly explained that although this was the case it was implemented as a measure to avoid splitting the player base. All game buyers, regardless of whether they purchased the multiplayer DLC or not, need to be able to integrate with each other online explained the developer via the following statement:
“The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base – so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends.
I know some of you have strong beliefs about DLC, and I’m not here to sway your opinion or convince you to buy our stuff – if you like what we’re offering, I hope you get it and enjoy it. If it’s not your speed, enjoy BioShock 2 as we released it.
I want to let you know that DLC is not interfering with our patching capabilities, which are a top priority and are still being actively worked on. We’re committed to supporting you and making BioShock 2 the best experience possible.”
This calls into question the ethics behind the download. Should a DLC package be regarded as a tangible download of a few GBs, or simply a paid unlock for features which were already on the game disk?
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