Nintendo will offer DLC on first-party games, but retail must provide 'complete experience'
"When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience," Nintendo's Fils-Aime said, before confirming plans to offer DLC for its upcoming games.
Nintendo plans on releasing an update for the 3DS that will enable microtransactions to be purchased from the eShop. While DLC is nothing new for Microsoft and Sony, this will mark a major milestone for Nintendo, a company that has traditionally avoided the growing sector.
According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the company has been reluctant to pursue DLC because of concerns raised by various key members of Nintendo's internal development studios. "When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience," Fils-Aime said, contrasting recent efforts of publishers to restrict content behind DLC.
For example, Warner Bros. received a lot of flak for partitioning Catwoman's part in Batman: Arkham City as day-one DLC. While the game was playable without the feline anti-hero, some people undoubtedly felt like they weren't getting the "complete experience" without her presence.
"We're unwilling to sell a piece of a game upfront and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later," Fils-Aime told Games.com. "That's what they don't want to do, and I completely agree. I think the consumer wants to get, for their money, a complete experience, and then we have opportunities to provide more on top of that."
While Fils-Aime's strong stance against for-pay DLC might suggest the company won't pursue add-ons for its upcoming games, he says that the company will "participate" in offering "additional digital content." He elaborates: "We'll do it is that whatever we sell initially, we will feel that that is a complete experience. And if that's all the consumer wants to do, that they'd be satisfied."
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Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Nintendo will offer DLC on first-party games, but retail must provide 'complete experience'.
"When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience," Nintendo's Fils-Aime said, before confirming plans to offer DLC for its upcoming games.-
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I'm interested to see how Nintendo does with this initiative. Their games have always felt complete to me, so I don't foresee them nickel-and-diming consumers simply because Nintendo starts more than follow trends.
I'd be totally down for new worlds in Mario games as OMW suggested above, but I'm not sure how they'd extend a Zelda game. Perhaps add a new region with more NPCs, side quests, and a dungeon or two?-
They could go all "hats" in Zelda, different outfits and things that have no bearing on the actual game. Maybe a separate "expansion" that was sort of a mini-zelda game all to itself (like a mini-Majora's Mask?) Though that may be outside the bounds of what they're trying to do. I'm sure we'll see a ton of "TF2 hats" type stuff in Animal crossing though.
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