I saw an article today about EA and some of their future ideas for Downloadable Content. The plans they have used thus far have ranged from the good ideas (new songs for Rock Band) to the not quite as good (paying to unlock all cheat codes in games like Tiger Woods), and sadly, I'm not sure where exactly this one falls. Basically, the idea they presented was that you could theoretically buy a game, lets say Madden, and then 6 months down the road, EA could release a new soundtrack for the title, and allow you to purchase it. This idea got me thinking about how far they would (or wouldn't) take new Downloadable content.
Lets suppose EA came to you with the following options. You can pay, if you so choose, $10 for a new soundtrack, $10 for updated rosters and stats, another $10 for the next year's schedule and a few new stadiums...look at that, you've paid $30 and you're essentially getting a brand new game. Would they ever do it? I'm honestly not sure.
Not too long ago, we had the strict separation between consoles and PCs. Online was the domain of the PC world, and even though Microsoft, and to a lesser extent Sony (and technically Nintendo; but that hardly counts) were foraying into the Wide World of the Internets, PCs were still the ones getting patches when they were needed, and upgrades, tweaks and whatever else people could come up with. Console gamers, once the disc was in your hand, barring a major error, that was all you were gonna get to play with. It didn't change over the years; the only potential difference between when you bought it and the last time you played it was the number of scratches that would accumulate onto the disc. Now, even on consoles we have game patches for rebalancing characters, and of course, Downloadable Content. Free or paid game material that was not part of the package when you first picked it up. These can be extra levels to play on, new characters, new songs, new...well, just about anything. And because of that, its changing the business model of the gaming industry.
Guitar Hero was an immediate smash success; no one could have predicted exactly how popular it would become. It was built on the old business model, the one where sequels could frequently mean no changes to how you play, just changes to what you get to play. So, along came Guitar Hero 2 with almost the exact same formula and all new songs. And for the PS2 version, it felt every bit like the 'sequel template' we expected it to fill. Except Guitar Hero 2 was also released on Xbox 360 and featured downloadable songs, both from Guitar Hero 1 and new songs. Suddenly, it wasn't so much a true sequel as an expansion.
Now that Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band have hit the scene, people want to know, will we be seeing sequels? The obvious answer would be to say 'duh', but according to EA, maybe not. They mentioned that they might be content with simply releasing new songs from time to time and charging for them. Personally, I can't blame them. No new game engine to build. No new spokesperson to hire, no new adverts to pay for, all of that cost, gone. But how does this extend to games like, say, Madden? Well, as I mentioned above, EA talked about making new songs available for games a while after release, but not necessarily new games. Could they simply give you a download that would be a total conversion, essentially a mod, to make Madden '09 into Madden '10, thus saving you a trip to the store? Its entirely possible that they could, but I just don't see it happening. For one thing, they claim that actual changes are made to the game and graphics engine, and those would be LARGE downloads; it would quickly consume lots of your hard drive space. So unless the Xbox 720 or Playstation 4 plans to ship with 1TB drives, don't expect this to happen. On top of that, not everyone has a broadband internet connection, or a console connected to the internet. Lastly, can you imagine if your HD crashed? You'd have to put in Madden, and then once again download a year or 2's worth of updates, and after all that, you'll STILL lose your saved files.
So, when you look at the big picture, updates, downloadable content and patches are all very nice things to have. And while we all know digital distribution will probably be the media format of the future, for now, I think we'll be sticking to our little round silvery discs. Plus, you can't chuck digitally distributed content at a friend's head when they're being a moron, and what fun is that?
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