Is Downloadable Content making games shorter these days?

In this generation of gaming there are a lot of things that have changed comparing to the previous one. Most gamers that were around probably already know this and can agree that ever since XBOX Live and PSN came into town, the gamer’s experience changed a lot. Before when consoles didn’t connect to the Internet in the sense that they didn’t have stores or marketplaces, we experienced gaming in a whole different way.

I have been a gamer since the early 90s and when I was a kid up until the Playstation 2, I noticed that games were longer back then, even though game developers had limited capacity of disk or cartridge space. Today this isn’t supposed to be an issue as the storage capacity is much higher than it was back then, so it leads us to wonder WTF?

[AKissFromDaddy]

The only counter-argument I can think of to write is Valve Corporation, who support their games completely after launch by offering free DLC on PC/Mac and attempts to offer free DLC on consoles via Steamworks.

[nycredude]

I would think that DLC is making the games longer. Developers are making the games shorter.

[theycallmejohn]

Well people are starting to notice that companies like EA, Activision and the rest have to pay a lot for advertising and in the future they will have to pay more. This is only a matter of time when they will lose money for being stupid.

[Motion]

At the same time though, if they spend that money on making a great game the advertising will take care of itself. How many ads for Counter Strike have you seen? And WoW had what, around 8-9 million active subs before they started their TV ads in 2007? If you make a great game word of mouth will get you sales. It seems that too many companies are developing crap games, and spending nearly as much on ads as development to make sure they sucker enough people into covering their costs.

Disclaimer: This is based on personal experience, opinion and quick poorly done research :)

[piroh]

bless Blu-ray

[theycallmejohn]

How about them?

[scar20]

The only games i buy dlc for are the ones that offer lots of replay value like the upcoming vietnam bfbc2 dlc its like were getting a whole new story without buying a separate full priced game.

[Motion]

I could be mistaken, but they Vietnam expansion is multiplayer maps only. I don't think they added anything to the story/single player aspect.

[Otheros00]

No. Multilayer are what's making games shorter.

[Urahara]

DLC is ruining console gaming.

[Motion]

I always loved DLC, until consoles came around and developers though "Oh snap, we could charge EXTRA for this!". Thats when it all went down hill :p I think the 360 pioneered paid DLC, followed by the PS3, followed by angry PC fans everywhere ;)

[astar123456789]

i think, its all so the fact that if its on both xbox and ps3 it still has to meet the xbox specs, even if made for the ps3 and the xbox, like when a game comes out and day one there dlc, because it just does not fit, i'm not saying which system is better and why but if i make a game i would make as good as i can with the better specs but fit on the one with the less so the game wont coast as much with lvls, or movies. but what do i now...

[Saryk]

The problem with DLC is this. I buy a game, say Borderlands. I buy each DLC when available. Then they release the GOTY with all the content. What they are telling me is this: Wait until a year or so and I will get the game at a cheaper price and all the DLC as a full complete game. Then I can beat the game as intended and not having to do it in bits and pieces.