BioWare on DLC

BioWare online development director Fernando Mello spoke at GDC Europe about day-one and micropayment DLC. It is pretty much the standard spiel game producers use to justify the business model.

Day-one DLC makes business sense, Melo continued, as it meant that writers and concept artists who had finished their jobs on Mass Effect 3 could be put back into work immediately – while their colleagues continued on the main game.

In Melo’s eyes, another form of day-one DLC is the Online Pass, although new copies of the game may ship with the content. 11 per cent of all Mass Effect 2 DLC revenue came from the Online Pass, content that had already been planned for as an incentive to new customers.

“An analogue [to the Online Pass] is free-to-play games, or games with a premium layer of service,” Melo added, name-checking Call of Duty Elite and Battlefield Premium. An Online Pass could be seen similarly, as an ‘out-of-the-box premium service’.