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.

8

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."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 17, 2011 12:15 PM

    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.

    • reply
      November 17, 2011 12:19 PM

      Interdersting

    • reply
      November 17, 2011 12:37 PM

      So in other words, Nintendo wants to do DLC correctly.

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 12:40 PM

        It can be a real fine line though, World 10 in Mario? Fine and dandy. Side quest that has been alluded to in Zelda but doesn't exist yet? Not so great.

    • reply
      November 17, 2011 12:50 PM

      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?

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 12:54 PM

        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.

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 12:58 PM

        I figure it would be to Nintendo standards like an expansion pack.

        Like Zelda core game all there but they make an additional dungeon or maybe side quest similar to how dlc for DxHR

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 1:11 PM

        They could do something similar to what they tried with the e-Reader levels for Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, maybe?

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 1:58 PM

        i don't see them using DLC on a game like Zelda or even Metroid since they're so story driven. but a game like Mario, hell yeah, new worlds and galaxies and such.

    • reply
      November 17, 2011 1:13 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        November 17, 2011 1:44 PM

        That is the best potential news out of all this, a robust internet service would be ideal.

    • reply
      November 18, 2011 8:02 PM

      How was Catwoman day 1 DLC? The code was included with new purchases of the game. It's not day 1 DLC, it's incentive to buy a new copy instead of used. NOT the same thing.

Hello, Meet Lola