DLC Not Widespread Yet

According to a survey conducted by a media consulting firm, only 15% of those surveyed said they were awre of or had purchased downloadable content (DLC). This is both good and bad news. Bad, of course, for companies planning to make DLC a centerpiece of their profitability and future designs. Good, in the sense that DLC is already doing well, and this shows just how much upside potential exists.

My analysis is that DLC does quite well among people who know that it exists, but that the publishers have yet to work at letting customers know about it. For the most part, the publishers haven't seen DLC as being that important, so it hasn't really featured in their marketing. Really, isn't it time the big publishers got behind this? The margins on DLC are terrific since there's no physical cost of goods. You're just looking at the cost of making the content, which in most cases needn't be more than a couple of man-months. We have yet to see a AAA-funded title with a development cycle and marketing campaign built around an ongoing stream of DLC, carefully planned and timed, with the customers ready and eager for each new item. Remember, it's not just a new item, it's new characters, classes, scenarios, levels, and all sorts of things big and small. Promotional opportunities abound... shouldn't you get an energy drink to sponsor that mana potion? Collectability is a design feature that has huge potential in DLC... no one has touched it yet. (OK, that's a both a design issue and a marketing issue... I can't help it sometimes, being both a designer and a marketer.)

This is just the dawn of DLC... in a few years, launching a game without it will seem archaic at best.