Dark Souls II Dev May Reconsider "No DLC" Policy

[Steven Bogos]

Dark Souls II Dev May Reconsider "No DLC" Policy

Dark Souls II producer Takeshi Miyazoe says that "there is definitely potential," for Dark Souls II DLC.

Earlier in its development, Takeshi Miyazoe, the producer on Namco-Bandai's upcoming action adventure Dark Souls II rejected the notion of the game having DLC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130715-Dark-Souls-II-Rejects-DLC-Delivers-A-Full-Game], claiming that his studio planned to deliver a "full game." Now, it looks like he may be backtracking just a little, admitting that "There is definitely potential," for DLC, but stressing that it all depends on fan feedback.

"There is definitely potential, I think. Again, it's all about fan feedback. Right now we are concentrating on completing what we've got, but I think there are next steps on how we can expand on Dark Souls II"

"So I'm not really ready to say look forward to more information, but I think the potential is definitely there," Miyazoe added.

While it's still not exactly a confirmation, it is a drastically different story from before, when Miyazoe claimed that "we don't even expect any additional downloadable content because we want to deliver a full game, the full experience, to fans who purchase the package from day one."

For the record, the original Dark Souls game did feature some DLC.

Dark Souls II release on March 11 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Source: Official Xbox Magazine [http://www.totalxbox.com/70379/there-is-definitely-potential-for-dark-souls-2-dlc-says-namco/]

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[dmonkoff]

Well, if the future DLC will be like Artorias of the Abyss I'm in.

 

[Amir Kondori]

This "While its still nothing short of a confirmation" means it is a confirmation. Which you clearly did not intend to say. You might want to clean that up.

 

[Naqel]

Well, if the future DLC will be like Artorias of the Abyss I'm in.

There is only one problem...
Dark Souls 2 already features an improved online play environment, including better communication and PvP. D:

That was the meat of AotA, carvings you can throw to "talk", and maps for some arena style PvP action, not to mention extra spells to bridge the gaps between magic and melee in said PvP.

As cool the story of the expansion was, it was just a bonus to those improvements.

The only DLC I can see for Dark Souls 2 is more community shields/stuffs, and maybe a balance pass once the PvP meta goes stale.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Don't taunt me that it releases on PC on March 11th. I am fairly certain that version is delayed.

 

[Bke]

Well the Artorias DLC wasn't DLC as such, it was on disk even for the consoles. You just had to pay for an unlock essentially. I saw ubisoft refer to this as ULC or "unlockable content".

Now while I have no issue with getting more dark souls I do feel we need to distinguish between these two practices, as one draws resources from the project while its under development to make content that will be locked away from the get go, while the other adds content after the fact.

Now that I've defined these two forms of additional content I would like to say that should we get ULC again I will feel a bit sad. It means I won't get more of the game once released; just patches, as all the DLC they intend to do is done and in fact drew time away from the main game to create.

Edit

To be clear I want as much dark souls as possible. More DLC = good. I just want the DLC to be made after the initial base game

 

[Hazy992]

Well DLC isn't bad in principle, it's just that a lot of publishers and developers take the piss with it.

If From Sotfware have ideas for expansions and stuff post launch, I don't see a problem with that. The game is still complete, they'd just be adding new content.

 

[loa]

Of course there is "potential". Of course there are "next steps on how to expand".
Pretty much all works of creativity are never completed, they are abandoned.
There always are tons over tons of ideas for content that doesn't make it into the final product to meet deadlines.

That's kind of a non-statement and their announcement only stood out because they willfully deny themselves of that "potential" to make the game as good and complete as possible.

Well the Artorias DLC wasn't DLC as such, it was on disk even for the consoles. You just had to pay for an unlock essentially. I saw ubisoft refer to this as ULC or "unlockable content".

No it was not on disk "DLC".

 

[Stavros Dimou]

I like his way of thinking. "We are going to do a complete,feature-full game without having in mind what to keep for DLC. But if it makes sense and there is something we could add to the game after its release,yes why not ?"

 

[The_Darkness]

Well, if the future DLC will be like Artorias of the Abyss I'm in.

There is only one problem...
Dark Souls 2 already features an improved online play environment, including better communication and PvP. D:

That was the meat of AotA, carvings you can throw to "talk", and maps for some arena style PvP action, not to mention extra spells to bridge the gaps between magic and melee in said PvP.

As cool the story of the expansion was, it was just a bonus to those improvements.

The only DLC I can see for Dark Souls 2 is more community shields/stuffs, and maybe a balance pass once the PvP meta goes stale.

I disagree. I played Dark Souls as an entirely single-player offline experience, including AotA. And I still felt like I got my money's worth out of AotA. From my perspective, the multiplayer stuff was the bonus that I didn't bother with, rather than it being the other way around.

So if Dark Souls 2 has DLC on the level of AotA's campaign content, I'll be a happy undead.

Well the Artorias DLC wasn't DLC as such, it was on disk even for the consoles. You just had to pay for an unlock essentially. I saw ubisoft refer to this as ULC or "unlockable content".

Pretty sure it wasn't on the disc. I distinctly remember having to make room for the Artorias DLC on my hard-drive, and it was LARGE. Much larger than an unlock code.

 

[alj]

I think what he means by no DLC is, we are shipping a game with all of the content in nothing held back and then when its out there is potential to start working on DLC.

Take note EA this is how you do DLC don't hold back part of the main game to sell later.

 

[Mister Chippy]

I like this. Personally I love DLC if it means that the dev gets to expand and keep working on a great game after the initial release. Only becomes a problem if the DLC divides the community or causes them to cut corners with the base game.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I would gladly pay for new areas, monsters and boss fights as long as it's substantial and added a while after the release, like an old school expansion pack.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Well the Artorias DLC wasn't DLC as such, it was on disk even for the consoles. You just had to pay for an unlock essentially. I saw ubisoft refer to this as ULC or "unlockable content".

you are 100% mistaken there. the DLC didnt come until the petition to relase a PC version was a sucess, and From added cut content from the original release because the game was so sucessful

 

[Bke]

Well I'm mistaken it seems. However I distinctly recall the download was tiny, like in the kilobyte kinda size. Mayhaps it was in one of the other updates

 

[teebeeohh]

Dark Souls II release on March 11 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

isn't the PC version moved to may(which i hated until i decided to like titanfall)?
i am ok with DLC if it is like the Artorias dlc. which had one of the coolest interactions with the main game ever by changing the cutscene with sif. i literally refused to fight him after that.

 

[Trishbot]

I wish more companies were focused on selling a "full" game before considering expansions.

Because then fans get a full game, they get very happy with it, and that makes any extra DLC something they WANT to buy, rather than feeling they are FORCED to buy to get the complete game.

 

[Mahorfeus]

I might be exaggerating a bit, but this is DLC done "right," so to speak. That they're only considering it this close to release more or less suggests that they haven't actually developed any of it yet. That was the case for Artorias of the Abyss as well, IIRC (it utilized some unused assets on the game disc, but it wasn't on-disc DLC, so to speak).