So, remember that DLC Sega announced earlier this week that said Creative Assembly was bringing back Sigourney Weaver and the original cast of Alien for a couple of exclusive pre-order DLC campaign missions for Alien: Isolation, one only available at Gamestop? Remember how the game industry collectively said it was the worst thing ever to happen to DLC, and that it was a harbinger of doom in terms of the lows that publishers would stoop to for further financial gain? You may want to put down your pitchforks and extinguish your torches.
In a follow-up statement from Creative Assembly on their facebook, the developers made note that the DLC would be made available to all:
It's genuinely been great to see the reaction to The Crew Expendable and Last Survivor pre-order bonus content we announced yesterday and how excited you all are to re-experience those classic scenes from the original movie with our Alien. It's been absolutely amazing for us at the Studio.
This is an easy thing to see coming. The fact of the matter is there's almost no such thing as "exclusive" content these days – at least not concerning games from a third-party publisher. (Assassin's Creed's PlayStation-only missions are something of an anomaly.) Sure, one platform may get a DLC pack first, but it's rare that that window of exclusivity isn't infinite.
It's a bonus for first run customers that they'll get to play these original cast missions before anyone else, but that's nothing new. Most any "exclusive" DLC for any title in this day and age is just a waiting game – if you didn't pre-order or get the special such-and-such edition – and if the item in question involves actual gameplay, and isn't just a cosmetic trinket (though these too are most often given over to "public" release at some point) – it's almost a given that the publisher will at some point release whatever add-on on whatever applicable store per console for purchase. Not to mention that the developers have to actually, y'know, work on this stuff.
Is DLC something that can be easily abused and exploited by publishers? Yes. Is Alien's original cast DLC – or any single-player mission in any game – being offered first as a pre-order bonus a flagrant violation of consumer's rights? Though the practice as a concept is questionable, no, probably not. If was announced as DLC post-release, you eventually would have ponied up for it anyway.
Alien is out in October, with the original cast DLC to follow at a later date.
[Via Facebook]
