On-disc DLC is "plain greed"

The practise of putting post-release DLC on disc and requiring customers to pay to unlock it is plain greed”, according to Michael Pachter.

The subject hit the limelight earlier this month when Capcom admitted to including DLC for Street Fighter X Tekken on the disc.

It’s just plain greed – it’s that simple,” he said on the lasts edition of PachAttack, as transcribed by VG247.

A few years ago, we didn’t see DLC for typically six months after a game launch and I think it was Red Dead Redemption, but I think Take Two kind of pioneered and launched DLC like a month after the original title and it was super successful. Now you’re seeing a lot more guys do it yet.

I think that DLC has been so successful that publishers are trying to get a jumpstart and if you put it on the disc, it allows them to unlock it when they feel like it.”

Capcom has subsequently gone on to re-evaluate the practise.

Pachter added that, were a consumer to find a way of accessing DLC content hidden away on a disc, they would probably be safe from any legal repercussions.

The stuff on the disc, some gamers feel entitled to because they bought the disc, so they should have a right to anything that’s on the disc. And that’s a dicey one,” he added.

You actually do own the disc and I think, theoretically, if you could crack the code on the DLC, you probably would be allowed to access it without paying. And I’m not even sure that’s stealing because you did, in fact, buy the disc. That’s about as close as you can get to legal piracy.”