Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bethesda Talks DLC Size and Limitations

Posted by Soulskill on from the better-smaller-faster-easier dept.

Gamasutra has an interview with Pete Hines, product manager for Fallout 3, about Bethesda's philosophy for DLC, and how it's changed over the years. Quoting: "All these people are out there playing our game by the hundreds of thousands on a daily basis and we want to be able to bring those folks something they could do in a much shorter time frame, rather than just saying, 'See you next year.' That instantly ruled out doing a big expansion because those things just take so damn long to do. So we started looking at the biggest stuff we'd done that people really liked, but that we could do in smaller, digestible chunks. That's where we came to the Knights of the Nine model — it's substantive and it adds multiple hours of game play and new items, but we can do it in a time frame that allows us to get it out without waiting forever. That's what we've gone for with Fallout 3."

7 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. I find it amusing... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...that the DLC model was supposed to be modeled after the mod communities for Quake and Unreal. Yet somehow, I have seen almost no sign of anything that looks like post-release modifications. Studios seem to hold back a bit of content, then release that as DLC. Not exactly the original intent. Especially when the game is incomplete without the DLC.

    (Interestingly, Mega Man 9 walked a fine line there. Technically, all the "DLC" was already in the executable. Yet the stuff you paid for was truly above and beyond the primary gameplay. Which made it ideal as either Easter Eggs or DLC. Kudos to Capcom for at least getting that right.)

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:I find it amusing... by TheEldest · · Score: 2, Informative

      Point of Interest:

      The unfinished room was in the Mage *Guild* Tower in the Imperial City. The whole Arcane University was there, it was just one room that was locked. It was added later in the DLC The Orrery.

      There was also a DLC called the Mage Tower. This was a house mod released all at once. I has no relation to the locked room in the Mage Guild Tower. (now that I think of it, I think the Mage Guild Tower is officially called the Archmage Tower)

  2. Democratic Leadership Council? Disability Law Cent by Quothz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Am I the only person who hasn't a clue what DLC means? Neither the summary nor the fucking article can be bothered to tell me.

  3. Re:Democratic Leadership Council? Disability Law C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Downloadable content

  4. Re:Democratic Leadership Council? Disability Law C by Warlord88 · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downloadable_content

  5. Re:Profit-making strategy by TheEldest · · Score: 5, Informative

    The point of the article, though, isn't whether they should make DLC. It's whether they should do additional content in a DLC or as a full expansion. If you remember Morrowind, there were two huge expansion packs (Bloodmoon and Tribunal). Each with an amount of play almost equal to the original game.

    But Knights of the Nine, a DLC for Oblivion, only gave 10 - 15 hours of play (that of a standard primary quest line).

    Easier and quicker to release and sold for less than an expansion.

    Personally, I'd like an expansion over DLC (if this is the given choice). I'm ok waiting.

  6. Re:Precisely by CronoCloud · · Score: 2, Informative

    As a trouble shooting question, that you might have thought of yourself, is there anything the PC's have in common? Chipsets, graphics cards, sound cards, specific drivers? That would be the first thing I'd check...if I was a PC gamer, which I'm not, I'm playing Fallout 3 on a PS3.