Nintendo's Sakurai on Good Vs Bad DLC

When it comes to analyzing the games industry, as much as game journalists like to flaunt about, its not often you find someone more qualified to speak on the issue than a game developer, who actually lives it. And thats even truer if youre a game dev who does game journalism on the side, like Nintendos residential saint, Masahiro Sakurai, who works so hard on his games he literally ruined his own arm working long hours six days a week on all his projects.

Hes a man who understands work ethic.

Well, in addition to making games, he also writes a weekly column for Weekly Famitsu, a Japanese gaming magazine, and this week he wrote a very interesting piece on DLC, of all things; it's likely spurred by the recent release of Mewtwo as Super Smash Brothers DLC for the Wii U and 3DS.

Indeed, the phrase, DLC business is everywhere. Having to pay afterwards is extremely unsatisfying. I completely understand how customers feel. Being sold in pieces what would normally be considered 100% altogether is intolerable.

The crux of the article, which I cant just copy-paste because its in Japanese, states that Sakurai understands why DLC is necessary for game development (A opinion once unpopular even by Nintendo, who for a long time refused to release DLC for any of its games) as its a very expensive business and DLC is a boon to developers who need help recouping costs and turning a heftier profit. Capitalism.

His issue isnt with DLC itself, mind: his issue is when parts of the completed game are stripped away from the core experience and sold, in chunks, to the players after they purchased the game. See: Nearly anything EA or Ubisoft has done, and Evolve. True DLC, acceptable DLC, is extra content thats added to a finished experience to enhance it, rather than important content cut from the experience to jack up the ultimate final price for the true game.

Which was why he was adamant in pointing out Mewtwo only started getting worked on after the game was complete in full.

Either way, it's not much, but it's cool to know his thoughts on the matter, considering what a high-profile developer he is.  Hopefully others will follow his example, because DLC is a lot like a weapon--not good or bad intrinsically, but in how it's used.

Let's use our DLC right people!