New Media Technologies Blog - Entry #9 Nintendo Introduces "Wii Want More"

Wii Want More

I must say, I WAS really excited about the extra content being offered for previously released Wii games... until I realized that it was simply an April Fools Joke. Though it seemed like you would get quite a lot of content in the bundle pack for a reasonable price. I know that Xbox Live offers and has been offering a similar service for Xbox 360, but most of the downloadable content is for ala carte features that you pick individually and usually for around a minimum of $3 or $4 a pop. A bundle of extra content for a game is not a bad idea though for $10 and it seems very reasonable to me, especially if it is for a game that I enjoy. Too bad it's fake as I was excited to see that the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption were on the "supposed" scheduled list of future new content as I enjoyed these games immensely. Though... lol, it would mean that I'd likely need to re-purchase these two titles as I have already sold them upon completion in order to secure newer released titles.

However, regarding downloadable content or "DLC" in general, there is one thing that still kind of bothers me. Sure, new content for old games released is entirely one thing, but what about how new releases are developed with stuff like "Wii Want More" or "Xbox Live DLC" in mind? I'm referring to how some of Xbox 360's titles are treated where a great deal of unlockable content that you have the option of purchasing from the Xbox Live service, is and was already included in the original game disc that was purchased. In other words, the content was already there, it was simply not available until you pay extra money for it. When purchasing these "new" characters, stages, extras, you are often times purchasing a "code" that unlocks the content from the disc itself and not actually patching the game with newly developed content over the web. I find that this process actually kind of cheapens the feel of whether or not you are actually receiving fresh new content for a game. I guess to me, unless the extra content purchased feels really worth the money it almost feels like the game was sold at full price as an package of incomplete content that you must spend extra money just to make it complete so to speak. Now I'm sure that this process makes quite a bit of extra money for developers and publishers, but I'm hoping that this process of hiding already developed content from the customers who purchased the game does not become a trend.