Ubisoft’s VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin says the company will no longer sell DLC that “gamers have to buy for the full experience”.
Got some really good news today for games everywhere: Ubisoft VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin has told Gamesindsutry.biz that the company is dramatically changing its DLC policy following the success of Rainbow Six: Siege. Essentially, Ubisoft will no longer sell DLC that affects the “full game experience,” and future Ubisoft DLC will be strictly limited to cosmetics that do not alter gameplay.
“No more DLC that you have to buy if you want to have the full experience. You have the game, and if you want to expand it – depending on how you want to experience the game – you’re free to buy it, or not,” explained Blondel-Jouin.
She spoke of Rainbow Six: Siege as the biggest catalyst for this change. All new maps for the shooter were released for free to all players, and the only DLC involves customizing existing and purchasing new characters.
“The way we monetise Rainbow Six is that people are happy about the new characters, and they can customise them with weapons and charms, but even if they don’t do it, they will have the exact same experience of the other gamers,” she added.
“[DLC should be] just an extra piece of revenue for us, which comes from gamers being happy. If gamers were not happy, we would not ask for that extra money.”
Free DLC seems to be more and more prevalent these days. All of Titanfall 2 and Overwatch‘s maps are also released as free updates, in an effort to avoid splitting the player base.
Source: Gamesindsutry.biz