Bleszinski begrudgingly defends on-disc DLC

59 min.

Matthew Hawkins

The subject of on-disc DLC has been a hot topic in recent weeks, mostly due to the release of Capcom's "Street Fighter X Tekken." Many were incensed to discover the additional characters promised later down the road, and as downloadable content they'd need to purchase, were already on their game discs. But recently, an unlikely individual has come to Capcom's defense: Epic Games's Cliff Bleszinski, aka "Cliffy B."

Capcom's rationalized that having all the content available from the onset will ensure compatibility.

The publisher has clarified their stance multiple times, but it has done little to calm tempers. Many feel they are being asked to purchase content they already own. Most recently, disgruntled gamers brought the matter to the Better Business Bureau, calling for an investigation.

In a recent interview with Gamespot, the subject was brought up to Bleszinski, best known to today's gamers as the person behind "Gears of War" and "Bulletstorm." He states:

When you're making a game, and you're getting into a ship cycle, there's often three or four months where the game is basically done. And you have an idle team that needs to be working on things.

And often for compatibility issues, [on] day one, some of that content does need to be on-disc. It's an ugly truth of the gaming industry. I'm not the biggest fan of having to do it, but it is one of the unfortunate realities.

Bleszinski goes on to say such an issue will be resolved once all games are distributed digitally:

If we can get to fully downloadable games, then you can just buy a $30 horror game and just have it, and that stuff will thankfully go away.

Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of?Attract Mode, and co-hosts?The Fangamer Podcast. You can keep tabs on him via?Twitter,?or his personal home-base,?FORT90.com.

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