Dragon Age: Origins To Get Paid DLC Expansion — On Launch Day

BioWare's upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, is set to launch on November 3rd. Today they announced details about some of the downloadable content they have planned for the game. In fact, it's scheduled to become available on the same day the game launches, at a cost of $7. (The PS3 version will be slightly delayed). "Called the Warden's Keep, the DLC will add a dungeon-based quest to the game along with six new abilities, a variety of items, and a base where players can trade with merchants. It will feature a supernatural storyline set in an ancient — and possibly haunted — fortress once used as a redoubt by the Grey Wardens, the ancient order at the center of Origins' main storyline." There will be two additional bits of DLC that are available for free to people who have purchased the game new. One "adds a stone golem character to the player's party from the beginning of the game, unlocking numerous story options," and the other increases a character's defense against some attacks in-game.

Re:Yeah..

[sleeponthemic]

But there is DLC for movies and music. B Sides, remixes and new formats for music, extra scenes and behind the scenes footage and new formats for movies.

I do respect that you feel like you haven't got the full game if there is a lot of DLC, though. But really, that game has to please you enough for you to buy the DLC so whilst it is one of the many examples of bleeding a consumer, you atleast have to be fairly happy with the original product before purchasing the accessory.

Re:Next thing you know,

[will_die]

EA has already done that [wikipedia.org].

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[Jaysyn]

The article specifically state that this DLC will not be in the Collectors Edition.

Re:I just hope it's on Steam so I can play it!

[will_die]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Alot of games on steam come with securom and other copy protection methods.
Such games include: bioshock, fallout 3 and Crysis Warhead.
However EA has released patchs for some of thier games that remove Securom from the steam version.
Also you can also find games with TAGES on steam.

Re:Yeah..

[Itchyeyes]

Imagine having the ability to buy additional scenes to the film. Or a better camera angle.

Movies have been doing this for nearly a decade. Almost every film that gets released on DVD sees a basic version first, then a "collectors edition" follows several months later with director commentary, deleted scenes, etc... In fact, while people here rage against EA deigning to release extra content the day of the retail release, movie fans have been clamoring for such a thing on DVDs for quite some time now, as the current structure is intentionally designed to get people to purchase the DVD twice, first simply to watch the movie, then later in order to experience the extra content.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[navygeek]

You put out "exclusive free DLC that only the first owner gets", you're intentionally crippling the game for anyone who buys used.

Could you please explain how this 'cripples' the game? 'Crippling' a piece of software means you cannot use it, not that you don't get a shiny toy with it. You can still play the base game, the DLC isn't required to play and enjoy the game -unless it's a patch to fix bugs, but that isn't really "DLC". If your enjoyment of the game is solely based on the special edition candy apple red dresser for Sims 7, the jet black BFG in Quake 30, or the golden widget in whatever - don't buy the game, but don't bitch about it being crippled.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[MBGMorden]

They're not buying the DLC perks though. They're buying a game that comes with a free perk (like free refills) that doesn't transfer to subsequent buyers.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[Moryath]

When levels are missing, characters are missing, storyline options/quests are missing? That's a crippled game.

Yeah, if you don't get a skin or two, tough cookies. If you're missing a major character from the game, or something of that sort, it's crippled.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[ravenshrike]

And you'd be an idiot for doing so. The reason the WK DLC is coming out the same day as the game is because the game was delayed from May of 2009 to now to produce the console versions. Thus, the team they had working on the WK DLC finished it. So they had three choices: Release with the game for no charge, which would have been a complete waste of development. Delay the WK release for several months, in which case you wouldn't be whining like a little bitch because you wouldn't even know about it. Or do what they are, which is releasing with the digital CE to make up for the lack of nifty goods and charging a measly $7 to everyone else. That's less than the cost of a decent lunch.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[ravenshrike]

Harder? *sighs* The missing character is a tank character, of which there are 4 others. Whereas they're only two rogues and two mages. He's not any more powerful than they are, and you can only have three companions at a time. As for the story options, they're all directly related to the character in question, so you're not actually missing any of the game's storyline. As for the increased vulnerability, while the Blood Dragon armor will be nice, it is by no means the best armor in the game.

Re:EA rears its ugly head

[jparker]

Speaking as a developer that's gone through this process, folding the DLC team into the main team wouldn't necessarily have helped speed things up much.

There are a lot of different roles in game development (programmer, artist, designer, QA, each with dozens of specialties within them), and these different roles taper off at different rates as a project finishes up. Usually your art guys are done well before the programmers, then a chunk of designers and programmers come off, then the more of those, and finally QA.

So the DLC team isn't really a totally new set of guys; they were almost certainly part of the main team for a while, but as their areas got finished, it made more sense to roll them onto DLC than clutter someone else's area with too many cooks. QA, especially, wouldn't have the bandwidth to test to the additional content at the same time as the main game. By making it DLC, QA can hit it after the main game passes cert, but before it actually ships. There's usually a 2-3 month lag time (duplication, printing, etc.) after you're done making the game before it appears on shelves, which DLC doesn't have to wait through.