Love it or loathe it, downloadable content is here to stay for video games. Microsoft reported a revenue of $240 million from Xbox 360 DLC, with $180 million of that coming in the last 12 months. No doubt a good chunk of that is from Rock Band’s release last holiday season.

Gamasutra has a summary of a talk given by one of the Microsoft guys on DLC. Some of the benefits you might not expect. For one thing, having DLC keeps people from selling the game back to the store for secondhand sales for longer, a sale that the developer doesn’t see a penny of. (The elimination of secondhand sales is another one of those reasons that many in the industry are plugging for digital delivery, albeit one without much consumer benefit.)

The problem is, the sweet spot for DLC is 30 days after the release of the game. That means a developer has to have the content either done or almost done by the time the game comes out. That makes your customers wonder, why didn’t you include it in the box in the first place?

I see they’re looking at the possibility of more DLC for Mass Effect. The last episode, Bring Down the Sky, would have been on my purchase list except that to access it, you had to start an entirely new game and churn through the boring Citadel sections again.

In my opinion, Rock Band is the game that finally did DLC right. There’s more songs than one person would ever want to buy, and depending on your tastes, some of it is going to be a must-buy while others would want to pass. You’re customizing your game rather than completing it, and it doesn’t feel like your game is being held for ransom.

Popularity: 2% [?]