What's the big deal?

I'm gonna just come out and say this in the beginning -- I am not against DLC(Downloadable Content) for video games. If game developers and publishers want to give me more content that I can purchase for a reasonable (key word: reasonable) price, I'm all for it. Especially when the game has become dry and dull. Why yes it can been seen as a money grab, this is the direction that the video games are going to take and is something that we are just going to have to learn to live with.

There is a shift in DLC, or perhaps I'm just noticing it now because it is affecting me. Games are being offered with semi-exclusive DLC when you pre-order them from the story, and I say semi-exclusive because those who didn't pre-order the game will eventually be able to buy the DLC. This happened with LA Noire. People received DLC for pre-ordering the game, which was different depending on where people purchased the game. For some reason this didn't draw a huge backlash, maybe because the market for the game is too small.

The next big game for offer different pre-order DLC is Uncharted 3, which is offering different abilities depending on which store you buy the game. This frustrated me because the stupidest power up is from Gamestop and I wanted to go their to use my discount card. But I digress. Check Matthew's post for more details on that. Now maybe I'm too accepting of this, maybe I don't think the store specific DLC will affect the game, or maybe I just want the game so badly I don't care. All possibilities.

It seems the Battlefield 3 crowd isn't as accepting. Battlefield 3 is offering maps & special weapons for those that pre-order the game. That doesn't seem like much, but they did make the mistake of saying that one of the DLC upgrades was "essential." The Battlefield 3 fans seems to be in full revolt and making sure their voice is heard. EA and Battlefield 3 came out with a response to ease fans concerns, but it seems that they are at Sarah Palin level of rational thinking and this plan simply will not do.

Battlefield and EA's plan to give fans that pre-order the game free DLC before anyone can even buy it seems to be a great deal for its more loyal fans. The DLC plan for Uncharted seems much worse(maybe because not all the details have come out yet), but even as a hardcore Uncharted player, this has not changed my feelings toward DLC. Maybe I'm drinking the kool-aid, or maybe I just don't see the problem with pre-ordering a game and getting rewarded for it.