Content held back for sale
Part of the game feels missing, and you can buy it back.
Caution · Built to push spending
Pieces that feel like part of the game are cut out and sold back to you.
What it does to the fun
It works like an airline ticket: economy is made deliberately uncomfortable so they can charge you to be less uncomfortable. In a game, that's a character roster with locked faces, a mode the menu shows but won't open, or a story that ends just short of where it should. You end up noticing what you don't have instead of enjoying what you do. Without the cut, the game you paid for would simply feel finished.
What you're actually buying
Maps, characters or chapters that feel like they were cut from the game you paid for. In the worst cases they are already on the disc and just locked.
How it works
Once publishers could charge again after the till receipt, games learned to hold pieces back: sell the base game, then sell the rest of it in slices, one pack at a time. The honest version, a clearly separate expansion, is sold as an extra. The bad version charges for content that felt carved out of the base game before launch. A counter-trend at the premium end promises the opposite: no drip-fed content, and nothing held back for a store screen.
When it's fine
When the extra is new, shown before you buy, and the base game is complete without it.
Where it came from
Modern Warfare 2's Stimulus Package (30 March 2010) charged $15 for five maps, two of them Call of Duty 4 remakes. Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) shipped extra characters already on the disc, unlockable only by paying for DLC; Capcom's 'hard drive space' defence was widely criticised by the press. The Sims 4's 79 add-on packs total $1,473.06. At the premium end, some big-budget games now pitch the opposite: nothing held back for a store screen.
Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.
By the numbers
Modern Warfare 2's Stimulus Package: five multiplayer maps, two of them Call of Duty 4 remakes, for 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15) on 30 March 2010.
Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) shipped with extra characters already on the disc, unlockable only by paying for DLC.
The Sims 4's base game has been free since 18 October 2022, yet its 79 add-on packs total $1,473.06.
Games that use it
Related badges
Covered in Video Games & Money: Ep 25 · Dlc, Ep 12 · Disc era, Ep 32 · Premium prestige.