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Horse armor is awesomeEveryone knows about the spectacular waste of money that is the Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion DLC Horse Armor. Since its release on March 20, Bethesda has been kind enough to give you the option to turn your regular old boring hum-drum horse into an armored war beast for just $2.50 (or $5 if you're feeling especially generous - see link above). Unfortunately, this content pack is aesthetic-only (read: completely worthless). Fast forward three years to 2009 where DLC has seemingly evolved by leaps and bounds. We are now getting game-alterting additions like LittleBigPlanet's 'Metal Gear Solid pack' and weekly song downloads courtesy of Rock Band. But for every awesome add-on lies three times as many ready to take you for all you're worth. DLC is a perpetual money-generator for the industry and, at the expense of the gamer, the suits have learned how to exploit that.

It's green for a reasonDLC is a great way to keep a game alive after its initial release. Call of Duty 4's Variety Map Pack not only kept an already-outstanding game going, it added new and interesting situational combat to the multiplayer component. I have never had a better use of $10 in my gaming career. Now that Modern Warfare 2 is on its way and is expected to be the best-selling game of all time, it is only natural that map packs will be released. The problem is that not only have TWO map packs already been announced as post-release DLC, but they are already well under-way in development as evidenced by Robert Bowling's quote saying they will "[shape] our DLC based on community feedback from... the first two DLC map packs." I am as big a fan of Modern Warfare as anyone, but this just begs the question of "why aren't these included at retail?" to be answered.

5 costumes costs $4Capcom has had a notoriously bad habit of blatantly and artificially hiking the cost of their retail games (or at least a bad habit of getting caught doing so). What I mean by this is two of their recent megahits, Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4, have content written on the retail discs that is coded to be inaccessible without paying for the unlock key. Street Fighter 4 and its alternate costume DLC turned out to be written on the disc in the first place, and unlocking all of these costumes will cost the consumer a whopping $13, effectively making the retail disc and its contents $73. Resident Evil 5 and its notoriously shady Versus Mode garnered an enormous outcry from its fans who felt cheated out of the multiplayer mode, claiming it was originally created to be released with the retail disc only to be locked out before printing.  Before that, Namco received flak for keeping their Star Wars characters out of gamers' hands without payment for an unlock code for Soul Calibur 4.  They even kept a slot open in the character select screen, both slapping their fans in the face and compromising the company's integrity at the same time.  This kind of business practice is akin to giving someone a car for their birthday and making them pay $20,000 for the keys.  It's just not right.

However, amidst the wasteland that is the online marketplace, there have been a few champions that are steadfast in serving their fans.  Burnout Paradise developer Criterion has done an outstanding job giving their fans free content, encouraging players to keep their game instead of turning it in for credit and makes paying for some more premium content much more bearable.  Bellevue, WA-based company Valve has an incredible track record of delivering premium content to their fans at zero cost, including frequent Team Fortress 2 updates (on PC), the Counterstrike mod for Half-Life (regarded as one of, if not THE best multiplayer FPS out), and coming soon the Left 4 Dead "Crash Course" DLC (free on PC, $7 on 360).  Regardless of how you feel about the console DLC costing $ (my gut tells me Microsoft is behind that) or if you're a member of the Left 4 Dead 2 protest group, hardcore fans know that Valve sets the bar on supporting their games its communities.  Unfortunately for gamers, this kind of generosity and "good guy" attitude is seemingly on the way out.

These shady business methods are sure to continue, and we the consumer are likely worse off because of it.  When will this method of time-released content delivery become the standard for gaming?  It's hard to tell.  I love downloadable content, but if implemented incorrectly, consequences could be dire for the industry. 

Personally, I can't wait to buy Press X to go to Marketplace: The Game.