Nintendo will place more focus on DLC to extend the experience beyond the main story

While Nintendo is no stranger to downloadable content (DLC), it is a practice that the company doesn’t use as often as its rivals. It seems that Nintendo is increasingly warming up to the popular games-as-a-service model, however and wants to start placing more emphasis on DLC to make titles last longer.

Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima revealed the new direction during an earnings presentation earlier today, stating that “to promote longer gameplay for individual software titles, [Nintendo] plans to implement even more downloadable content and events that build excitement for games.”

The first steps of this can be seen with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that even adopted the season pass model, a relatively new territory for Nintendo to explore. Luckily, it done so in a relatively meaningful way, offering two sizeable DLC packs, the latest of which arrived in December, with The Champions’ Ballad focusing on expanding its story.

DLC seems to be in Nintendo’s best interests as the company expands more into the online world. The Switch will see its paid online service roll out in September, offering a cheaper solution than that of its rivals Sony and Microsoft for PSN and Xbox Live respectively.

KitGuru Says: Whereas the practice of DLC has fallen victim to greedy publishers in the past, Nintendo is often loyal to its fans in terms of the content it produces (content creators aside). In this respect, I can’t imagine aggressive monetisation, microtransactions or core content being separated from the main game to act as paid DLC. How do you feel about Nintendo’s new direction?

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