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Capcom goes to bat against DLC critics

Last week, Capcom priced its upcoming downloadable content for Resident Evil 5 at a modest $5. However, this announcement was met with enough backlash to warrant not one, but two counter-defenses from Capcom representatives. While the first comments were from an inside source speaking with CVG, this new source happens to be Christian Svensson, vice president of Strategic Planning & Business Development for Capcom.

"This is the part where I get to say ‘BS’," Svensson wrote on the Capcom forums. "RE5 is well worth every penny of $60. A huge game, with tons of replay value, loads of unlockables, new weapons, co-op, mercenaries mode, etc. If any game warrants its price point, it’s RE5.

"Prior to the announcement of the Versus mode," he continued, "no one complained they weren’t getting their money’s worth with the initial release because it packs TONS of value because it is an amazing game. So if people were already satisfied with what the package had, when we offer MORE, why is it people feel they’ve been somehow cheated? If you don’t find value in our secondary offerings, the choice is simple, don’t purchase it. If you do find it valuable (and we hope you do) please do buy it and enjoy it."

Svensson does make some solid points, though perhaps the silent route may have been the more professional option to take in this instance. Svensson then goes on to explain that the base game and DLC teams work with two separate budgets in order to turn a profit.

"Secondly, whenever we do PDLC, that content exists with its own budgets, it’s own profit and loss analysis with its own forecasts. If it didn’t, that extra content wouldn’t have been put into production, because it did not fit within the production budget of the base product.

"The content that is shipping in the full game exists within its own budget. The content shipping afterward (regardless of how close to release it is… because the goal IS to have it release relatively closely to the base product’s release) exists within its own budget. To try and have it release in a timeframe that is relatively close to the initial release, development starts well before the base product is on the shelves. There’s no other way to keep it within 3 to 6 weeks of the initial release (which is the goal)."

While it’s always good to build on the hype and profit margin of a title by releasing DLC so soon after release, it’s hard to justify releasing such a substantial amount of content for a title that consumers just shelled out at least $60 for. This particularly becomes an issue when Japan is receiving the same content for roughly half the price. Where is the love in that, Capcom?

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