Dead Space 3 DLC: EA Releases 11 On Launch

The ever controversial Electronic Arts has stirred up yet more anger in the gaming community with its latest release, Dead Space 3. Day 1 DLC is often frowned upon by gamers as many feel they are being sold incomplete games so the publishers can keep back content to sell as DLC later. This is something that EA is widely known and disliked for, and launching Dead Space 3 with 11 pieces of DLC hasn’t helped that.

Most of the content is weapon and armour skins, however some of it gives the player better stats or resource gathering capabilities- essentially making the game easier. For many, this defeats the purpose of a horror-survival game. What point is there in being scared when you can just buy better guns and armour that will make things easier?

While Dead Space 2 had similar DLC upon release, it wasn’t as numerous, and free DLC was offered later. This latest move however is somewhat foreboding to fans of the series as to some it marks EA trying to milk what they can out of the franchise, possibly at the expense of quality.

This wouldn’t be the first time EA has done this; the company is known for buying out developers purely for their intellectual properties so it can create sequels from the franchises, which often receive more negative criticism compared to the original titles. This was the case with the Mass Effect franchise. Developer Bioware was bought by EA during the release of the first Mass Effect game, and developed two more titles for EA, the third of which received mixed reviews and lead to the ending being amended to appease angry fans. EA has also closed studios down after releasing games that did not fare so well commercially.

These business practices have given EA some negative reputation both among gamers and people in the gaming industry, and many worry that Dead Space could be another franchise that EA drives into the ground. Only time will tell whether the publisher has learnt from their mistakes.