Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Whatever your stance on DLC – it should be free or you’re happy to pay to extend your enjoyment of a game – it’s great to see Nintendo embracing the idea that it can keep people engaged with its titles by offering additional content.
The recent announcement of post-launch DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did, however, catch people off guard as it’s not really a very Nintendo thing to do.
Nintendo’s Bill Trinen chatted to IGN and attempted to explain why the DLC is coming, and why Nintendo chose to announce it before the game launched.
“The dev team was working on the main game, finished the main game, and as they’re starting to get to the very end and wrap it up, really they said, ‘You know we’ve made this massive world of Hyrule, we’ve spent a long time building it. It would be a waste to just make one game and have that be it.’ We want people to be able to enjoy exploring this world, and so they started thinking about, ‘Well, if we were going to do DLC, what would we do, how would we do it?’ And you can see that in the fact that it’s not… the DLC is not launching the day after the game or the week after. It’s coming out several months later in the form of the first pack and then several months after that in the form of the second pack. And that’s because the content is in development,” explained Trinen.
Trinen added, that a major plus of announcing pre-launch is being able to offer consumers the option to purchase the new content at the same time as buying the core game.
“Really what the goal is is let’s give people the option to purchase it when they’re at the store buying the game and give them something to look forward to, and kind of let them know there’s more to come in this world,” he explained. “And if you’re a Zelda fan buying Nintendo Switch at launch and really you’re buying it for Zelda, I mean how happy are you to know that hey, I’m going to be able to play more Zelda in this world again later this year.”
Nintendo won’t be selling the DLC in separate components, instead charging £17.99 for two packs. The first DLC is scheduled for release this summer and will include a new Cave of Trials challenge, a new hard mode and a new feature for the in-game map. The second will release around winter 2017, and adds a new dungeon and original story.
That’s all the info at this point in time.
Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild launch worldwide on March 3.
Source: IGN via Nintendo Life