Madden NFL 15 launched this week, bringing the umpteenth iteration of the long running series to games consoles and, quite likely, earning publisher EA a bit of money in the process. But while games sales are expected to do well for the publisher this year, it looks like revenue gained through DLC will actually be the big story, expected to earn as much as $1 billion this year alone.
Speaking with Bloomberg, EA spokesman John Resenburg explained that DLC has turned into quite a lucrative addition to the games industry. Many gamers may recall a time when DLC was actually frowned upon. Back at the start of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era, it was unheard of to have additional content (maps, skins, modes) added to a game following launch. Many originally saw this as a way to make even more money off of content that should have been included in a retail game to begin with. Some likely still feel this way. But no matter what your stance is on the matter of DLC, there’s no denying the fact that it’s here to stay and, more importantly, may have changed the industry for good.
What began as the occasional bit of additional content has sense turned into a full-blown marketing plan for many developers and publishers. Most AAA titles offer a “Season Pass” to upcoming DLC these days, meaning that players can pay a discounted price up front in order to enjoy a long-running stream of new content in the coming months or years. Like the games themselves, season passes can now be pre-ordered, too, meaning loads of players are forking over additional cash for promised DLC before the game itself even launches.
With this kind of money-making machine running smoothly these days, it’s no surprise that even Nintendo has jumped onto the DLC bandwagon, recently announcing upcoming additional content for Mario Kart 8. So, how successful are we talking here? Well, according to the original story, Madden DLC grew by 350 percent in the quarter ending June 30 compared to the same quarter from the previous year. And that’s just from one IP, remember.
As a result, EA is expecting to break its DLC record this year, reaching as high as $1 billion in revenue. Along with Madden, this figure is being fueled by DLC sales on other big EA properties, such as UFC, Titanfall, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, FIFA, Battlefield and more.
With EA Access launching recently for the Xbox One, it’s not clear if any sales from the publisher’s subscription service are being included in that figure. DLC for those games are included in the subscription cost, after all, so maybe the success of the service is helping pushing that figure to the $1 billion mark. Either way, with this kind of a success story, anyone who was hoping to see post-launch content fade into the background is likely due for many, many years of disappointment.
