INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Watch Dogs 2’ DLC Will Not Follow ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Trend, Says Ubisoft

By David Cornell
Published on: 03:14 PST, Nov 23, 2016

Watch Dogs 2 DLC, as well as other Ubisoft games, will not be following the trend started with Assassin’s Creed IV. This might come as a relief to people who bought their games in the past.

The vice president of live operations, Anne Blondel-Jouin, recently stated that the publisher will no longer sell downloadable content that is actually necessary to fully enjoy the game. Of course, this does not include day-one patches like the one for Far Cry 4, which made the game fully playable. That was intentional and served as a way to at least temporarily combat piracy.

AC II players will likely remember the extra missions that almost doubled the length of the game, making it borderline necessary to enjoy the game fully. This is actually common practice and not just something Ubisoft is known for. Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight did that too, with the Catwoman missions and the extra villain missions, respectively.

Probably the most notorious example would be Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, where you actually have to pay an extra few dollars on the side for something that should have been included in the game. You’ll probably remember spending an extra dollar just to have all of the treasure chests and collectibles revealed on the overworld map. Another one unlocked all of the upgrades for your ship so you wouldn’t have to go searching underwater treasure chests to grab the blueprints. The diving missions were arguably the worst part of the game, and that dollar kept you from having to go through all of that tedium.

Ubisoft’s DLC policy is changing in time to effect Watch Dogs 2, The Crew: Calling All Units, and Rainbow Six: Siege. You might still have to buy extra missions if available, but those missions are like concession food at Disneyland, according to Games Industry. They are a nice extra, but you don’t need them to fully enjoy the game.

Blondel-Jouin says this practice will no longer be the rule, and the company has learned its lesson about forcing gamers who paid full price to drop extra money for what was missing.

“[Monetization] is something we have to be very careful about, and my team is in charge of that and making sure we find a right balance. The key is if it’s not adding something on-top of the actual experience of the game, then it is no good. Because you’ll be asking for more money for the wrong reasons. It wouldn’t work if it was about making it compulsory for gamers. No more DLC that you have to buy if you want to have the full experience. You have the game, and if you want to expand it … you’re free to buy it, or not.”

This doesn’t mean they won’t still lock extras behind the Uplay achievement wall, though. Many items in their games are often available if you trade in points you earned from Uplay Actions, which require signing up for a Uplay account. Extra maps will now be free in Ubisoft’s shooters, a concept that Capcom started using with Street Fighter V after gamers complained that the game was not only unfinished but too glitchy to work right.

Ubisoft’s new policy also extends to The Crew: Calling All Units, which is set to release at the end of the month. Current owners of the game will automatically be able to play the new missions, but if they want to play as the police or use the law enforcement vehicles, they will need the expansion.

It’s unknown if Ubisoft plans to update older games with patches including the DLC you need to fully enjoy them.

[Featured Image by Ubisoft]

Share this article: ‘Watch Dogs 2’ DLC Will Not Follow ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Trend, Says Ubisoft
ubisoft
More from Inquisitr