Talking Point: The Blurred Lines of "Collectables" and On-Disc DLC

Yesterday, before a maelstrom of date reveals and other news, the pricing emerged for Disney Infinity, which put parents and their bank managers on alert. It also instantly raised comparisons with the Skylanders series, now two games old, which despite differences in approach to the actual gameplay — sandbox experimentation against dungeon crawling mechanics — are ultimately following the same business plan. Sell a core game along with starting peripherals, and include a high number of optional extras that expand and improve the experience on offer.

Nintendo Life considers the comparison between much-maligned on-disc DLC and Skylanders/Disney Infinity's business models.

[LeiAndLove]

The difference is in the marketing. Skylanders and Infinity are clearly marketed as requiring many extra figure purchases in order to get the game's full experience. It's similar to how trading card games (IE Yu-Gi-Oh!), despite having starter decks, made it clear that most people will need to buy booster packs to enjoy the product fully.

Skylanders and Infinity make it clear from the get-go the investment level that needs to be made and that is why, despite being DLC in practice, it is not malicious DLC.

Issues arising from companies like Capcom revolve around the fact that their game is not marketed as needing DLC to get the full experience. It's marketed as a self-contained game and it becomes a problem due to Capcom's marketing deception and malicious business tactics.