Not everyone crazy about Alien: Isolation DLC plans

Gamers are pretty psyched about Alien: Isolation, the upcoming game from The Creative Assembly and Sega. Part of it is that people would love to forget the debacle that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, but there’s also just a real desire to experience the kind of tension and scares in video game form that the original Alien movie did so well.

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So when it was announced that the game would get not one, but two DLC episodes that featured the cast of that film in both visual and voice form, the gaming media went crazy, right? It sure did, but not the way you might expect.

Excitement quickly turned to outrage on some pretty big outlets when it was announced that the DLC would only be available to people who pre-ordered the game; one for general pre-orders, and the second for anyone who did so through GameStop. Tom Sykes of PC Gamer explained his displeasure by saying that putting the content “behind a pre-order paywall strikes me as a particularly cynical decision.” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier wondered, “Anyone else need to take a shower after this news?”

The general thought is this: pre-ordering games is risky, especially at a time when information flows so freely. It’s easy to tell within days of release if a video game stinks, because a million people will tell you on the internet.

Still, it’s hard to fault the companies making those games for trying to make as much money as they can, particularly since developing AAA titles isn’t cheap. There’s always going to be that same tension between cautious consumers and profit-seeking publishers. Sometimes things happen that can tip the balance one way or another, and this might be one of those moments.

For an excellent recap of the other side of the equation, this Medium post by Gamezebo editor-in-chief Jim Squires sums it up pretty succinctly. It’s certainly something to keep an eye on, because if the pre-order numbers for Alien: Isolation are big, other publishers are going to follow Sega’s lead, guaranteed.

Oh, and if Alien: Isolation stinks, that media rage is going to return with a justified boost in intensity.