WWE All-Stars Leaves Too Much to DLC

With the reveal of the entire WWE All-Stars roster complete the glaring decision to hold back a third of the roster as downloadable content is already generating discussion. By announcing so many DLC wrestlers this early, and including some particularly popular ones in that group, it showed that THQ had planned all along to save them for the sole purpose of charging when they could have included them in the base roster.

This clearly isn’t a situation where work is being done post-release in order to provide DLC as consumers have shown in those instances they will pay for added value. It would be one thing if there were just a handful of DLC wrestlers, but by making it a full third (if not larger given there may be more names coming) it really looks bad and is understandably irksome to many. That doesn’t even take into consideration that the game might require an “Online Pass” to access online fuctionality as THQ has instituted that in all of their recent titles.

Interestingly this game, especially in the manner they are dealing with the roster, would have been a good fit for the new pricing model THQ is testing out. MX vs ATV: Alive is the first one they are going to experiment with by releasing in May at $40 and depending on that lower price point to bring in more sales. The idea is that in turn will expose more consumers to a greater number of features offered as DLC and they hope that will lead to more revenue in the end.

Arcade-style sports games have struggled to sell this generation. Charging $60 for what could be simply a fun game in WWE All-Stars, and expecting consumers to be open to shell out even more on such a game through DLC, is a gamble at best and potentially suicide considering the hefty competition for dollars in March.