On-disc DLC an 'ugly truth,' says Gears of War designer

Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has sounded off concerning the on-disc downloadable content discussion recently highlighted by Street Fighter X Tekken. Speaking to GameSpot in an interview at PAX East this weekend in Boston, Massachusetts, Bleszinksi said on-disc DLC is often necessary.

"When you're making a game, and you're getting into a ship cycle, there's often three or four months where the game is basically done. And you have an idle team that needs to be working on things," he said.

"And often for compatibility issues, [on] day one, some of that content does need to be on-disc. It's an ugly truth of the gaming industry. I'm not the biggest fan of having to do it, but it is one of the unfortunate realities."

Bleszinski noted that a way to eradicate the issue would be for titles to be distributed digitally.

"If we can get to fully downloadable games, then you can just buy a $30 horror game and just have it, and that stuff will thankfully go away," he said.

Last month, Capcom admitted that the 12 "downloadable" characters announced as PlayStation Vita exclusives were actually on the discs of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the game.