Halo 5 dev: DLC maps will be free!

I often see gamers complain the instant a season pass or DLC is announced for a game. Companies can sometimes be greedy with the way they setup their paid dlc, so it is understandable that this practice is often criticized by the gaming masses.

Now we have a company who is doing the opposite, in an industry-defying move, 343 has announced that Halo 5 will come out with 20 multiplayer maps on launch, and 15 more to be released via DLC by 2016, at no additional cost....that's right, no paid dlc maps so as to avoid splitting up the online community :)

Whether or not this is part of their road to redemption considering the launch difficulties of MCC, is somewhat irrelevant at this point. Barring any other announced surprises until Halo 5 releases, I find this news rather refreshing and a sign that they are doing their best to deliver an outstanding Halo experience. In a few months, we shall find out!

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/halo-5-getting-15-free-maps-co-op-doesn-t-require-/1100-6427945/

That's really nice of 343. Both CD Project Red and now 343 are doing free DLC is a dream come true. Buying Halo 5 day one.

Yes, it's a shame 343 removed Local Co-op from Halo 5 though.

Get over it. Local/Couch co-op is a thing of the past.

Get over it? It's breaking news...

That's the latest news I just posted...I just posted it's a shame and you are very defensive about 343's removal of a key feature of every Halo game I've ever played, and I've been playing them since 2001.

Unless 343 is paying you money, you don't have to defend everything they do.

I'm glad you can accept things so readily by our corporate overlords, but all I posted was it's a shame because it is a shame as I've played every major Halo couch co op.

Local co op is NOT a thing of the past either, wrong again on that front.

It's clear you just play different games than I do. I play couch co op games all the time with friends and family across many machines including Xbone.

The last time I made use of the local co-op feature was in ODST. Maybe with this exclusion, they will be able to further improve the campaign experience in different ways. And it's not like you won't be able to play this in co-op online still. I'm not defending 343 in any way; couch co-op hasn't appealed to me for at least 6-7 years...at least in FPS type of games. I still want it for games like Rock Band/Guitar Hero. I actually feel like 343 has done a poor job since taking over; Halo 4 wasn't very good and they somehow screwed up The Master Chief Collection with unstable matchmaking.

Okay, I see where you are coming from. Different strokes for different folks.

I guess it depends on if you have family and friends over more or if you are more a gamer that connects to other gamers online. I do both, but some of my more casual friends don't have consoles and play co op with me and actually enjoy beating games. Then I have some of my hardcore friends I connect with online and beat games, but usually they are out-of-state. I just like both options and I know when machines are new it seems online is the priority over couch co op.

As far as 343, I agree. They have yet to impress me as right now they are a Bungie cover band trying to break out with their own hit.

Yea, I like having both options too. I come to expect it with games like sports games(me and my friends play a lot of Madden and NHL!) and music games, but I won't lose any sleep if a developer doesn't force it in to a game that is trying to provide a campaign/single player experience. I do get where you are coming from though with Halo knowing that it's been included in the game since its birth.

Great analogy there about 343. They've really dropped the ball with their first two entries in my opinion. Halo 5 does look promising though so we'll see.

Lets cool it on throwing the insults around please, this is not System Wars.

In terms of free maps, that is really cool. I wonder what sort of paid DLC they may put out there if they are doing maps for free. Hopefully some add on story missions or new modes could be put in for a reasonable price.

The witcher 3 may have free DLC

But their best DLC is still not free, wich isn't a bad thing.

So my prediction is that you'll get all these free maps, but they'll have other DLC that you CAN buy for money.