Bethesda defends day-one DLC

Elder Scrolls and Fallout publisher Bethesda has spoken out in defense of day-one downloadable content. Marketing vice president Pete Hines told Official Xbox Magazine that the negative sentiment surrounding day-one DLC stems from some gamers simply not understanding the timetable of the development process.

"I don't think [gamers] quite understand the development process and the point at which you have to stop making the game and you have to finish the game," Hines said. "So, the content people stop making new content a fair amount of time before it ships; it's not like in the old days when it was like the day before or a week before."

Hines further explained that it makes more sense to put these developers to work on new content during this period--between when a game is finished and when gamers get their hands on it--rather than on other initiatives.

"Why would you make them wait some period of time, months in some cases, to start making new stuff so you can say it was after DLC?" Hines said.

Mass Effect 3 producer Casey Hudson also defended his game's day-one From Ashes DLC, using a similar argument as Hines. He explained that it takes around three months from "content complete" to when the game ships. And in that time, Hudson said the team at BioWare had enough time to get the content ready for players at launch.