Forbes has criticised EA’s aggressive DLC approach with the From Ashes content for Mass Effect 3. For those of you who are unaware, many Mass Effect fans are angered that the game had day one DLC. Many feel this was withheld from the original release.

Forbes compares the music and games industry giving a unique view on why those who purchased Mass Effect 3 have every right to feel upset with the locked content.

The article weighs up the pros and con of the situation and questions whether developers should expect fans to pay out for extra content, especially as “Mass Effect 3 costs almost one third of the price of the console”.

Casey Hudson, Mass Effect’s executive producer disagreed with this view and has stated earlier: “The DLC, whether it’s day one or not, is always going to be sugar on top, the extra,” he told VentureBeat. “You know, the extra little bits of content that tell side stories.”

We would never take stuff out of the core game and only have it in DLC.”

Saying that, several pieces of evidence have emerged that show the From Ashes content was in the original version of the game and taken out for marketing reasons.

Forbes’ article goes on to make a good point that other developers have used DLC in a positive way with their fans. “Meanwhile, developers like Valve are releasing updates incessantly and for free to games like Team Fortress 2. Skyrim developer, Bethesda, releases DLC months after their games hit store shelves. Pretty soon it becomes difficult to countenance or justify charging fans $10 extra for a side mission that plays an integral role in understanding the broader story of a game.”

We completely agree with them too. DLC can be used to make money in more than just the initial sales. Look how much support a company like Valve has got from players. A strong community has been created and strengthened through DLC. If companies want to keep customer’s into their games and fight pre-owned sales then this is a great way to do it.  We’re personally pretty angry about day one DLC. Take a look at what we think of this and other DLC plans in our article that asks if  DLC gone too far?