Do You Buy and Play Single Player Story DLC?

Square Enix hosted a livestream this week in which the company shockingly cancelled multiple planned Final Fantasy XV expansion packs. While the decision was primarily motivated by the departure of director Hajime Tabata, it has raised an interesting conversation about the viability of story-based, single player DLC packs.

Writing on Twitter, reliable Kotaku reporter Jason Schreier said that he’d heard from a “fair number of developers” that single player story DLC just “doesn’t often sell very well”. To be clear here, he’s referring to expansion packs such as Horizon: Zero Dawn’s The Frozen Wilds and BioShock 2’s Minerva’s Den – add-ons that expand on the story.

While we initially shrugged the comments aside, it’s true that there is less of this type of content coming out. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt set a high benchmark with its trilogy of expansions, but we’ve seen titles like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Dishonored 2 opt to release standalone spin-offs in The Lost Legacy and Death of the Outsider respectively.

So why aren’t consumers buying these kind of add-on packs? Is it because they represent poor value for money? Is it because fans tend to get their fill from the main course? Or is it a simple case of not wanting to re-learn a game’s systems and mechanics after taking an extended break? We’d love to know your thoughts.

Do you ever buy single player story DLC? (299 votes)

  1. I’ll always get it if I loved the main game46%
  2. I sometimes get it for games that I like20%
  3. It depends on the game and the DLC23%
  4. I rarely get it even for games that I enjoyed9%
  5. I almost never buy single player story DLC3%

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What most motivates you to buy single player story DLC? (278 votes)

  1. Whether or not I liked the main game54%
  2. The kind of content the expansion adds34%
  3. The price of the add-on packs5%
  4. The time it takes for the DLC to come out2%
  5. The story or characters featured in the add-on5%

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Do you prefer standalone spin-offs like The Lost Legacy to DLC? (286 votes)

  1. Yes, I’m more likely to buy a standalone spin-off24%
  2. I’m not fussed, it very much depends on the content62%
  3. Personally, I don’t like standalone spin-offs or DLC5%
  4. I prefer DLC packs to standalone spin-offs9%

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Which of the following is most likely to deter you from buying single player story DLC? (277 votes)

  1. The price of the add-on pack29%
  2. The time it takes for the DLC to come out5%
  3. The characters featured in the expansion2%
  4. The type of content included in the DLC35%
  5. The fact that I didn’t finish the main game13%
  6. The existence of other, new games to play15%

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