Every day, I dive headfirst into my (absurdly extensive) list of Discord servers, fishing for snippets of info—and yes, drama—to fuel website posts and email newsletters. The Icarus Discord recently snagged my attention with a bombshell from the CEO of RocketWerkz, the developer/publisher of Icarus, touching on the ever-contentious subject of DLC. (For the uninitiated, here’s a breakdown of what DLC is all about.)
The CEO’s post wasn’t just your typical PR fluff OR one of the old school DayZ style “Hai, we are adding more GUNZZ!” It was an open call for feedback on their overall DLC strategy and details about the upcoming LAIKA update. According to the CEO, “the bulk of the cool stuff will be free, like mounts having their talent trees to grow through, and then two DLC will be provided.”
One of the key philosophies of the studio has been to figure out how to make games that keep getting updated without the need to do the dreaded “Game-as-a-service” (GaaS) problems. Initially when the game launched it had been intended as a F2P game and we had searched and got close with some publishing deals. These fell through as we couldn’t find someone to partner with who “got” the direction we wanted to take. This did, however, leave us with a lot of legacy architecture. This is where our online back-end came from, which was both loved and hated at the same time.
After our launch we went through a big lessons learned process. While the launch itself was successful, it was not anywhere near as successful as it could have been. Some of the key outcomes was identifying that we needed to do an update every week, without break, to begin to build trust with the community. We also needed to abandon traditional GaaS and try and find a new way. Finally, delegating more authority down by appointing more leads closer to the coal face, and give the project more autonomy.
This went really well – we managed to remove our backend completely which is a minor miracle in itself. We did face a lot of disatisfaction from some customers as this removed the “continue game whenever” feature that we had. But we were committed to the change because without which, the game could not survive properly when we turned the servers off. This is now entrenched in the studio as an approach and we are building our games now to be “de-steamed” even (where possible) so they would still operate even when steam no longer operates.
Overall revenue of Icarus
Generally speaking we have been extremely fortunate with ICARUS. The launch was strong, the 26th top launch for a new IP on steam in its year. It has outlived all its peers who launched around the same time. Even then though, all the revenue we have made we have put back into developing our games. This is an increasing challenge for game studios as the cost of making games has significantly increased while the price paid has not even kept up with inflation. This is also occurring at a time of increasing discoverability problems on steam. Previously established studios were used to releasing new products and having almost guaranteed audiences, but things have changed here and you really are only as good as your last game.
Our Segmentation Approach with DLC
We opted to borrow from greats like Bohemia Interactive and Paradox, who have managed to update their games a tremendous amount and suppliment revenue with DLCs. We studied a lot how to segment them, aiming to put the really good stuff for free. We then include paid DLC at the same time with less cool stuff but as a way for people to support us. This has worked really well, and we’ve been able to reproduce this philosophy not just with ICARUS but also with Stationeers. This has allowed us to continue to develop both games, even where doing so might not be profitable.The key aims for our DLC strategy are:
As unrestrictive as possible. If your host owns it, you can access it in their game. Even to the point that someone doesn’t even need to to “hack” the game to access the DLC, they can just change a boolean value in settings and gain access.
The fun stuff is free. This does make our DLC sometimes a little bit lacklustre compared to the free update, but we rather lean on this side than segmenting the player community. We continue to position the DLC as more of “supporter” content rather than strictly locking stuff. The exceptions to this are probably our “Expansion” level DLC which is very high investment from the studio, so these are more gated.Creature Comforts Content Pack (USD 13.99); a furniture pack that contains a whole host of structures specifically around animals and companions. It is similar in this sense to our other furniture packs although inherently perhaps more functional as pretty much all animal furniture is functional in some way, rather than just cosmetic.
Pet Companions Content Pack (USD 15.99); an animal pack that adds a bunch of pets that the player can bring into their game. These are extra pets, such as cats and dogs, that the player can have as companions.
Zebra Rescue Mission (Free in bundle); a small mission that allows you to rescue zebras as tames. A bundle reward (see below).
These will be bundled together in a “Pets Bundle” at 33% off, giving you the two DLC and the free rescue mission. For completeness, the rescue mission will also be added to the “Complete the Set”.Rocketwerz CEO Dean Hall
Now, Icarus already has a respectable DLC library, featuring everything from new zones and base decor to bite-sized maps for their Outpost mode—described as “… more of a creative mode, with no threats, impactful weather, no missions or quests, just build as much as you want.” If you’re a completionist, the whole game plus DLC bundle will set you back $132.18. (Like everything else on Steam, it always goes on sale.)
So, this got me thinking, and I want your take:
What’s Your Stance on DLC?
- Is Icarus Nailing It? Are they striking the right balance with their DLC offerings?
- All-In or All-Out? Are you absolutely for DLC, no questions asked, or vehemently against it?
- Context Matters? Does your support depend on factors like game status (complete vs. early access), game type (MMOs and expansion DLC are practically married), or personal attachment (I’d sell my soul for anything new from The Long Dark)?
- DLC Fatigue? Have you been burned by games like The Sims and prefer subscription services like World of Warcraft? Or do you favor the one-time purchase model with optional in-game shops like Sea of Thieves? Maybe you dream of every game being a No Man’s Sky (honestly, a bit of a fucking magical content unicorn), pumping out massive content updates for free?
For context, I’ve been shelling out for WoW’s subscription fees since its launch – but the value per expansion kinda ebbs and flows. I throw my cash at in-game shops on Guild Wars 2 (though I no longer play) and Sea of Thieves because looking sexy AF as a pixel person is half the fun. And yes, I bought The Long Dark’s first paid expansion pass without hesitation because that game is a masterpiece and deserves more love. (Seriously, have you played it? Get on that.)
So, what about you? What’s your DLC philosophy? Let’s hash it out.
