Bethesda: Some Gamers ‘Misunderstand’ Day One DLC

Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine Bethesda's marketing vice-president Pete Hines has said he believes complaints concerning day one DLC originate because some gamers "misunderstand" game development.

Hines said concerns over day one DLC come from "among a certain segment of the gaming audience… I don't think they quite understand the development process and the point at which you have to stop making the game and you have to finish the game.

"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."

Adding that it didn't make business sense for developers to be idle for such a long period Hines commented "There's a pretty long gap where your artists and designers are fixing a bug if they get one, or they may be playing the game to find bugs, but they're not making anything for a long time, and you have creative people who are used to creating – so 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?"

Speaking about Skyrim and its expansions; Hearthfire, Dawnguard and Dragonborn, Hines said the scale of those DLC were responsible for the delay in releasing them.

"If we could have created Dragonborn and put it out just as good three weeks after release, we probably would have. But that's not even remotely possible. It's a hypothetical that's not even worth debating."

However, Hines said people should "do what they think works best for them, and the customers have the decision to buy or not buy as they see fit."