The consumer sees the situation thusly: I buy the disk, I get what's on the disk. If you put content on the disk (which I paid for) that I must pay extra for, it's a “stealth tax” or hidden fee. DLC is paying additional money for content that I did not already purchase, and is therefore acceptible. (So thinks the average consumer, I'm claiming).

Neither are consumers alone in this regard: I've spoken to a number of developers who do not like this kind of distribution model, but have had it forced upon them by publishers.

It's hard to come up with parallels in other media, but imagine if one purchased a DVD which had extra content upon it that the viewer had to pay a second fee to access… this is equivalent, and I don't believe DVD consumers would tolerate this situation – even if there were a logical argument in favour of it. (Even more absurd, a novel with an epilogue, but you have to buy a special pen to paint the final pages to reveal it!)

I agree that gamers – and DVD purchasers – are buying into an experience. But the problem here is not rooted in this, but in the perception of what the act of purchasing physical media implies to the consumer. And it implies, in any case where there is not a clear role for subscription fees (e.g. MMOs), that one is buying *all* the content included on that physical media.

Media companies run against this common perception at their own risk!

The bigger challenge is that it's hard for developers to “change the minds” of consumers. That is just really hard.

People's perception of price is very fluid by platform. The same game should be $19.99 on PSP but $0.99 on iPhone, for example. Developers and publishers need to get better at the marketing message about what is “core” and what is “add-on”. It's a PR disaster to cut stuff out into the DLC – it needs to be intentionally separate.

But it gets really interesting when you give quite a lot away for free. Great marketing, and people find it harder to bitch about price when they got a lot of value for nothing.

Does anyone buy it religiously? I can see why it would be fristrating having to wodge out every time in order to get the 'full' experience…