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Call of Duty fans love them some downloadable content. Over 20 million map packs have been sold to date, and with prices ranging from $5 to $15, we’re talking serious coinage. By which we don't just mean hundreds of millions of dollars, especially since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 alone passed the $1 billion mark just a few months after it launched last November.
With a fair portion of gamers voicing their frustration over the price of the various batches of DLC that have been released over the years, players keep buying them, and by all indications, they’ll continue to buy them as long as Treyarch, and, eventually, Sledgehammer Games, keeps churning them out. But is that a bad thing when it extends the life of your game?
Today, Treyarch’s decade-hopping Call of Duty: Black Ops hits shelves, and as is customary these days, CoD fans are not only looking forward to getting their hands on the content included in the retail box, but they’ll also looking beyond to what lies in store in terms of potential DLC. There are a few interesting factors at play with Black Ops’ add-on packs, like Xbox 360 timed exclusivity, Raven Software’s involvement, and whether Treyarch will stick to maps or try something totally new.
But before we jump into what players can expect from Black Ops’ DLC, it might be helpful to look back at how additional content has been handled with previous Call of Duty games.
The first CoD DLC was actually the free Bonus Map Pack for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 2, which came with two maps – Vossenack, Germany and Wallendar, Germany. IW followed this up with the Skirmish Map Pack (400 Microsoft Points), and that included two maps as well: Kalach, Russia and Beaumont-Hague, France. The final DLC for COD 2 was the Invasion Map Pack (800 MSP), which introduced five new maps – three based on towns in France, an Egyptian desert setting, and a Russian harbor.
Treyarch carried on the DLC torch in Call of Duty 3, starting with the Champs bonus map add-on. This was then followed up by the Valor Map Pack (originally 800 Microsoft Points, now 400 MSP), which included five maps: “Crossing,” “Ironclad,” “La Bourgade,” “Stalag 23,” and “Wildwood." The Bravo Map Pack (originally 800 Microsoft Points, now 400 MSP) came next, adding five more maps to the mix: “Gare Central,” “Marseilles,” “Aller Haut,” “Seine River,” and “Rimling."
Infinity Ward’s seminal Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare only received one piece of add-on content in the form of the Variety Map Pack (800 MSP), which included four maps: "Killhouse", "Creek", "Chinatown", and "Broadcast.” The pack set the record for the fastest selling piece of DLC on Xbox Live after it was downloaded 1 million times in its first nine days of availability.
As PS3 users are fully aware, the Variety pack hit Xbox Live a couple weeks before it landed on PlayStation Network. This release schedule wasn’t an official policy at the time, but that changed this past E3 when Activision announced that all Call of Duty DLC released through 2012 would be timed exclusives on the 360. It isn’t clear how long the maps will be exclusively available on 360, but it will most likely be a month since that’s been the recent pattern.
With CoD: World at War, Treyarch proved it was more than capable of handling the CoD reigns while IW moved on to work on Modern Warfare 2. Not only did the game introduce a wildly popular zombie mode, but it was also supported well after release with the free Makin Day map download, and three batches of DLC.
Map Pack 1 (800 MSP) included four new maps -- “Nightfire,” "Knee Deep," “Station,” and “Verrückt” (Zombie Asylum) -- as well as new weapons, Perks-a-Cola machines and electroshock defenses. Map Pack 2 (800 MSP) also introduced four maps -- “Banzai,” “Corrosion,” “Sub Pens,” and “Shi No Numa” (Zombie Swamp) -- featuring Perk machines, the Wunderwaffe DG-2, Achievements, and flaming Hell Hounds. Four more maps, teleporters, and weapon upgrades came along in the Map Pack 3 (800 MSP), and all of the packs were then made available in the Map Pack Bundle (2000 MSP).
Xbox 360 owners once again enjoyed a month or so of exclusivity with the two pieces of extra content for Modern Warfare 2. The first was the Stimulus Package (1200 MSP), and it introduced “Bailout," "Storm," and "Salvage," plus "Crash" and "Overgrown" from Modern Warfare. The second was the Resurgence Pack (1200 MSP), which included the “Carnival,” “Fuel,” and “Trailer Park” maps, plus the CoD4 maps “Strike” and “Vacant.”
For Black Ops, Treyarch handed over DLC development duties to Singularity developer Raven Software. We don’t know anything about what their downloadable content will include, or how many batches there will be. An image popped up online (via Geek Fill) recently that showed three “Content Packages” being tested, but that number, or the image, have yet to be confirmed. What’s most interesting is why Raven was brought on board. If Treyarch just planned to release maps, it doesn’t seem like they would need the help of an entirely separate studio. Then again, this is exactly what happened with EA’s Medal of Honor; Danger Close Studios developed the single-player while DICE developed the multiplayer.
If I had to guess though, and assuming Raven is still handling the DLC (We reached out to Raven for an update, but have yet to hear back at the time of publication.), I’d say that since the game is basically a patchwork of different time periods and wars, we’re going to see some story-based, single-player/co-op DLC in addition to new multiplayer maps once the DLC starts rolling out. There’s also the issue of whether the four World at War maps included in the Hardened and Prestige editions of Black Ops will be made available sometime down the line as DLC for folks who picked up the standard edition. Chances are they will, but who knows.
As for when the first batch of Black Ops DLC will hit Xbox Live Marketplace? Well, that’s anyone’s guess as well. The Resurgence Pack for MW2 came out four months after the game was released, as did the first map pack for World at War. If Treyarch follows suit, Black Ops players should expect to see DLC sometime around March 2011. You’ll still be playing the game then, right?
Should the need arise, feel free to E-Mail me your tips, suggestions, and/or personal philosophies, or follow me on Twitter.
Comments
Displaying 1–20 of 42
1232
luccibaby
umm im like extremly confused ..... when are the new maps for black ops on the ps3 going to be open to buy???? and what is dlc???? what happened to striek im so lost lol
XXPWNERGODXX
KK this is gonna be awsome and i know it who agrees?
yungmoak
does the map pack come on ps3 too?
loki623
@black bear, we are complaining because it is inane.
let all do the math,
we will use the smallest number they gave us 20000000X15=insert incredibly stupid number here
ok, that happend twice on that game alone.
what all has activiion published in that year. devs just get a flat rate or maybe percentage of dlc sales.
so we will say that the IW got even half that, 1 hundred mil. still in a matter of 2 months activision made 100 mill, oh and IW got screwed in that deal, they made way less than that.
and i forgot to do my multiplication, if you cant do it you shouldnt be reading this, just makes it that much more outrageous.
so these people arent hurting for money, even at five bucks a pop they wouldnt be hurting for money
UnrealGamer99
i think they should make a dlc just for zombies for black ops
Metal2202
I personaly think its bs that only a few people are able to play the zombie maps from world at war. they should make it available on the market place for a price.
Death_Wombat
I wouldn't mind a weapon pack along with new maps. New weapons, maybe the WaW weapons for instance, new facepaints and icons, and maybe even new perks as well. If they are going to release dlc, add more then just maps.
eF3CTz
instead of making dlc they should be sorting the lagy servers and stopping the gay sponging, there was a reson why everyone used stopping power on the other cods
The_Tarv
Even though I love DLC's they really need to focus on fixing the party system on PS3 first. Every time I get a party together and I am party leader I lose the party and that is how it goes with everyone. I've heard 360 isn't having these issues so what is the problem with fixing the PS3's? I do agree that they are overpriced though, especially when your only getting 4-6 maps on each download.
SilverbackZach
they should just make a map pack with all zombie maps
MagicPigCow
The map packs for MW2 are out of order
xBl00dbath17x
- People really need to realize that games are well done at least 2 months before launch to the public. Paperwork, marketing, and all the final preparations. They aren't squeezing money out of anyone. We have jobs and spend our money just as they do. Except they have employees, marketing, and production cost to tend to. So that DLC they are work on and release shortly after the game launches is nothing to complain about.
You don't like it?
Don't buy it then!
Nobody tells you to!
If you have a problem with it...don't buy the damn game in the first place..
So get your facts straight people...
DLC is nothing to whine about. It's the company making a living.
For us?
It's a way to expand our entertainment.
So DLC gets a thumbs up from me!
Scissor_Runner12
@Mr. Nelson92 I thought so too, maybe that was just PSN.
Weapon packs would be cool, for multiplayer etc. Or they could do what Mafia 2 did, you can download another single player campaign.
And MORE ZOMBIES!!! i love the zombie modes
chaosblade47
The zombies map pack already came out for people who bought hardended editon of cod black ops. The map pack of classic zombies might probably come out in December or Januarary. The multiplayer map pack would probably come out later after the classic zombies map pack is on the market place. PS3 signed a contract saying Xbox Live market place gets map packs first and PS3 network gets it later than Xbox.
meltedsoul811
More close quarters multiplayer maps and more zombie maps would be nice and maybe a couple more wager modes like TDM or S&D. But I still have at least another 6 months of destruction to dish out before I'm ready for any dlc. Good to know its in the works though.
theoldguy
I think they should let the map packs be combined from game to game. Charge a small fee and import all the map packs to one game. Then sell us the new map packs for the $15.00. Either way, I will continue to buy the games and map packs as they are released. Yes, I would love to see some free ones, but I can't really complain. I am on the playstation network and it's free to play.
B10N3T
they need a whole bunch of new zombie levels as dlc, but not the world at war maps from the hardened & prestige editions cuz im getting the hardened edition now just for those maps
B10N3T
we need a whole bunch of new zombie levels, but not the world at war maps from the hardened & prestige editions cuz im getting the hardened edition now just for those maps
B10N3T
we need a whole bunch of new zombie levels, but not the world at war maps from the hardened & prestige editions cuz im getting the hardened edition now just for those maps
greeneggsam
First off I would like to state that I am the smartest man alive! Second I would have to say that World at War and Black Ops are the best games ever! Treyarch you rock... I don't care what anyone says. World at war was a solid game and zombies is the best thing that has happened to COD. Although COD3 multiplayer sucked the campaign held its own and COD3 did introduce running. No people, treyarch did not steal or copy everything from COD4 because it is a franchise and technically that would be like saying you steal or copy from yourself (and that just sounds dumb). The DLCs are not going to be free because its made in the USA, and last time I checked the US was a capitalist nation, and people spent time and effort to make them. When I go to work I expect to get paid for the work I do and I get paid because of the products we produce. (because we retail them and do not give them away) So keep on gaming you true COD gamer fans, and if you have any questions I will gladly answer them... because I know everything!
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