Breath of the Wild DLC Announced Early to Give Gamers Something to Look Forward to in Later 2017

Last week, we learned that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be getting DLC later in Summer 2017 and Holiday 2017. Sometimes DLC is abused by developers, piecemealing a game out further than it should. But Nintendo seems to be doing it right with Breath of the Wild.

First and foremost, the DLC for Breath of the Wild isn't done yet. So that "Day One DLC" marketing we get for games on other systems won't be present here. But announcing DLC before the launch of a game may make some people wary. Bill Trinen of Nintendo talked with IGN and explained the thought process behind their announcement of DLC so early on.

"The dev team was working on the main game, finished the main game, and as they're starting to get to the very end and wrap it up, really they said, 'You know we've made this massive world of Hyrule, we've spent a long time building it. It would be a waste to just make one game and have that be it.' We want people to be able to enjoy exploring this world, and so they started thinking about, 'Well, if we were going to do DLC, what would we do, how would we do it?' And you can see that in the fact that it's not… the DLC is not launching the day after the game or the week after. It's coming out several months later in the form of the first pack and then several months after that in the form of the second pack. And that's because the content is in development,"

He also noted that having unfinished DLC announced for a later date will get fans excited about a summer window for a game they potentially buy in March.

"Really what the goal is is let's give people the option to purchase it when they're at the store buying the game and give them something to look forward to, and kind of let them know there's more to come in this world, and if you're a Zelda fan buying Nintendo Switch at launch and really you're buying it for Zelda, I mean how happy are you to know that hey, I'm going to be able to play more Zelda in this world again later this year."

In other words, Nintendo seems to be treating DLC the way it was originally envisioned by gamers: An extension of their games and not a nickel-and-dimed mechanic. Breath of the Wild releases on March 3 next to the Nintendo Switch.