MAG Has Free DLC Coming Out

For those of you who follow any Sony news, you might know that MAG, Sony’s huge first party FPS, is getting some free DLC tomorrow.

I was reading the article about it and I only had one thought in mind. “Good try.”

I understand that every company is going to do what they can to keep FPS junkies happy, I’m looking at you Bungie, and it seems that MAG may be a little bit too late. While I do find the concept of the sheer magnitude of the game, it seems that concept, nor the delivery, was enough to capture the attention of too many players. Games such as Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: BC2 seem to have all of the attention at the moment, but even at the time of MAG’s official release, not much talk was stirred other than “Generic shooter with lots of people” that I could notice, so when I read that MAG was going to be getting DLC, and free DLC at that, it makes me think if it’s just a slightly sad attempt to get more players in their camp.

With Modern Warfare 2′s new stimulus package(hur hur, get it?) map pack coming out soon, with a “ridiculous price” of course, it seems a comparison can be drawn between the two games. While “No Russian” seems to have left most people’s thoughts, the game is still so wildly played, that a payed DLC pack was enough to cause a stir among gamers (I mean, come on. 15 dollars? That’s my whole paycheck!), but this is simple supply and demand. People want “moar” and this is delivering on that. It seems that with MAG, they’re giving it away which strikes me as a bit odd for some reason. MAG doesn’t have a small amount of followers, but it’s still only a fraction of other FPS games and I doubt that any amount of DLC will be able to help.

My own personal experience has shown me one thing. People love the PS3 because the online is free. Period. I mean, yes. God of War III is good and some other PS3 exclusives are pretty, but more often than not, the reason I get is “Free online dude!” So when it comes to gaming, development time and other factors cost money. Buying some DLC is a great way for a company to either pad their bottom line or help a game that did okay compared to other FPS powerhouses that break records at release. While it’s true that MAG hasn’t had that much time out on the market, with MW2, BF:BC2, and the upcoming Halo: Reach all out there, it seems as if the MAG’s gimmick of having a lot of players has worn out before really getting a chance to spread it’s wings. Criticisms on it are pretty funny, too.

In the end though, I love MAG for trying something different. Maybe with this push of technology will lead to even better games with the same concept. Maybe a game with OVER 9000 PLAYERS!

Sorry. I couldn’t resist.