There is no doubt that BioWare caused an uproar among fans when it included pay-locked downloadable content on “Mass Effect 3” discs. Although they weren’t the only ones to do this, the idea of DLC is still fairly new, allowing fresh controversies to sprout up every day.

The idea of on-disc DLC is that the developer has physically put the DLC data on the disc and buying the DLC is more like an unlock code instead of an actual download, like the name would suggest.

Epic Games’ design director Cliff Bleszinski is an advocate for developer’s rights to include on-disc DLC. Bleszinski spoke to [GameSpot](http://www.gamespot.com/news/on-disc-dlc-an-ugly-truth-says-gears-of-war-designer-6370601) at PAX East, stating on-disc DLC is _necessary_.

“And often for compatibility issues, (on) day one, some of that content does need to be on-disc,” he says. “It’s an ugly truth of the gaming industry. I’m not the biggest fan of having to do it, but it is one of the unfortunate realities.”

This announcement came after Capcom’s admittance that it produced on-disc “DLC” in the form of 12 characters for its “Street Fighter X Tekken” game. After purchasing the $60 game with a limited number of characters, you have to pay $20 (or 1600 Microsoft points) to access the 12 other characters, some of which are known as staples in the series.

Capcom’s reasoning echoes Bleszinski’s, “Tekken” producer Katsuhiro Harada says.

“It’s Capcom’s business decision, obviously, but I expect the reason they did that was if one player bought a character that another player didn’t have, they would not be able to play against each other online,” Harada says. “Each player needs to have the character data on their disc — if one doesn’t, they would need to download it before each match – and as that includes the character model, the data would be large, increasing the download time,” he says, as [Edge](http://www.edge-online.com/news/harada-tekken-will-never-have-paid-dlc-characters) reports.

Harada himself claims Tekken would never charge for characters whose move sets “are essential items necessary in the game” and that Tekken “would never sell any of those individually.”

[Jimquisition](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5625-On-Disc-DLC-Cannot-Be-Justified), a podcaster with Escapist Magazine, takes the side of the “peasant” and brought up many of the problems I was having with on-disc DLC.

First and foremost, developers like Bleszinski think on-disc DLC is a “necessary evil,” indicating that developers _have_ to put DLC on discs. As far as I remember, I didn’t have to pay for unlockable disc content with the PlayStation 2; I simply had to complete ridiculous and random tasks within the game in order to get cool stuff. This is only an issue because developers made it an issue.

And let’s not forget the money issue. In the era before the Internet, developers had the typical “complete quest A without taking damage and earn a new character skin” challenges. The thrill of being a completionist for content is being taken away by the greed of developers who want to make you pay for the content you used to get for free. It’s like making someone pay for a freemium game and then making them pay even more for the add-ons that actually make the game worthwhile.

Everyone likes the occasional topical extras or expansion packs that extend the life of a game, but now essential game content is gated off until you pay for a code to unlock the data on the disc. In the words of Jimquisition, “If you’re only making a game with the intent to sell extra content, get into the growing free-to-play market or fuck off.”