Resident Evil 6 DLC Disc

This March, publisher/developer Capcom was discovered as yet another purveyor of on-disk DLC - selling players a game disk under the guise of total ownership and access, while secretly locking additional content (in this case, 12 new fighters for Street Fighter X Tekken) to sell at a later date.

Capcom issued a statement shortly thereafter - they defended the method as vital for "efficiency and flexibility" in the game's life cycle, but acknowledged the unsavory nature of the ordeal and promised to reevaluate their DLC approach in the future. Unfortunately, Resident Evil 6 might have just taken them a step back.

Modders have begun posting videos to YouTube exposing content in Resident Evil 6 that they allege was found by unlocking hidden files.

Uncovered so far is an extra difficulty mode called "No Hope" that ostensibly takes the game's challenges to new, near-impossible heights. At the same time, other discovered, but-still-locked files relating to map packs, multiplayer game modes, and co-op for the Ada Wong campaign are denoted as future DLC. The important distinction is that No Hope Mode is the only DLC file entirely on the Resident Evil 6 disk; everything else, according to YouTube user FluffyQuack, who uploaded the footage, is "only partially on-disk."

Vaguely (albeit promptly), Capcom confirmed this much in a response to Eurogamer today. The company sought to assure gamers that "virtually all" of their upcoming RE 6 DLC is not on-disk, however for "technical reasons," one piece - presumably No Hope Mode - is embedded in the original copy:

"We still have unannounced DLC for RE 6 that will be revealed in the coming months and while virtually all such content will not be on the disc there will be one piece of content, that for technical reasons, requires the use of a combination of newly downloaded data and data that is included on the retail game disc."

How Capcom's description of "newly downloaded data" communicating with retail-game-disc data differs from the concept of, you know, any DLC is a bit beyond our comprehension - and that's likely the point.

Capcom is well aware - after Mass Effect 3's "From Ashes" controversy and their own machinations with Street Fighter X Tekken - that while nothing legally prevents the shipping of disk-locked content, morally it's a grey area. Many gamers see it as a surreptitious binding on what should be a part of the standard game, the 16 grams of plastic they already purchased. Former Epic design director Cliff Blezinski made a convincing point regarding on-disc DLC this April - he noted the idle time a developer has while the core game is going through its shipping cycle, as well as the "compatibility issues" Capcom might be referencing - but it's virtually impossible to tell who's doing it out of necessity and who's simply exploiting demand.

Ranters, has Capcom crossed the line with Resident Evil 6's disk-locked content?

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Source: Eurogamer