While downloadable content has most often been used to get more money out of a game's release, there are a fair number of games that have made the choice to offer free DLC to players.
A lot of the time, this DLC is much more limited in scope than what is typically offered as paid DLC. However, there have been several times where a game has released free DLC that rivaled the typical paid content that gamers expect. We've gathered 10 examples of fully priced games that offered free DLC that was just as good or even better than paid content.
10 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Updates
While the free updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons don't function as typical DLC, they do offer a load of free content for players to jump into, sometimes even literally.
Ever since a few months after the game released, Nintendo has updated the game with new features and activities for players to enjoy. One of the first major updates included a new swimming activity, a new wing to the museum, and more foliage options. Nintendo could easily bring several of these features together and sell them as seasonal DLC, so the fact that these updates are free is fantastic.
9 Mass Effect 3 Ending DLC
When Mass Effect 3 released, several fans were disappointed with the direction that the ending took to wrap up the series. In response to this, EA released the Extended Cut which featured several new scenes to expand on the ending.
While many fans would argue that these should have been included from the beginning, the fact that EA would listen to fan reactions and release a free DLC to improve the ending shows that they did care how fans felt about the end of the original trilogy.
8 Overcooked 2: Suns Out, Buns Out
After its initial release, the team behind Overcooked 2 has actually been pretty great about releasing high quality DLC. This is made even better by the fact that much of this downloadable content is free for players.
Earlier this year, Team17 released the Suns Out, Buns Out expansion which included new chefs, themed recipes, maps, and summer parades. In many other games, this would be a fully priced expansion, but Team17 wanted to make sure that players could enjoy the DLC for free.
7 Overwatch Maps & Characters
When Overwatch released in 2015, Blizzard was quick to announce that any and all characters added to the game would be patched in for free.
Since then, all major characters and maps have been added to the game at no cost, so it seems like Blizzard kept that promise. Players enjoying Overwatch since launch have been given countless updates that have added new personalities and areas to explore for no charge. Hopefully this trend will continue with the sequel announced last year.
6 Witcher 3 Free DLC
Although The Witcher 3 launched with an insane amount of content on release, it was announced that the game would receive 16 pieces of free downloadable content.
Some of these were cosmetic, but there were many that included full missions and quests for Geralt to complete. At this point, the game would feel almost incomplete without much of the features included in the free DLC. CD Projekt Red has also announced that Cyberpunk 2077 will also follow the early free DLC model, which has many gamers excited for what's to come.
5 Alice: Madness Returns Original Game
When Alice: Madness Returns was first announced, gamers were able to pre-purchase the game to unlock a download code for the entire first game. Unfortunately, this DLC is no longer available years after the game's release.
Although this skirts the line of what we can truly call DLC, it was very unheard of for a developer to include the original game with a sequel for no extra cost, especially since the original Alice game had never been available on consoles before this point, meaning that many people had probably never played the original in the first place.
4 Grand Theft Auto V Online Content
Many players are still disappointed that there was never any single player DLC announced for GTA V, but it's been made a lot better due to the sheer amount of content added to the online mode.
While GTA has become a haven for microtransactions, it’s still incredible how much free content has been added to the game since launch. While some of it fell flat, much of the content added to GTA Online has become an integral part of the experience, like heists and stunt races.
3 Titanfall 2 Maps & Weapons
Despite many other shooters following in the battle pass model, Titanfall 2 opted for free content updates for players to enjoy during its multiplayer run.
These updates still contained quite a lot of content, including new and interesting maps, weapons, game modes, cosmetic items, and even a new Titan. These updates helped cement Titanfall's cult status as a shooter after it underperformed on launch. Hopefully, the DLC model will remain this way in a potential sequel.
2 No Man's Sky Updates
When No Man's Sky was released, it caused a lot of controversy for not living up to the hype that it had created. Fortunately for players, No Man's Sky has mostly become the game that it set out to be in the years after its release.
Soon after the release, Hello Games released the Foundation Update, which added a lot of the missing features to the game that players were waiting for. After that, a huge expansion to the game was added as part of No Man's Sky Next, which included full multiplayer and additions to base building mechanics.
1 Minecraft
It's impossible to discuss free DLC and updates to games without talking about one of the greatest games to offer free expansions: Minecraft.
There are few games that have received the amount of support that Minecraft has had. For players that bought Minecraft back when it was in early access, they've been able to receive constant free updates for years. At this point, Minecraft may have been the best bang-for-your-buck game that's ever been released.