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[Celcius]

One cool thing about games is collaboration between companies and having characters from one company's game appear in another. However, this usually comes with a licensing agreement between the companies that only lasts for a certain period of time before it expires and the content gets delisted. If you're like me, you probably like to buy the base game at launch and then years later when the DLC is dirt cheap then go back and grab it so that all characters on the character selection screen are playable. However, due to collabs and expiring licenses, I've seen in several games that I have where a certain DLC character is delisted and then you forever have that one spot on the character select screen where it says "character not available".

One thing that comes to mind is Terry and Mai (from King of Fighters by SNK) being available in Street Fighter 6 as DLC characters. I assume someday the licensing contract will expire and they'll get delisted so this time I went ahead and bought the season pass now. There are also non-fighting game examples, like the Sword Art Online DLC for Tales of Arise.

Do you guys think there's any chance that any of these companies ever go back and make the DLC purchasable again, even if they have to charge more than before to make it worth it? I don't like this trend of things getting permanently delisted (and often with no advance warning!).

 

[jshackles]

Almost zero chance, in most cases.

The agreements only ever work because the game is hot when they happen and a lot of people have bought or are playing the game. Re-negotiating these deals when the game is on life support just doesn't make a lot of sense in most cases.

 

[MALpractice311]

Welcome to the adorably all digital future, where manufactured FOMO is the norm.