Nintendo Plans to Extend its Games' Lives Through Downloadable Content

Between official news about the new animated Super Mario movie and Mario Kart Tour on mobile, last week was a busy time for Nintendo.

Nintendo's announcements regarding plans for future game DLC unsurprisingly got buried under the rest of the hoopla, but it's worth doubling back and looking them over. During the same earnings call that gave us information about Mario Kart Tour and the animated Mario movie, Nintendo President and CEO Tatsumi Kimishima talked about Nintendo's plans to "implement even more downloadable content and events that build excitement for games" in order to "promote longer gameplay for individual software titles."

We've already seen Nintendo stretch out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with its Champions Ballad DLC. DLC is also on the way for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Neither game is short, but the prospect of re-visiting either one to play more story-based content (or to do donuts across Hyrule's virgin plains with a bitchin' motorcycle) is justifiable reason for hurtling ourselves back into Hyrule or Alrest.

Most of Nintendo's DLC has been received without much complaint, so it might have a winning formula on its hands. Give people a meaty game to begin with, then have them come back a bit later using a Season Pass. I personally enjoyed re-visiting Hyrule in the fall when it came time to conquer the Champions Ballad.

I think we're all warily eyeing the button beside Nintendo that says, "LOOT BOXES," though. It's covered by a plastic shield—for now. I'd say "Loot boxes aren't Nintendo's style," but it wasn't so long ago when I thought free-to-play Gatcha games weren't "Nintendo's style," either (hello Fire Emblem Heroes).

As for "Events that build up excitement for games," Player.One points out Nintendo's been great at building up hype for its old and new catalogue with tours and event shows like the resurrected Nintendo World Championships. Looking forward to seeing more of the same in the coming year.