Will Continuing Updates Break Gaming As We Know It?

Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
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Will Continuing Updates Break Gaming As We Know It?

While it would be easy to think that Labor Day would leave things kind of slack as far as news went, one item about the major upcoming release of Assassin's Creed III slipped out that may well make the whole gaming landscape a much, much different place to be in the future. The item in question was about new content, and the surprising rapidity with which it would arrive.

See, Ubisoft made the announcement about a new focus on multiplayer, saying that it would be somewhat different from the ordinary in both support from Ubisoft proper as well as in terms of its impact on the universe as a whole. While that sounds good, if vague, there's a more solid measure involved; Ubisoft is planning to release new challenges--and new content--every month for Assassin's Creed III.

That's a lot of content, make no mistake, but it also raises some questions about the nature of gaming as a whole. With the advent of downloadable content, indeed, we all liked the thought of getting in new content for our favorite games well after the fact. Sure, back in the day, said content would have been put in the game itself at release in many cases, but it's still a win-win: the designer gets extra cash for building smaller versions of popular games, and the gamers themselves get to throw on a little extra cash for added replay value.

But Ubisoft's plan, on the surface, seems unusually aggressive. Will these challenges and content updates be sufficiently substantive? Will we just be looking at Assassin's Creed III's version of Horse Armor, easily regarded as some of the worst DLC ever, from Oblivion?

Naturally, there's only one way to tell if this particular DLC update schedule will be as robust as it is prolific, or even if it's as prolific as intended. Still, though, if Assassin's Creed III can stick to this schedule, and make the content anything better than Horse Armor, then chances are, they may well start a whole new paradigm in terms of gaming.



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