I don’t think I’m breaking any embargos when I tell you that Skyrim is a terrifyingly massive game. In the true Bethesda tradition, it goes on and on and on, and it’s hard to imagine adding content to what is already such a gigantic piece of work. But the other Bethesda tradition involves releasing downloadable content, and usually pretty damned good downloadable content, to supplement a game post-release.
Speaking to Wired today, Skyrim director Todd Howard said that DLC is already in the works for the game, though Skyrim itself doesn’t release until this Friday. Past Bethesda strategies have seen the company bouying large mission packs with smaller weapon and cosmetic downloads, and it sounds as though with Skyrim, they’ll be focusing more on large, meaty add-ons.
“Very quick DLC might sell well,” says Howard, “but that’s not our priority … Our high-level thinking is that there’ll be not as many [pieces of DLC], but they’ll be bigger and more substantial. The goal overall is not necessarily to put out more content, but to make the game better.”
I’ve noticed a trend of Bethesda games releasing a few smaller packs (Knights of the Nine, Operation: Anchorage) and then at least one big one ( Shivering Isles, Point Lookout), so it sounds as though Skyrim will get a few larger additions and fewer small ones.
What will actually shake out? Who knows. With the game’s release upon us, I’d say that no one’s going to be asking for new content for a good long while. (Wait, what am I talking about? Someone out there will probably 100% the game within a week.) Given Bethesda’s decent-to-good track record with DLC, I bet that whatever we get will be chunky and dragonful.
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