The research team of Zi Yang Chen from the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper titled "Bringing Digital Goods Back to Life" on June 3, local time. Research shows that by releasing DLC (additional content), not only can the revenue of the DLC itself be obtained, but the sales speed of the main game can also be increased by about two times. At the same time, the number of active users and the number of reviews will also increase, bringing a wide range of benefits.
With the popularity of digital distribution, it has become mainstream in the industry to release DLC (additional content) after the main game is released. In fact, research results show that direct revenue from DLC sales accounts for 7% to 13% of the entire market (Newzoo).
On the other hand, it is not clear what impact the release of DLC will have on the sales and number of players of the main game, and how developers' awareness of fixing bugs, etc. will change when releasing DLC has not been fully studied. Therefore, the research team decided to investigate the effect of releasing DLC from the above two perspectives.
Based on the research results, the research team concluded that DLC not only serves as an additional source of revenue, but also plays a role in extending the life of the product by increasing the sales of the main game, the number of players, and the number of reviews.
In addition, the study also found that in works that release DLC, developers will increase the frequency of bug fixes and other updates, which helps gain user trust and enhance brand value. The paper also points out that by optimizing the release time of DLC, it is possible to further increase the sales of the main game. Finally, the paper recommends that improvements should be made based on player feedback and combined with the release of DLC.
