Dotting T's and Crossing I's (Destiny)

by CyberKN , Oh no, Destiny 2 is bad, Tuesday, August 15, 2023, 18:54 (465 days ago) @ INSANEdrive
edited by CyberKN, Tuesday, August 15, 2023, 19:04

From Halo 2 until the the first (heroic) map pack in Halo 3, Bungie had a policy of making DLC maps free after a certain amount of time had passed... I forget the exact timeframes, but I think it was about 6 months after release.

Then with the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack (Avalanche, Blackout, and Ghost Town), a bean-counter at Microsoft decided it wasn't profitable and ended the practice, instead discounting the price of that pack by 25%.

In the 07/07/08 Bungie podcast, Brian Jarrard goes into this a bit, as there were reservations by said bean-counters about giving away a brand new map like Cold Storage for free. The compromise reached was that the map would only be featured in playlists that required the player to have purchased the Legendary Map Pack. The sole exception was the Bungie day playlist that was all Cold Storage, all the time.

Addendum:

I did some research on Halo 2's DLC, and discovered that the Bonus Map Pack (featuring Warlock and Containment) was also free, because development was sponsored by Mountain Dew. The other packs became free in as little as two months after initial release.