There are huge gaming franchises today that are released on a yearly basis. These include sports titles including FIFA and NBA 2K, as well as Call of Duty. Even Assassin’s Creed was once released on an annual basis.

Unfortunately, this leads to a few downsides. Most of the time, annual sequels feel like reskins of their predecessors. Although franchises like NBA 2K and FIFA try to include something new and fresh every year, it all feels like the games are updates or reskins of old titles. At least Call of Duty manages to change the setting and themes effectively.

With that in mind, it would be better, from a consumer standpoint, to instead make use of DLCs and expansions. Though this will be a financially-terrible decision for certain companies, it can be done effectively and at the same time, make their players happy. How? Well, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why:

More bang from our buck

To be honest, I personally don’t understand people who continue to buy microtransactions and card packs in sports games. Sure, it’s a must to improve their competitiveness in online modes, but the investment just seems unwise. Imagine spending over $100 on microtransactions only to have the slate wiped clean a year later.

If such investments can be longer, then gamers would get more bang from their buck and at the same time, will be encouraged to further buy microtransactions. Sure, companies will be deprived of $60 annually, but if they use DLCs and expansions, they could cover potential losses.

For example, imagine that FIFA is being released every two years. Players will be more tempted to purchase player packs and other microtransactions. Some expansion and DLC ideas can include added modes (like this year’s Volta or FIFA Street) as well as more teams, competitions, and even fictional stadiums.

It builds on an existing structure

Let’s take a look at Pokemon Sword and Shield. Though it’s an outstanding game, it was mired with controversies, especially the lack of a National PokeDex (only 400 Pokemon instead of the full roster) which made it earn the ire of a large portion of its fanbase. Not giving up, the developers at GameFreak endeavored and announced two new expansions - which will include more Pokemon - and gradually added other missing Pokemon into the roster.

This is a far cry from the annual releases and remakes they used to do back in the day. Instead of releasing a new-rehashed Pokemon game, they expanded on the current structure of Sword and Shield while including older assets - in the form of old Pokemon - into the fray.

The same can be said about Ace Combat 7. The post-release DLCs bring back old fictional aircraft from previous games while adding three special and incredibly outstanding missions. Though it’s relatively short and rather pricey for a full season pass, it fits seamlessly into the base game and provides an incredible experience. It adds in a few more gameplay elements, new enemies, and a short storyline filled with rather interesting new characters.

Better games

By investing in DLCs and expansions, developers will get a chance to create better games. In the case of GameFreak, they’ll have more room to create the next generation of Pokemon. It can be a much better game with the National Dex at the start and hopefully, with voice acting (which Sword and Shield sorely missed). DLCs and expansions can come in the form of more regions and competitions (like singleplayer tournaments) which can be on a larger scale when compared to the current-gen.

Although long development time doesn’t always equate to better games (ahem, Mass Effect: Andromeda), there are a lot of titles that took time to make and managed to blow everyone’s minds away. A great example is, of course, God of War in 2018 (though it has not expansions) which took five years of hard work. Watch the documentary below to get a good idea of the work involved:

By giving developers more time to work on projects, they’ll be able to produce refined and award-winning titles.

It’s a waste to not expand

Let’s take a look at The Witcher III. Since it’s release in 2015, it has had a couple of outstanding expansions: Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. The base game can already offer more than a hundred hours of content and yet, it feels like a shame to not expand on the world and the characters.

With that said, not expanding a base game feels like a huge waste. You’ve built an outstanding product from scratch, so why not add more to it to sell to fans and make them happy?

Of course, DLCs and expansions can only be better than annual releases if they’re planned and well-made. Though we’re not saying they’re easier to make compared to base games, they simply expand on a game’s structure instead of having to build from scratch. In turn, this can give developers fresh ideas and more opportunities to improve on future games.