I joined Bitmob simply to make this post, because this topic has bothered me significantly for some time.  I will start by saying that Capcom has long been my favorite third party developer.  This is the company that gave us Mega Man, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Ghosts 'n Goblins, the Marvel fighting games, Final Fight, many great arcade games, Devil May Cry, and so much more. Their reputation as a developer has earned them an excellent pedigree as one of the industry's foremost and most beloved game companies.

Lately, however, a dark cloud has hung over the once-sterling reputation of a company known for setting standards and raising bars in gaming excellence. That cloud is DLC (or downloadable content), a notion which, while once restricted to the idea of patches, minor updates, and expansions in the realm of PC games, has become commonplace with the advent of powerful, high-speed, next-generation consoles -- the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. DLC began as a noble concept, and that was to create additional episodes, chapters, or missions with which to keep a game experience fresh long after the initial game purchase. But before long, the manufacturers of the consoles -- mainly Microsoft -- saw it as an opportunity to squeeze extra cash from gamers who would begrudgingly open their wallets to have the latest and best bit of content for their games. In an ideal world, DLC would be free of charge, but Microsoft has pioneered the art of making virtual microtransactions into its own business. Gamers can expect to fork over $5-to-$8 for something so simple as an additional character (in the case of last summer's 2D fighting game, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift) or up to $10-$15 for a measly 3 extra maps for multiplayer FPS games (Halo) or a side mission for a game that may not even last a full hour (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, other Bioware games). Naturally, loyal fans of these products bought these premiums in droves, fueling the fire.

Even more repugnant than the high cost of DLC (and in many cases, for the price of a 1-hour side mission, one can instead spend those spacebucks on something meatier, such as a full-fledged downloadable game) is the advent of what is called either day-1/day-0 DLC or "disc-locked content" (an ironic and bitter retroactive rebranding of what DLC stands for). In the eyes of many gamers and industry watchers, this is seen as a lazy tactic used to withhold or cut content from the retail release such that they can hold it for ransom and force gamers to pay extra on top of the $60 (plus tax) they already spent on the game (and, if you enjoy a tangible walkthrough as I do, $15-$20 for the strategy guide). So on top of a total package that may set you back $60-$80, companies are now withholding content that could have fit on the disc and making you pay anywhere from $10-to-$20 and even beyond in some cases on top of that.

Beyond all this set-up and background, how does this relate to Capcom?

You see, the Big C has, in recent years, acquired a bit of a reputation with DLC. It honestly wasn't too bad to begin with -- their first real next-gen efforts, Lost Planet and Dead Rising, had no pre-planned DLC, and content that did come later for Lost Planet was added on in a budget-priced rerelease of the game in a special edition. As Capcom became accustomed to developing for the new hardware, however, things changed.

Street Fighter IV was one of the biggest releases in fighting games in recent years. Fans had clamored for a return-to-form for the seminal franchise which had, essentially, created an entire genre (despite there being other fighting games at the time, none were as influential as Street Fighter II). Indeed, the game returned to basics by offering a classic roster and gameplay reminiscent of the days of Super SF Turbo. Everything was just peachy...with just one catch -- Capcom was charging people for costumes. Yes, they were making us fork over money if we wanted something so simple as alternate costumes. The most insulting part of this equation -- beyond the fact that items such as alternate costumes had, in the years before, been included as something that could be unlocked through normal gameplay -- was that intrepid code junkies and hackers had discovered that the data for these costumes existed on the disc. So not only was Capcom making us pay if we wanted glorified character skins, they had deviously hidden it away on the disc and were holding it ransom until we paid for what amounted to a virtual "key" to unlock content that should have been ours upon purchase.

Capcom dismissed complaints about these issues, and gamers foolishly fed the cash machine anyway and bought up the costumes. It doesn't stop there, however; in fact, it gets even worse.

Resident Evil 5 was yet another highly-anticipated game. It had a lot to live up to, especially in light of RE4, which revolutionized an aging and archaic formula, and starred fan favorite Leon Kennedy. After the smashing success of 4, RE5 was guaranteed to hit it big. And it did; it even had online co-op, to boot. Unfortunately, it was discovered that Capcom had purposefully cut an online Vs. Mode from the game, at least where gamers could see it -- the content was tucked away on the disc, and once again, if you desired the Vs. Mode, you had to pay the ever-growing Capcom Money Monster. People complained, of course, and Capcom dismissed their anger as BS.

Had enough? We're not done yet: Mega Man 9 was a game more than ten years overdue, as fans had not been able to enjoy a true sequel to the Blue Bomber's adventures for a significant stretch of time. Even better was the fact that Capcom was purposely going for a "retro" look with NES-style graphics and sounds. Gamers were beside themselves with anticipation for the newest game starring Capcom's mascot, and best of all, it would be only $10 across all major downloadable game services: WiiWare, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live.

Gamers were baffled to discover, upon booting up the game, that several menu options were replaced by rows of question marks. What was the meaning of this? Turns out Capcom had created additional content for the game -- an endurance mode, an option to select Protoman as a character, additional time attack stages, and higher difficulty settings -- but cut the content before the digital release. Several weeks later, they so graciously allowed us access to the missing, pre-made content -- for an additional $8 total. Fans were not happy, and one went as far as to rail against a Capcom employee and engage him in a bitter argument, which resulted in a lot of name-calling and telling the fan that his complaints were foolish. Great way to treat the people who allow you to stay in business, Capcom.

They pulled the same shenanigans with Mega Man 10 -- a direct result of the unexpected success of Mega Man 9's huge sales figures -- two years later.

And now, with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Capcom's up to its dirty tricks again. To say this game was highly anticipated is an understatement, as the Marvel vs. series is one of the most beloved in fighting game history, and the fact that Capcom managed to ink a new deal with Marvel in order to give the fans what they wanted was pretty phenomenal.

Oh, but guess what? In addition to the 36 characters available on-disc at purchase, there are two extra characters -- Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath -- that Capcom created as DLC. And furthermore, this DLC was announced several months before the game's release, much to the chagrin of fans. If the DLC had been announced so early, wouldn't they have time to fix any issues with the characters -- which Capcom admitted they were having? Seems like enough time to fix it to me. Not only that, Shuma-Gorath only made it in as a result of Capcom itself pressuring Marvel to allow them to include him due to fan demand. Seems odd to me that a fan-favorite character would only be available to said fans for $5.

Of course, the files for the characters are nothing more than unlock keys -- a whopping 140 KB per character. Of course, Capcom has scammed us again. To add salt to the wound, fans could preorder a collector's edition for only $70 which included a special Steelbook case with exclusive art, a special comic and art book for the game, console stickers, character cards, a one-month subscription to Marvel's Digital Comics service, and vouchers to download Jill and Shuma-Gorath.

People who did not order the special edition have to still pay $10 if they want both DLC characters, but they don't get the fancy extras from the special edition. Seems fair to me.

Gamers, remember the days when a game came with ALL content upfront? When you didn't have the sneaking suspicion that content was being cut or held back or that you would have to pay more in order to get the "full experience"? Remember when Capcom was an honest company that respected its fans?

We have to stand together against this corrupt capitalism. Write to Capcom, go to their message boards and air your issues with them, or even outright refuse to support them -- make it clear that you will not stand for these dirty cash grabs.