Timed exclusive DLCs have become a fairly common sight in the video game industry recently. These DLCs, normally held exclusively on one console for a short amount of time likely to increase sales of the game on that console (or sell the consoles proper) have been increasing in prevalence lately.
See Also: Dead Rising 4 Is Timed Exclusive, Features Improved FPS And Game Engine
For instance, when The Division first released, it was announced that its DLC would be released a month ahead of other platforms onto the Xbox One. Rise of the Tomb Raider, the sequel to the Tomb Raider remake that came out in 2013, was also a timed exclusive game, only recently coming out on the Playstation 4.
Xbox president Phil Spencer, however, says that timed exclusive DLCs are bad for the industry. Spencer says that spending money in order to market something that another gamer can’t access isn’t good for growth, even if the gamers that are initially denied access to the DLC do eventually get it.
Both Playstation and Microsoft are guilty of the timed exclusive DLC aspect. In addition to The Division and Rise of the Tomb Raider that Microsoft has done, the Playstation versions of a number of games like Destiny (where various weapons and missions normally come out exclusively for them with each expansion release), Call of Duty (which does the same thing), and more often give exclusive content to their players that gamers on other consoles might not see for months or even a year.
Numerous efforts have been made recently to subvert how timed exclusive DLCs operate, however, suchas the process that Microsoft and Sony are making to allow Bethesda games such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition to use certain mods made for the PC versions of both games, something that has separated how Skyrim and Fallout work on PC and consoles for a long time.
