Gears DLC to be free?

By Robert Purchese Published 15 December, 2006

Epic boss thinks so.

Epic Games President Mike Capps has said that Gears of War will be supported by free downloadable content.

"We always take care of our customers, we always give them stuff for free and we're going to keep doing that forever," Capps said this week. "This is how we do it man, this is Epic."

Speaking backstage at the Spike TV Video Games Awards 2006, the Epic team was keen to show their continued support for their popular Xbox 360 title. "We're Epic and we're known for supporting our games," said game designer Cliff Bleszinski; "that's all we're saying right now."

The developer scooped four awards at Wednesday night's show in Los Angeles, including "Studio of the Year" and "Best Shooter". Producer Rod Fergusson praised the developer's well-rewarded efforts, adding "every game's a team effort and we've got one of the best teams at Epic".

Whilst the confirmation of continued support for the game is encouraging, there's no information as to whether the pre-christmas 'house-keeping' patch that Mark Rein talked about earlier this month will make the deadline.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • agparrot #1 6 years ago

    If that is the case perhaps a few other developers could turn it into a trend... Mint.

  • Zomoniac #2 6 years ago

    The "watch CliffyB defeat the bosses" videos on Marketplace are 100pts each though...

  • SeanLB #3 6 years ago

    He does say 'stuff' for free, so that could mean some sort of two tiered approach for free and pay for 'stuff'. Just me trying to be cynical.

  • Eraser #4 6 years ago

    Yeah that's Epic right there for ya. Best product support I've seen from a company EVER (and I've always been in the Quake camp of the Quake vs UT debates).

  • Xerx3s #5 6 years ago

    Epic has supported UT'99 for ages. I remember totally new packs that could easily be done as expantions for free.

  • kangarootoo #6 6 years ago

    "This is how we do it man, this is Epic."

    Shit the bed. Did he really say that? That is tragic.

  • trav #7 6 years ago

    Its alright if Epic want to do the downloads for free.

    Its another story if Microsoft put their foot down and say they want to charge for the content.

  • JayPee #8 6 years ago

    "Maybe they can patch the friendly/enemy AI so it's halfway decent...

    Shiny, over-rated game!"

    Have you played it much?

  • Psychotext #9 6 years ago

    JayPee: Why even ask, even if they haven't they'll say they have! =P

  • SeesThroughAll #10 6 years ago

    I hope so. Embarrass those greedy bastards from Buena Vista Games.

  • Xerx3s #11 6 years ago

    Greggywocky, if it was as you said, it wouldn't keep the EG lot up to 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. And speaking about an overrated game that was released more than a year ago....

  • jack_klugman #12 6 years ago

    What's wrong with paying for new content? Somebody clearly spent time making it. Somebody clearly deserves to be rewarded for their efforts. Implying that you're better than the rest for not charging whilst being bankrolled by Microsoft GS isn't entirely fair.

  • mkreku #13 6 years ago

    I don't mind to pay for new content that's added after the game is done.

    What I do mind is paying for stuff that was cut from the original game so that they could sell it on the marketplace later for even more dough.

    There's really no way to spot the difference, I guess. But with Gears of War it feels like they'd have to add entirely new content. For example Oblivion felt like a rip-off. Horse armour!!

  • Phattso #14 6 years ago

    Gears has reinvigorated XBOX Live for me and many others. A free content update would go a long way toward cementing the game's fan base and building a lot of goodwill for the inevitable sequel.

    I'm not against paying for content that's worth the cash, but in this instance it'd be nice to perhaps see an initial map/mode pack released gratis and then a few months later some more content with a nominal fee attached.

    Good as the ten or so maps in the retail release are, I've been hammering this game quite hard since release so it'd be nice to see some fresh content sooner rather than later.

  • absolutezero #15 6 years ago

    I got bored of Gears about a week and a half after buying.

    Ranked is a mess thanks to fucking Gamer Points. If you do luck out and find a match with people wanting to act as a team, its gone after one match to help keep things "Balanced". Thanks for that.

    Thing is even in Player Matches with people you know (or the lovely Eurogamer people) it gets tired pretty quickly. The bugs grate the more you play, I dived away from that Chainsaw without being knicked yet because its a stupid animation I just exploded into bits. Oh yay someones grenade tagging and people are still banging on about how great the Shotgun is even after I've pistol whipped them to death for the 8th time.
    Edited by absolutezero at 15/12/06 @ 15:05

  • Phattso #16 6 years ago

    "Tired pretty quickly"? The only thing getting tired are the EG Gears regulars that haven't seen their bed before 02:00hrs for most of this week. ;-)

  • skillian #17 6 years ago

    Massive respect to them if they do do this.

    "This is how we do it man, this is Epic" - that's such an admirable statement. kangarootoo, what do you see wrong with saying that?
    Edited by skillian at 15/12/06 @ 14:57

  • ronuds #18 6 years ago

    Take notes EA!

  • absolutezero #19 6 years ago

    lol Cogs I saw what you did there.

  • skillian #20 6 years ago

    Epic have been around for years, always released tons of extra content, and never charged a penny for it.

    It shows what a sad start of affairs we are in when it's actually a big deal that they are carrying on as before...

  • Ryuken #21 6 years ago

    Idd, I got the impression some folks want them to ask money for it.

  • ronuds #22 6 years ago

    I'm thinking that if anything is going to be free, it'll just be guns and such. I doubt they'd release new maps for free, but here's to hoping!!! Maybe they'll put something like 1 map for free and then make you pay for others.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #23 6 years ago

    Single player was overrated, multiplayer is actually quite fun, although I do get bored after an hour. Finding games takes long because I usually cannot connect to the first two I find and ranked matches play fine until the first team wins a single round and then someone leaves and it's 3 on 4.

    If I would want something for gow it would be new maps. Half of the maps are quite boring or really imbalanced so a few new ones would not hurt.

    As for weapons, I think the game has enough problems with the weapons that are in there right now. Mainly due to lag. The saw fails to work sometime, hitting someone with the shotgun is a pure 50/50 chance. Oh how often do I saw someone who missed me two times with the shotgun although I was literally standing in front of him.

  • Helios #24 6 years ago

    Not surprised by thsi at all.

    5 free map packs for UT
    3 bonus packs containing new characters, vehicles levels and gametypes for UT2003/4

    Good to see that Epic supports it's communities so well :D

  • sharpfish #25 6 years ago

    Epic are one of the best devs around. They have always given free stuff above and beyond the "support" standard. Unreal, UT, UT2kx and now Gears... They are good guys and I can't wait for some more Gears maps :)

  • effinwooly #26 6 years ago

    excellent.......great game !

  • matrim83 #27 6 years ago

    Like everyone says Epic have always been generous when it comes to supporting their games on the PC. Here is hoping the trend continues.

  • earobus #28 6 years ago

    yeh email this to ea the wankers

  • Freek #29 6 years ago

    And then see them backtracking super fast and pretending this statement was never made when the content actually hits. Since MS is publishing GoW they get to set prices, not Epic.

    "OH yeah the free stuff.....uuuhhhh, yeah...uhm..that was the patch that fixes a few bugs.....woo hoo.....we rock!..."

  • Reihn #30 6 years ago

    I'd love a to see some free DLC for Gears. You know what it should focus on though? The missing campaign chapters 6 & 7.

    I play these games for the single-player vs the story experience, and it was just too damn short. While I enjoyed Gears greatly at the time, I was really peeved to find I had reached the end of the game (although I had been duly warned - Thanks Krudster!). Seriously, if it's nothing but more multiplayer modes and maps, my limited edition tin is gonna keep gathering dust.

    Or I'll, ya know, hock it fer smack. Tasty smack.
    Edited by Reihn at 17/12/06 @ 03:11

  • pesser #31 6 years ago

    WE AINT GETTING NOTHIN FREE FROM MS

  • kangarootoo #32 6 years ago

    @skillian

    "that's such an admirable statement. kangarootoo, what do you see wrong with saying that?"

    Well, I am being a cynic about this, but I guess I could make two points.

    First off, its just the "this is what we do" sentence that sounds absurdly cheesy in my ears. It just seemed to fit with the whole GeOW "whooha" mentality, which I also find extremely cheesy, which sort of made me chuckle.

    Second, Epic are a big corp. They do what they do to increase profits. If they release DLC for free its because they believe that will increase profit in the long term. They aren't doing it "for the kids", big companies just don't work like that. And I find it disingenous for him to act otherwise.

  • NegativeZero #33 6 years ago

    Maybe they could fix Dom's AI so that he doesn't repeatedly get smushed by the Berserker. I've had about 40 attempts at finishing that bit, and I've only died once. :(

  • ZuluHero #34 6 years ago

    shh guys - microsoft will hear you ;)

  • gaijin #35 6 years ago

    will there be santa hats?

  • monkey-ken-wizard #36 6 years ago

    "This is how we do it man, this is Epic."

    He's talking street, levelling with the kids.

    Fresh! :|

    (Good god)