Microsoft Considering Automatic DLC Download Feature For Xbox One

The subject of downloadable content for videogames, usually expressed as DLC, is a contentious one. Mammoth publishing entities love it because they keep the dollars pouring in long after the game has been sold and developers swear by it as it keeps them employed long after the product has been shipped. However, fans aren't too fond of the concept. They believe that this incentivises videogame makers to slice out content from games only to sell it later as DLC.

Whatever the consensus on the subject, DLCs are here to stay. Their proliferation has led to further complications, such as users simply forgetting about DLCs they had purchased in advance. This trend is largely a consequence of videogames shipping with DLCs as pre-order bonuses that can be downloaded later. Another example is that of games distributed in the episodic format, as seen in most Telltale Games' offerings such as "The Walking Dead," "The Wolf Among Us" or the more recent episodic version of Capcom's "Resident Evil: Revelations 2."

Microsoft seems committed to addressing this relatively newer issue of forgotten DLCs through the Xbox One console. The solution is the automatic DLC download functionality, according to Gamespot. This was revealed during the Q&A segment of Microsoft's Xbox panel at PAX East. However, this feature hasn't been officially confirmed by the company. It has been cited as a solution that the company could roll out in a future update. No timeline has been given about the update, or even if it has been confirmed.

Xbox's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb spoke about the automatic DLC download feature after a member of the audience asked him a question along those lines, as reported by Next Power Up. The Xbox user expressed his frustration at purchasing DLC passes for games, but forgetting about them when they are finally launched. He wanted to know if Microsoft planned to solve this problem by providing an option for Xbox One users to automatically download DLC pass content they had already purchased.

"I've got that feature request in," Hyrb responded during the Q&A session. "I don't know where that suggestion is [on the company's priority list] but I completely agree with you. We're trying to figure out the best way to do that."

Hyrb noted one potential issue with the feature. Videogame DLCs usually run into several gigabytes in size. This can pose a severe penalty for users who don't have the luxury of internet connectivity without bandwidth restrictions. Automatic DLC downloads could run through their data download quotas and might even cause them to incur enormous data usage charges as a consequence.

The Xbox spokesman, however, didn't offer a solution to this potential problem. Common sense dictates that Microsoft could work its way around the problem by offering the automatic DLC download as an opt-in feature. This way, users with limited download connections would know what they are getting into.

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