I Love Standalone Expansions

After hearing a lot of positive buzz about Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, I was really interested in checking it out. I was pleasantly surprised when I did a little research and saw that I did not need Far Cry 3 in order to play Blood Dragon. And that got me to thinking about the idea of standalone expansions when it comes to console games.

The last dev I can remember really embracing the standalone expansions was Rockstar, both with GTA IV (Lost and the Damned, Ballad of Gay Tony) and Red Dead Redemption (Undead Nightmare). There’s got to be more out there, but my point is that this approach is not very common when it comes to console games.

But it should be. Because I had no intention of picking up Far Cry 3–I really didn’t enjoy Far Cry 2 that much. BUT, if I really dig Blood Dragon, there’s a good chance that I’ll go back and pick up the main game. At the end of the day, I might end up spending $75 on a game series I wasn’t planning on picking up at all.

It’s the low-risk investment in the expansion pack that is my gateway into Far Cry 3. I’m guessing that I’m not alone, and I’d like to see more devs and publishers approach DLC this way. I know that seems counter intuitive, as most games are being designed to discourage trade ins, but I wonder if in the long run, Ubi makes more money on Blood Dragon sales to non-Far Cry 3 players than people who kept the game.

What other franchises have done the standalone expansion thing for consoles?