Perhaps the closest the services came to offering true DLC was Shiny Entertainment's special edition of Earthworm Jim offered over the Sega Channel, though it too was still a stand-alone download.Īs the popularity and speed of internet connections rose, so did the popularity of using the internet for digital distribution of media. While the GameLine and Sega Channel services allowed for the distribution of entire titles, they did not offer Downloadable Content for existing titles. A similar service, Sega Channel, allowed for the downloading of games to the Sega Genesis over a cable line. The earliest form of digital distribution in video games was the Atari 2600's GameLine service, which allowed users to download games using a telephone line. Users can also buy such a season pass before the availability of its respective DLCs in this case, the player will get access to the content as they get released. Video game publishers sometimes offer a DLC 'season pass', which allow users to purchase all of the downloadable content for a video game at a smaller price than it would cost to buy each one separately. Special edition re-releases of games often incorporate previously released DLCs along with the main title in a single package. Downloadable content became prevalent in the 21st century, and especially with the proliferation of Internet-enabled, sixth-generation video game consoles. In the case of episodic video games, a new episode may come in the form of downloadable content, whereas music video games utilize this media to offer new songs for the players. As such, DLC may add new game modes, objects, levels, challenges, etc. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similar to an expansion pack. Downloadable content (also referred to as DLC) is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet.

The downloadable content has changed