The problem is are you not thinking too sequentially? Design teams work in parallel and finish at different times in a game lifecycle. By the time you know if a game is a hit or not it is surely too late to start developing DLC? Half the team would have been sitting around for months. The next game has to be planned so it can be started the moment any of the team become available. Is it not too high a risk to plan DLC upfront for a game that turns out to be not successful?
It's a good point when thinking about differing scales but there are plenty of instances where a team can be reactive to the success of the base game. Upfront planning is an even trickier conversation, so I'm mostly focussing on where there is an obvious commercial case staring you in the face.
The problem is are you not thinking too sequentially? Design teams work in parallel and finish at different times in a game lifecycle. By the time you know if a game is a hit or not it is surely too late to start developing DLC? Half the team would have been sitting around for months. The next game has to be planned so it can be started the moment any of the team become available. Is it not too high a risk to plan DLC upfront for a game that turns out to be not successful?
It's a good point when thinking about differing scales but there are plenty of instances where a team can be reactive to the success of the base game. Upfront planning is an even trickier conversation, so I'm mostly focussing on where there is an obvious commercial case staring you in the face.