After a late June release, a large batch of downloadable content will be released in late August for Fight Night Round 4. The DLC is a boxer expansion pack that includes Oscar De La Hoya, Vitali Klitschko, Vladimir Klitschko, as well as alternate versions of George Foreman and James Toney. This will all be available for $9.99 and 800 MS points on Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
In addition to this, there will be free expansions in late August and early September that will include a patch that allows for button presses to throw punches (instead of the analogue stick control the fight night series is known for) and there will be a new, free demo that will feature a full 12 round fight between Tyson and Ali.
This DLC is welcome as the new boxers included are major names and will certainly justify its purchase for many boxing fans. The inclusion of De La Hoya is huge, because even though he is recently retired, he still remains one of the most recognizable names in modern boxing. The Klitschkos also are relatively big names in modern boxing that true fans of today’s sweet science will be psyched to see in the game.
The alternate versions of Foreman and Toney are something I encourage more games to include when they include legends in video games. Some epic careers can not be accurately summed up with just one character in a game, so it makes sense that a separate version of these legends should also be included in the game. We’ve seen this in basketball and wrestling games in the past where there have been different versions of Michael Jordan and Hulk Hogan. These are people who have careers that include three decades and multiple retirements so Toney and Foreman logically should get the same treatment.
Obviously this is a good move financially for EA Sports because they will get a good amount of downloads and cash from this appetizing DLC. The timing with the new demo seems to be indicative of EA's strategy to get new buyers of the game, not just buyers of the DLC. Ever since DLC has become commonplace we’ve seen many games release packages like this in order to give a released game second life.
It does raise an eyebrow, however, that the fighter expansion pack is going to be available so soon after the game’s initial release. You wonder if the fighters in the package were simply saved for DLC when the game originally released. To be fair, maybe they needed the extra time to get all the licensing rights from all the fighters. Judging by how polished the graphics are and how quickly this DLC package is being released, it seems to me that these fighters probably could have been included in the original game. Does that mean we are getting conned out of $10? Maybe, but this is how the game goes with DLC like this and there is no way to know for sure if there was not licensing or time issues that kept these fighters from making it in the game on time.
So all said, despite being a little skeptical about why I’m paying it, I still will gladly dish out the $10 for this DLC and probably will continue to do the same in the future with similar packages.
