Resident Evil 5 Versus Mode Was Already On The Disc
Remember that awesome Versus Mode that you were able to download for Resident Evil 5? Well yesterday you may have downloaded it onto your respective console, and possibly noticed that it was quite the hefty download. Weighing in at an impressive 1.86 MB, it probably took at least two whole seconds to grab from the server. Hopefully you had plenty of space free on your hard drive.
So why, exactly am I being so critical of this particular download’s size, you ask? Because it tells us something that I’m sure we all suspected at one point or another. The data for the Versus Mode was already on the disc. All Capcom did was issue a code to unlock the content, and perhaps a tiny file that was essential, but left out on purpose.
Now we have to figure out why Capcom decided to take this route. Thankfully that’s a pretty easy puzzle to solve. They wanted a piece of DLC that took almost no effort to create, yet would earn them a few easy bucks from almost every buyer. So they decided to remove a small bit of code, or a file that allowed a gameplay mode to run. By removing a tiny piece, they can truthfully say that “the functionality is not currently in the Game and is above and beyond the initial scope of Resident Evil 5.”
So that only leaves one question unanswered. Why didn’t they just take out all of the necessary files for Versus Mode, which would then show users that a substantial amount of information needed to be downloaded? That’s the really ingenious part. You see, Sony now charges publishers for the amount of bandwidth used for DLC. Less data means less bandwidth. Less bandwidth means more money in Capcom’s pockets.
