...or, it's more about revamping the way we pay for games. Maybe the box price is just starting to become obsolete, and DLC is the first step towards stripped down F2P games, where we pay for most of the content, as we play it, or something more like that.

It's like we're in the middle of a cumbersome transition to a new type of consumer model. The way they're doing it now encourages piracy, because people don't want to pay for a box, only to feel ripped off, when they can go download the full deluxe super pre-order edition for free - however, that is a bit of a hassle, there's always risk of viruses, and some people can't even figure out how to mount an image to a virtual drive at all. Just look at the long list of issues people have in the comments, trying to run the latest most downloaded game on TPB.

What if it were a lot easier to get the F2P version of a game? Much more than a demo, but not quite a full game. Might actually have the opposite effect, and then people would be willing to shell out money to keep going the way they're already going, rather than switch to the pirate scene, if they like the game.

Course it would also push developers to make games people actually like, and content they'll want, rather than games that just accumulate hype and sell boxes.. but that seems win/win to me. Unless you're a big publisher, just trying to rake in money as effortlessly as possible.