I agree it's frustrating that this happens, as I don't want to know that the game will significantly expand a few months after release. That's like telling me I won't be getting the full experience if I play it now, but it won't be long before a lot of new stuff is ready to be integrated. So, I can just add 3-6 months and pretend it won't be released until that time is up.
Well, that, or I could just make my skip-it "choice" that I'm sure Sakichop thinks is consumer power - and probably miss out on great content in a game I'm not unlikely to fall in love with. Yeah, that's a wonderful business model - and a proper meaty expansion 1-2 years later was much worse, Saki
I also find it very strange that they can put numbers on the amount of hours you'll be playing content they've yet to develop, according to that marketing piece.
It's pretty counterproductive, I think - and people will eventually learn from it - and many will wait until everything is out before buying - likely on a sale.
It's pure opportunism - which is almost always about the shorter term.
Developers are likely not to blame, but then again - they rarely are. This has the smell of suits all over it, no doubt about it.
Experience has demonstrated that this model works well for added profit - and consumers are, as always, painfuly slow in the uptake, so it takes years to learn how to respond to the new ways of being exploited. By the time they're ready to postpone their purchase - suits will have ten new ways lined up. They'll also have the marketing speeches ready, just like they did with the DLC model: "Now it's a service, and you can simply choose if you want more content of whatever size."
People are stupid enough to fall for it, and they will be more than ready for the illusion of choice again.
That said, at least it sounds like this TW3 content is worth the investment, unlike the vast majority of added content these days, which is about exploiting the impulse-driven consumer.
Personally, I don't really care if you call it DLC or expansions - as the latter has lost all meaning since the former became the norm.