Quote Originally Posted by jest118 View Post
No, I'm talking DLC. Patches are to fix problems and don't necessarily yield any new content. DLC is basically additional code, that adds some new feature. Whether it be a new game mode, a new costume, or entire levels. Just like any game code, if there's a flaw anywhere... it can cause errors. Some errors are negligible and others can literally break the game. So with DLC... every time it's released... the releasing company has to watch carefully to see if there's any such errors.

I mean.. they test ahead of time but there's no real way to test for every occurance.
Burnout paradise has been doing crazy stuff with patches. (Yes theres DLC too but they've added alot with patches) Gears 1 patched in annex. I think TF2 on PC has patched new characters and maps. Really the only difference is whether your paying for it or not.

When adding dlc its not as tough a process as you would think most of the time. For Gears or any game using Unreal Engine 3 most of the code is done on the engines side; the developers are basically playing with a map creator like u see in Far Cry 2 and the Engine will compile the code for them.