(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); We all know that Terminal is going to be added into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as free downloadable content, but what exactly does this mean and what can happen?

Infinity Ward knows that Terminal, a map in Modern Warfare 2, was very popular in terms of public and private matches. This being said, you can obviously guess why they chose to bring it back, but the real question is: Why is it free?

Possibility 1 -Promoting

Infinity Ward could be thinking about how good they look in terms of giving away free items and content to the public, and when there's free stuff, everybody who wasn't exactly interested is quickly lured in with the sweet scent of not only a free map, but a map that was loved by everybody.

It's not the fact that Modern Warfare 3 doesn't have enough players consistently, because it does, it's all about keeping the public satisfied enough to keep playing and playing, and potentially buying their paid DLC packs.

It's also known that Treyarch, the developers behind Call of Duty: World at War, Black Ops, and the upcoming Black Ops 2 come out with a ton of paid downloadable maps every thirty days or so. Why am I saying this? It's all about being the better developer, Infinity Ward wants to look just as good as Treyarch so their franchise is the favored one.

Possibility 2 - Redemption

All Call of Duty's have problems in-game, both single player and multiplayer, and Infinity Ward (as well as other popular multiplayer FPS developers) get a lot of grief because of the bugs, weird glitches, obvious problems, and annoyances that occur. Infinity Ward could be thinking of ways to say "I'm sorry" to the Modern Warfare 3 community by giving back and keeping people satisfied for the time being, while they figure out how to fix all of the topics that receive general negative feedback, as well as vital problems that a lot of people may not be so aware of.

If I said it was a sort of "cover up", that would be bad wording but it would be accurate in terms of what they're trying to do. Trying to keep everybody off of the negative things and more so on the newer, free, and possibly positive things is a good way to keep people happy. But of course, bugs, exploits, and in-game problems will always be brought up by the players so it may not be the best tactic.

On the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 topic of problems, check out the game's 1.17 Patch details You must login or register to view this content..

Possibility 3 - Giving

This is the last and may be the most simple possibility as to why free DLC is being given: they're just giving back to the players.

Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most popular first-person shooters today and (literally) a ton of people play them, so perhaps Infinity Ward and the team thought it'd be a great idea to give back to all of the dedicated and long-lasting players by giving them a free map, which is Terminal.

Not everything has to be complicated or some sort of devious plan when it comes to developers and promoting DLC (unless you're BioWare). However, with the mind of a developer, what would you think when you see other big-brand titles give out free goodies?

Question - Where could this go?

In my opinion, this could in fact be the beginning of more free downloadable content being thrown around bigger titles for self-promotion, as said in Possibility 1 above.

If you wanted to be as successful as Infinity Ward, you could want to see how all of this works out for them, and if successful, do exactly (or identical) what they do to make your video game(s) successful in the future.

Closing Statements

Promotions and publicity, redemption, and just the flat-out thought of being generous. All of these reasons and possibilities come up when thinking about why developers give out free DLC, and it all starts with Infinity Ward.

What exactly do you think Infinity Ward is doing with all of this? And do you think they have a big enough influence to spark a new trend in the gaming industry?[/font]

Well thought out post...In all honesty though as gamers who is going to argue against free DLC?

I will say that COD Elite Premium needs to stop with 2 week DLC exclusiveness.

Premium membership should save money over buying individual map packs and you should get special clan ops and even camos and such. But I didn't get Premium so that I could get a 2 week or basically 1-2 month advantage over other players.

A map pack comes to Premium members, then takes 2 months to be in a collection where more players can play. I want to play against everybody who buys map packs, not just a select few. If COD goes back to the pre-MW3 model of everybody being able to buy maps at same time I would be happy. Just make it so Premium members get it cheaper and MAYBE like a day or two sooner is all.