I just had a thought, and I don't know how I feel about it ethically. 

Right, so imagine a free game. 

Good game, you play the game, it's a fun game. 

But, you can buy DLC. We'll say there are 4 expansion packs (picture Blood and Wine, Hearts of Stone, etc). In each of these is a thing you can find, like a secret key. 

If you get all 4 keys, then you can unlock a secret expansion pack. And it wouldn't be advertised anywhere. It would be a total secret (until the internet grabs a hold of it of course). Kind of acts as a little gift to the people who supported the game from the original through all the DLC.

Naturally I can see people getting mad at it, but I feel like this would be a pretty cool thing to do. What do you guys think?

I think it could be really nice and people that get it, will be happy.

But especially if the game is free, there will be many people, which don't buy the expansion packs atleast not all and when they hear about the secret DLC they probably get mad, because they have to buy everything else to get the "special DLC".

I like the philosophy of CD Project red, that they don't make any pre order benefits or other things, so all players get the same "complete" game. The players don't think they "miss" something and the game get better reputation which also leads to more players.

Maybe you could make an easter egg as reward or an achievement but not a whole gameplay DLC.

On 8/13/2019 at 4:41 AM, ShyPoke said:

Kind of acts as a little gift to the people who supported the game from the original through all the DLC.

This is not going to happen, because

On 8/13/2019 at 4:41 AM, ShyPoke said:

(until the internet grabs a hold of it of course)

This will happen instantly. And then your "secret gift DLC for buyers of all DLC" becomes "free DLC for everyone who knows how to Google".

On the other hand, that also means that only people who participate in online discussions about the game will know about the extra DLC. The industry average says it's about 20% of users. But if you want to reward them, you might as well post the free DLC key online, without all the hassle of hiding it.

Oh, and one more thing: If you do a secret DLC, and people get it by getting the key off the Internet, they will feel like they cheated the system. That may make them feel good about themselves. You may or may not want to make them feel that way  But they also may think less of you, the developer, so it's a double-edged sword.