Is FOMO to blame for the mixed reception of Ichiban’s Holiday? Dave the Diver's first paid, time-limited DLC causes controversy
Is this NEXON's new direction, or is it just a SEGA thing, or maybe the licensing that's limiting the fun? One thing I know for sure, it’s not Ichiban’s fault.
Dave the Diver Ichiban’s Holiday Content Pack launched yesterday, but the reception is pretty mixed. Some of the criticism is about the content itself, but most people seem more upset that it’s a time-limited paid DLC. The last DLC (Godzilla) was also time-limited, but at least it was free. So why is our pure-hearted Ichiban Kasuga taking all the blame for this?
Poor Ichiban!
Okay, maybe I went a little overboard saying Ichiban’s taking all the heat, but still – it kind of hurts seeing negative reviews under his name on Steam. I mean, for the longest time, Kiryu was the ultimate Yakuza/Like a Dragon protagonist, but then Ichiban showed up and totally won us over, am I right?
Alright, let’s break it down. All Dave the Diver DLCs were free until now (except for Dredge Content Pack for free, and the Godzilla DLC with no extra charge. The catch with Godzilla, though, was that it was time-limited for , from May 23, 2024, to November 23, 2024. After that, it was pulled from the store, but if you grabbed it during that window, you could keep and play it forever. The Godzilla DLC got very positive reviews, even though it wasn’t hours of content (it was pretty short – basically just a boss fight). But despite the brevity, it was still an absolute blast.
Please, don’t take this out on Ichiban. His life’s already tough enough as it is.Source: Dave the Diver; Developer: MINTROCKET
Now, we’ve got a similar situation. Ichiban’s Holiday DLC is available from April 10, 2025, to October 9, 2025, but this time, we actually have to pay for it. I get that it’s not much (less than $7), but why isn’t it free this time, and why again the time-limited purchase? If you miss it, it’s gone for good. Why is that suddenly a thing?
The answer: License stuff, of course. We don’t have all the details on the collaboration with SEGA, but it’s probably on them. Though, I’ll it, the FOMO angle does make sense a little. But really, it’s just a policy MINTROCKET agreed on, and that’s that.
For a bit of contrast, SaGa: Emerald Beyond (which is a Square Enix IP). When the Vampire Survivors dev was asked why that DLC is free, here’s what they said:
Paperwork. It took a very long time to sort out the paperwork for this collab, and it would have been twice as hard to get the license if there had been any money exchange involved. That's simply how it works for big companies
But we have to that Square Enix and SEGA are two different companies, and since Ichiban’s Holiday is longer than the Godzilla DLC, that’s probably why the Dave the Diver devs decided to charge for it.
