[Arryn]

This argument over pricing and customer loyalty is ridiculous. The people who will buy Dom will do so regardless of whether the game costs $30 or it costs $50. (Unless they are high school or college kids without much spare money in the first place.) People look at the demo, and either hate the game, or they love it. There's not much in between, and price is usually not the deciding factor. Good customer support is, and Dom has the best. If they don't already love the demo, getting the game cheap isn't going to sway them. Folks who are unsure about the game aren't likely to shell out even $30. What they'll do is look at reviews, come here and do some homework, and then reconsider whether they'll buy or not.

So the real qustion is whether having IW go through the enormous bother of creating an expansion pack is worth their time, and the patience and goodwill of the customers who already own the game. Note that I don't say the customer's money, because most Dom fans will pay for anything that IW publishes. Period. They might grumble about it, but they'll do it.

That pretty much leaves it at whether it's worth IW's time. Frankly, no. The development effort for an expansion pack would be almost the same as for Dom III, and IW couldn't charge as much money. Plus, to make things even worse, they'd increase their support costs in both money and time. Not a good idea.

Best if they stick to their present business plan, which is put out "small" (2.08 wasn't small, per se) patches as they have the time and willingness to do so, while seeing how well Dom 2 sells, before they jump into any new major programming tasks (like a Dom 3).