A new update on the Facebook page of Batman Arkham Knight has revealed the DLC plans for the game, including enough new content to be its very own game. Blues spotted the update and rolled out a list of what the season pass contains.

You get to play a prequel involving Batgirl before she lost the use of her legs and turned into Oracle. Shades of the Killing Joke seem to be present with this content, but we’ll see how it all plays out. There’s a “Season of Infamy” where Batman will have to take on six legendary super-villains in Gotham City. “Gotham City Stories” is a new extended story following Batman’s allies. Some new character skins for Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman will be included in the season pass, along with Crimefighter challenge maps.

The one bit of content that actually, genuinely, has me excited is the Legendary Batmobiles with Themed Tracks. I wonder if this will be a multiplayer mode? Because Batman Mario Kart would be pretty awesome.

Of course, the season pass clocks in at $40. The main game is $60. So to get “everything” you’ll be churning out $100. Assuming this isn’t one of those wallet-raping season pass schemes where you pay the $40 and then there’s DLC outside of the season pass you still have to pay for, like what Gearbox did with Borderlands 2.

Anyway, one Blues commenter, Jerykk, mentioned…

“This looks far more substantial than the Origins season pass. But still not worth $40. If the Season Pass costs $40 and the base game costs $60, WBIE is essentially saying that the SP cost 66% as much to develop as the base game. Assuming that the base game had a development budget of $50 million (which is fairly conservative), that means this season pass cost $33 million to develop? I think not.”

That’s an interesting look at the situation. I think one of the bigger problems is something that Facebook user Anthony D’Agostino mentioned, writing on the official announcement post…

“I don’t [know] about everybody else… But I want to see what the game actually has to offer me before I just jump into a pass.. I really miss the old days when I could unlock those items with hard core game play in place of money.”

While there were people defending that Warner Bros has to make their money back and that DLC costs money to produce, and that games are complex these days and require wallet-raping tactics to part consumers from the money they’ve scrounged up over days, weeks, months or years, others still felt that the old days did it right. Izzy Reza wrote…

“The Riddler trophies and finding all the hidden things in the previous three games would progressively not only unlock all those challenge maps includin the DLC’s but also all the costumes if it were the time before DLC was around. Games need to be worth playing. They need to have more replay value.” “I honestly didn’t do any riddler trophies in Arkham City because I kept thinking “all those skins and DLC challenges could have been unlockable”. The core audience are the loyal faithful gamers. Not those that would rather pay money to get everything. Want everything? Then play the game. Be rewarded.”

I agree. There was a time when you paid for the game and paid for the opportunity and privilege to enjoy what the developers made. Extra costumes, hidden endings or unlockable content were rewards for gamers who were dedicated to the cause. Why are you paying money to unlock content in a game you already paid for? It’s like paying for a DVD or Blu-ray and then paying extra to access the deleted scenes and subtitles. Why?

Even if Rocksteady and Warner Bros wanted to add new content or extra content to the Batman: Arkham Knight package, it always churns my stomach the wrong way when there’s an entire game’s worth of DLC announced before the game has even launched.

Ninetoes Mangum also made a good point, saying…

“I’ll pay for more story content but cosmetic things like skins should be unlockable. Otherwise, most people will just wait the GOTY edition where they get the very same DLC others pay for for free.”

Well, it’s true… the GOTY edition is the one to get… unless, of course, it’s like Borderlands 2 and still has DLC not included in the supposed final version.

At this point, it’s best to do your homework on what you feel is worth the price of entry and what isn’t. Whenever DLC starts getting announced before the game is finished it’s best to hit the alarm, watch the red lights flash and listen to that warning horn blare.

Batman: Arkham Knight is due to drop on June 23rd, 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. You can learn more about the game, all the DLC plans and the pre-order bonuses by paying a visit to the official website.