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Top 20 Worst Video Game DLCs And Expansions Of All Time

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - July 20th 2026, 22:00 GMT+2

Assassins Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji — 1. Assassin’s Creed Shadows – Claws of Awaji (2025)

Awaji should have been the victory lap for *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*: a compact new island, a continuation of Naoe and Yasuke’s story, and a staff weapon that gave stealth players another way to rearrange enemy faces. Instead, the expansion launched with crashes, access problems, progression bugs, and objectives that recycled too much of the base game’s busywork. The scenery remained gorgeous, but beauty can only distract from another checklist for so long. Charging full expansion money for ten familiar hours made the whole adventure feel less like a grand finale and more like an overdue patch wearing samurai armor. | © Ubisoft Bordeaux

Total War WARHAMMER III Blood for the Blood God III — 2. Total War: WARHAMMER III – Blood for the Blood God III (2022)

Khorne is literally a god who wants blood, skulls, dismemberment, and absolutely no quiet evenings at home, yet *Total War: WARHAMMER III* initially asked players to enjoy his armies without proper gore. The solution was a separate effects pack adding blood sprays, decapitations, severed limbs, and other details that arguably belonged in the game’s battles from day one. Previous owners of the equivalent DLC for the earlier games received it free, which softened the blow without answering the obvious question: why was a mature-rated war game selling its blood switch separately for the third time? Even Khorne might call that excessive. | © Creative Assembly

KINGDOM HEARTS III Re Mind — 3. Kingdom Hearts III – Re Mind (2020)

*Re Mind* contains some of the finest boss battles in the entire *Kingdom Hearts* series, which makes its shortcomings especially frustrating. The story campaign largely revisits the closing hours of the main game, replaying familiar confrontations with extra scenes, alternate perspectives, and enough time-travel explanations to make a whiteboard surrender. Its superb Limitcut battles were clearly aimed at dedicated players, but the $30 price turned what once might have been a “Final Mix” upgrade into a costly postscript. Hardcore fans received challenging fights worth mastering; everyone else paid half the price of a new game to watch Sora reconsider an ending they had already seen. | © Square Enix

TEKKEN 7 DLC13 — 4. Tekken 7 – Frame Data Display DLC (2019)

Selling costumes in a fighting game is one thing; charging players to understand how the fighting game actually works is another. *Tekken 7* placed its expanded frame-data display behind a paid download, forcing competitive players to spend extra for information showing which attacks were safe, punishable, or likely to end with their character embedded in a wall. Frame data had long been essential to serious training, not a luxury accessory comparable to a novelty outfit. The price itself was small, but the principle landed like a King powerbomb: Bandai Namco had turned a basic educational tool into downloadable content and asked its most committed audience to cover the bill. | © Bandai Namco Studios

5. Mortal Kombat X – Easy Fatalities (2015)

Fatalities were once rewards for memorizing button combinations and keeping your composure while an announcer shouted at you. *Mortal Kombat X* transformed that ritual into a consumable product, selling Easy Fatality tokens that performed finishing moves through simplified inputs. Players could still execute them normally and occasionally earn tokens through the Krypt, but packs of five or thirty were also available for real money. Nothing was technically being held hostage, yet the sight of a fighting game monetizing temporary shortcuts to its most famous feature felt wonderfully shameless. Scorpion spent decades telling opponents to “get over here”; this DLC quietly added, “and bring your wallet.” | © NetherRealm Studios

Cropped Evolve Season Pass — 6. Evolve – Season Pass (2015)

Before *Evolve* had even established whether its four-against-one multiplayer concept could sustain a community, its storefront was already prepared for a long and prosperous future. The $24.99 Hunting Season Pass included four additional Hunters and three monster skins, while the heavily promoted Behemoth monster belonged to a separate offer. Combined with numerous cosmetic packs and multiple editions, the launch resembled a pricing flowchart with a video game hidden somewhere underneath it. The downloadable maps were free, an important detail often lost in the backlash, but first impressions had already been devoured. Players saw a full-priced multiplayer release aggressively divided into pieces before they knew whether the servers would remain populated. | © Turtle Rock Studios

Europa Universalis IV Leviathan 2021 — 7. Europa Universalis IV – Leviathan (2021)

Grand-strategy expansions are supposed to complicate maps, not corrupt save files and make entire campaigns collapse under the weight of their own bugs. *Leviathan* launched with broken mechanics, severe balance problems, unfinished features, and technical issues so widespread that players treated every new session like a historical experiment in disaster management. Its diplomatic and development systems contained promising ideas, but those ideas arrived buried beneath a release that plainly needed more time. Paradox eventually repaired much of the damage, yet first impressions are especially difficult to conquer when your expansion briefly becomes one of the worst-reviewed products on Steam. | © Paradox Tinto

8. The Sims 4 – All DLC (2014–Present)

Owning every major piece of *The Sims 4* now resembles a long-term financial commitment rather than a casual video game purchase. Expansions, game packs, stuff packs, kits, and assorted bundles have gradually supplied pets, seasons, universities, businesses, supernatural creatures, household objects, and dozens of systems that make the simulation feel complete. Many packs are enjoyable on their own; the problem is how relentlessly the experience has been fragmented. Features that naturally complement one another are sold in separate packages, while uneven releases sometimes introduce bugs faster than meaningful depth. The base game eventually became free, but assembling the definitive version can still cost more than an alarmingly realistic Sim mortgage. | © Maxis

Street Fighter X Tekken Character Pack — 9. Street Fighter X Tekken – Character Pack (2012)

Locking twelve fighters behind paid DLC was already controversial, but discovering that those characters were sitting on the retail disc turned irritation into a full-blown industry scandal. Capcom argued that including the data ensured compatibility between players and allowed the content to be unlocked later, an explanation that did little to calm customers who had purchased a supposedly complete fighting game. The pack contained major names from both franchises, making it feel less like an optional expansion and more like a portion of the roster separated by a digital tollbooth. “On-disc DLC” became one of gaming’s dirtiest phrases, and this character pack helped put it there. | © Capcom

Metro last night msn — 10. Metro: Last Light – Ranger Mode (2013)

Ranger Mode removed much of the interface, made ammunition scarcer, increased lethality, and pushed *Metro: Last Light* closer to the tense survival experience its setting promised. It was also marketed as the way the game was meant to be played, an unfortunate phrase when that experience was restricted to limited-edition copies, preorders, or a separate purchase. Players who bought an ordinary copy were effectively asked to pay extra for the most immersive difficulty setting. Publisher Deep Silver blamed retail requirements for the arrangement, while developer 4A Games indicated it would not have chosen the same approach. Whatever happened behind the scenes, charging admission to hard mode was a remarkably effective way to generate easy criticism. | © 4A Games

Tiny Tinas Wonderlands Season Pass — 11. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands – Season Pass (2022)

Players expected the *Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands* Season Pass to deliver substantial new adventures, memorable villains, and the kind of chaotic fantasy storytelling that made the base game charming. Instead, its four Mirrors of Mystery offered short, repetitive dungeon runs that felt suspiciously similar to content already available through the Chaos Chamber. New enemies and loot could not disguise how quickly each release was exhausted, while the lack of proper story expansions made the asking price increasingly difficult to defend. Gearbox had previously set a high standard with *Borderlands* DLC; here, it sold fans four variations of the same hallway and hoped the loot explosions would provide sufficient distraction. | © Gearbox Software

Cropped Mass Effect 3 From Ashes — 12. Mass Effect 3 – From Ashes (2012)

A minor weapon pack on launch day might have passed unnoticed. *From Ashes* instead placed Javik, the last surviving Prothean, behind a $10 paywall on the same day *Mass Effect 3* arrived. This was a species whose disappearance had shaped the trilogy’s mythology, and Javik offered unique dialogue about nearly every civilization Shepard encountered. BioWare explained that the main game was already complete while the DLC was developed, and the full mission still required a separate download despite some supporting assets being present on the disc. Technically defensible or not, selling one of the story’s most fascinating perspectives separately made the Normandy feel as though it had launched with a reserved seat. | © BioWare

Cropped Asuras Wrath — 13. Asura's Wrath – Episode Pack Part IV: Nirvana (2012)

*Asura’s Wrath* presented itself like an interactive anime series, complete with episodes, dramatic previews, impossible battles, and a protagonist whose anger could probably power several countries. Unfortunately, its genuine conclusion was sold as a separate four-episode pack. Part IV: Nirvana delivered spectacular confrontations and the emotional closure the story deserved, but that quality only made the decision more irritating. Players had already paid for Asura’s journey and reached an ending that openly left major conflicts unresolved; completing it required another transaction. Plenty of DLC expands a finished story. This one effectively walked into the final episode, paused before the climax, and directed the audience toward the digital checkout counter. | © CyberConnect2

Cropped Street Fighter III Color Pack DLC 2011 — 14. Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition – Color Pack DLC (2011)

Character colors are harmless cosmetic extras, but *Third Strike Online Edition* found a way to make even those unnecessarily awkward. Its paid color packs added seven palette options for every fighter, yet players who did not own the same DLC could not see the purchased colors during matches. Replays also failed to preserve them properly, turning personal customization into something that occasionally existed only for the buyer. Capcom was effectively selling alternate shades that disappeared whenever the software encountered someone unwilling to purchase the same wardrobe. None of this harmed the brilliant fighting beneath it, but asking money for invisible trousers remains a difficult business model to defend with a straight face. | © Capcom

Cropped Sonic Adventure DX — 15. Sonic Adventure DX – Upgrade (2010)

The downloadable version of *Sonic Adventure* was already based on *Sonic Adventure DX*, but several DX features had been removed and placed inside a separate upgrade. Purchasing it restored Mission Mode, changed the title presentation, and allowed players to unlock Metal Sonic after collecting every emblem. In other words, SEGA ported an enhanced edition, subtracted some of its enhancements, and then sold customers the subtraction in reverse. The add-on was inexpensive, but it offered an early lesson in how digital rereleases could be sliced apart without creating anything genuinely new. Even Dr. Eggman usually constructs a machine before demanding that Sonic retrieve the missing pieces. | © Sonic Team

Cities Skylines II Beach Properties — 16. Cities: Skylines II – Beach Properties (2024)

The greatest problem with *Beach Properties* was not simply that it offered too little—it arrived while *Cities: Skylines II* was still struggling with performance issues and missing features. The asset pack added a small collection of waterfront buildings, despite its name suggesting the sort of coastal content that might include actual beaches. Players responded with overwhelming negativity, and Paradox eventually apologized, issued refunds where possible, and made the pack free. Few DLC controversies end with the publisher effectively withdrawing the price tag, which says plenty about how badly this one landed. Apparently, the most realistic part of urban planning is discovering that premium beachfront property can be deeply disappointing. | © Colossal Order

Cropped Mass Effect Pinnacle Station 2009 — 17. Mass Effect – Pinnacle Station (2009)

After the narrative choices and planetary mystery of *Bring Down the Sky*, *Pinnacle Station* reduced Commander Shepard’s galactic responsibilities to a series of combat simulations. The DLC offered thirteen challenges spread across familiar arenas, followed by a small reward for players willing to tolerate its repetitive firefights and occasional technical problems. There was little meaningful dialogue, almost no role-playing, and none of the moral tension that made *Mass Effect* memorable. Its corrupted source code later prevented BioWare from including it in the *Legendary Edition*, an unfortunate preservation loss that also revealed how nonessential the expansion had always felt. Shepard saved the galaxy without it, and most players managed the remaster just fine too. | © Demiurge Studios

The Saboteur The Midnight Show 2009 — 18. The Saboteur – The Midnight Show (2009)

New console copies of *The Saboteur* included a single-use code for The Midnight Show, which unlocked topless dancers, a hidden basement area, lap dances, and a gambling minigame. Used-copy buyers or anyone borrowing the disc had to pay $5 for the same content. The arrangement was less an expansion than an early attempt to discourage secondhand sales, cleverly disguised as a maturity toggle for players who apparently considered digital nudity essential to fighting the Nazi occupation of Paris. The content itself was trivial, but the strategy foreshadowed the Online Pass era: publishers could not prevent used games from changing hands, so they began removing small pieces and charging the next owner. | © Pandemic Studios

Destiny 2 Curse of Osiris 2017 — 19. Destiny 2 – Curse of Osiris (2017)

Mercury sounded like an exciting destination until players discovered it was essentially a tiny circular patrol zone with limited activities and a campaign that could be completed during a particularly generous lunch break. *Curse of Osiris* introduced the Infinite Forest, but its supposedly endless simulation quickly revealed itself as a collection of repetitive rooms connected in slightly different orders. Worse, the expansion raised progression requirements and temporarily locked non-buyers out of activities they had previously been able to access. Brother Vance became irritating, the endgame remained thin, and even the impressive setting could not prevent this from becoming the expansion against which every future *Destiny* disappointment would be measured. | © Bungie

Cropped The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion HORSE ARMOR — 20. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Horse Armor Pack (2006)

The Horse Armor Pack cost only a few dollars, added two decorative armor styles, and increased the health of most horses. In isolation, it was hardly the greatest crime ever committed against a credit card. Its infamy comes from what it represented: one of the earliest high-profile attempts to sell a tiny cosmetic upgrade inside a full-priced single-player game. Players mocked it mercilessly, Bethesda continued experimenting, and publishers everywhere discovered that inexpensive digital trinkets could generate real money. Modern stores now sell costumes, mounts, animations, and color variants for far more, making Horse Armor look almost quaint. It was not the most expensive DLC ever released—just the one that showed everyone the road ahead. | © Bethesda Game Studios

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Downloadable content can extend a great game for years, but it can also turn player goodwill into buyer’s remorse remarkably fast. From overpriced cosmetic bundles and insultingly short campaigns to expansions that broke the games they were supposed to improve, these releases became infamous for all the wrong reasons. Some were obvious cash grabs; others were ambitious ideas buried beneath terrible execution. Ranked from bad to downright unforgivable, these are the 20 worst video game DLCs and expansions of all time.

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Downloadable content can extend a great game for years, but it can also turn player goodwill into buyer’s remorse remarkably fast. From overpriced cosmetic bundles and insultingly short campaigns to expansions that broke the games they were supposed to improve, these releases became infamous for all the wrong reasons. Some were obvious cash grabs; others were ambitious ideas buried beneath terrible execution. Ranked from bad to downright unforgivable, these are the 20 worst video game DLCs and expansions of all time.