Just a short point. The reason dlc exclusive playlists fail in population is lack of maP variety, sucks choosing between 2-3 maps usually not well suited for the game size 4-6 player teams on big team maps and 6-8 cramped into smaller maps.
Having some playlist which require dlc but also have the full batch of regular maps would create more reason for people to buy them.
I’ve bought all the packs for halo 3 and reach and honestly I think halo 3 did a far better job getting them into the routine
Halo 3 did far better in terms of DLC than Halo Reach because:
When it came out, it was all the rage, so everyone payed attention to the DLC advertisements
They were advertised and made well known
Halo 3 wasn’t a failure(Now i’m not hating but face it, Halo Reach was no where near as successful as Halo 3)
At it’s time, Bungie still cared for support and proper management of Halo 3
The maps were original
They were not pure remakes
Those reasons is what made Halo 3 so successful in its DLC management.
Bottomline is,Halo Reach bombed every single reason here.
They released cold storage on bungie day, for free. People loved h3’s maps.
Halo 3 definitely did do a better job in terms of DLC. I love a lot of Reach’s DLC maps, but the way they were handled undermined their potential success.
sigh I’ll miss you, Headlong, and all of your Gauss 'Hog glory!
I bought the map packs 2 weeks ago…I have still yet to play them in matchmaking 
343i still recommends that we purchase the DLC, even though they have made it clear they don’t care if we buy it or not, they will not be adding our DLC playlist back.
Anywhere else this is called a SCAM. 343i I want a full refund on my MSPoints for the DLC I purchased from you. If you won’t give us the REQUIRED playlist to use DLC in MM then you OWE us a refund on broken data.
Anytime you purchase a product, including DLC, the Devs agree to make the product useable. 343i has failed with this obligation.
We need to hold 343i completely at fault and they need to fix this. We as a community need to hold 343i to their obligations.
I still stick by what I said in one of these other threads… that certain high-volume playlists like BTB and Team Slayer, possibly even Swat, should be DLC required like Halo 3. Think of how much more awesome BTB would be if every other match wasn’t on the same tired Hemmorhage… I played a heavies variety on breakpoint the other day that was amazing. Highlands, tempest and breakpoint are perfect for BTB and so is headlong and ridgeline. I mean what’s a few hundred MS points compared to the awesomeness to be had 
> I still stick by what I said in one of these other threads… that certain high-volume playlists like BTB and Team Slayer, possibly even Swat, should be DLC required like Halo 3. Think of how much more awesome BTB would be if every other match wasn’t on the same tired Hemmorhage… I played a heavies variety on breakpoint the other day that was amazing. Highlands, tempest and breakpoint are perfect for BTB and so is headlong and ridgeline. I mean what’s a few hundred MS points compared to the awesomeness to be had
100% agreed. You may now have a cookie.
Halo 3 did a better job because the ALL the maps were made available with ODST. I don’t buy map packs and was very disappointed to find that 343 did not release all the MP maps with a separate multiplayer disc like Bungie did with ODST. Bungie really wanted to make sure the MP component was accessible to everyone who bought the game. 343 is caving into MS pressure to sell everything. Unfortunately it only fragments the population. It least they learned their lesson and since only ~10% of the population purchase the DLC most playlists do not require it, and since most people don’t have it it doesn’t come up in the lists.
> certain high-volume playlists like BTB and Team Slayer, possibly even Swat, should be DLC required like Halo 3.
Except if you require DLC then they won’t be high volume anymore.
Playlists like btb are hurting for map selection, some forge maps are decent but they all seem to be for heavies, at the point when dlc required would add 5-6 maps I’m sorry to the people who haven’t had 20$ to spare in 2 years, I mean really sorry that sucks, but I’d like it a lot of matchmaking incorporated the things I bought
> > I still stick by what I said in one of these other threads… that certain high-volume playlists like BTB and Team Slayer, possibly even Swat, should be DLC required like Halo 3. Think of how much more awesome BTB would be if every other match wasn’t on the same tired Hemmorhage… I played a heavies variety on breakpoint the other day that was amazing. Highlands, tempest and breakpoint are perfect for BTB and so is headlong and ridgeline. I mean what’s a few hundred MS points compared to the awesomeness to be had
>
> 100% agreed. You may now have a cookie.
The sad, sad truth about Reach’s DLC. Top notch quality maps that cannot be enjoyed by many players who didn’t buy them and by the people who did buy them.
Thing is if DLC was required in just 1 playlist like Big Team then the chances of new maps comming up in every other playlist would go through the roof.
> > certain high-volume playlists like BTB and Team Slayer, possibly even Swat, should be DLC required like Halo 3.
>
> Except if you require DLC then they won’t be high volume anymore.
Unless the DLC is free.
Reach DLC is clearly a flop, and it’s highly unlikely that Microsoft will ever make any further (significant) profit off of them at this point, so the best solution would be to make all of the map packs free and required. A prominent notice could be displayed when players start Reach up, with the words “FREE” in gigantic letters, to make sure people are aware they can get the map packs. Boom: DLC problem solved.
Unfortunately, word on the street is that that’ll never happen due to some Microsoft policy involving Achievements or something. :\