When Epic Games announced the new Gears of War 2 downloadable content in early May, they were met with a bit of a kerfuffle from their hardcore community. The new “Dark Corners” expansion was to feature 7 brand new multiplayer maps and a “deleted” campaign mission. This expansion was to release on Xbox Live Marketplace July 28^th at the slightly high price point of 1600 Microsoft Points ($20). But the compilation pack, rightfully named All Fronts, was hitting retailers on the same day. It featured everything in Dark Corners, but also all the older DLC, yet the price was the same as Dark Corners at $20.

After Gears fans voiced their disgust with the pricing model, due basically to having to pay for the same maps they had already paid for a second time. But to the pleasure of the price savvy Gears 2 player, Epic has announced that they are dropping a retail release of All Fronts and instead pushing it to Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as lowering Dark Corners price to 1200 MSP ($15). Epic Senior Producer, Rod Fergusson, explained that while the pricing structure was “a good deal at the old price”, Epic had got the memo and “based upon community feedback this just felt like the right thing to do.” It’s nice to see a company giving gamers a break in such a crappy economy, understanding that even $5 makes a huge difference to the loud, yet faithful, online gamer.

[Via IGN Xbox]