User blog comment:Aleksandr the Great/Prothean Squadmate is Officially DLC/@comment-4861206-20120223195339

I have not read the leaked script, because i hate story spoilers, but some who have seem to think that this character is really important to the plot of the entire game and that without him the story just doesn't work, or at least really suffers. I'm going to speculate and say that no matter whether you buy the DLC or not, you'll have some interaction with this character, he'll say everything that absolutely needs to be heard to complete that narrative, and the only difference between having the DLC and not having the DLC is wether or not the character joins your squad. This may be because Bioware didn't think that as a character he was strong enough to knock out a previously established character that fans have deep affection IE Garrus or Tali, and planned on not making him squad member some time ago and then a smart developer said "Hey wait a minute, we've already spent all this development time working on this character that didn't it into the game. Maybe we should just release the playable version as day one DLC?" It explains why from reports this character's code seems to already be on the hard copy, and why the actual DLC is only around 700mb when in theory a full fledged character should be much larger. If I end up getting the full story, maybe minus a little a bit of "fine strokes" in terms of narrative, then I'll begrudgingly give this stunt a pass in terms of whether or not I'll start boycotting further EA titles altogether. But if the only way I can have a story that makes sense is if I they ask me to dish out anther ten bucks for something that pretty clearly needed to be in the game to begin with? I'll be done with EA and Bioware, unless they leave EA and go back to justifiable business practices, for good. And although that would really suck for me, pulling a stunt like would justify my actions.

Now in terms of being entitled to every piece of content that is made before the game ships, I feel totally different about that. We as the gamer have no say about what goes in the game at launch, if we buy a game and think it should have been longer or had more content in some way, are recourse is to resell it(essentially getting our money's worth when we get some money back), and not buy that studios next game. Saying you're initialed to every piece of content they work on is kinda like saying when you go to buy any other manufactured good that has an upgraded version launched simultaneously (like a car, or somewhat ironically an Xbox with a larger hard drive) that your entitled to the upgraded version because they are withholding it from you unless you pay more. Personally I don't think that argument makes a ton of sense.

However if indeed this DLC is vital to the story, and missing it will essentially sink the experience? Then in the vain of my previous metaphor they'd be selling you a car without axels for the same price as a standard model and be telling you.

"The car runs, I mean it will still get you from point A to point B... Well, you know, unless you need to turn or something."

The only way to know it to wait and see.