Fire Emblem Fans Blast Nintendo Over $35 DLC One Month After Launch

Nintendo's Expansion Pass for Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave has sparked backlash overseas, with players calling the $35 DLC reveal less than a month after launch unethical.

Nintendo might have a PR headache on its hands. Less than a month after Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave launched, the company revealed a $35 Expansion Pass for the game — and overseas fans are not happy about it.

The backlash kicked off almost immediately after the DLC was announced. Across community forums and social media, players have been tearing into the business model behind the Expansion Pass, arguing that content they assumed was cut for being too large was instead carved out and sold separately as paid DLC.

That price tag is a big part of the frustration. At $35, the Expansion Pass costs a hefty chunk of change on top of the base game, and plenty of players feel the pricing and the marketing around it just aren't a good look.

One common complaint: the timing. Announcing paid DLC before the base game has even had a month to breathe strikes many fans as a bad-faith move, and some have said outright that they're tired of Nintendo pulling moves that hurt players' interests.

There's a bigger worry brewing too. Some fans suspect Nintendo has gotten comfortable developing the main game and its DLC side by side — and they're afraid that approach will carry over to the next Xenoblade Chronicles title. If that happens, they argue, this could become the new normal rather than a one-off.

Others see a broader shift in strategy. With the Switch 2 era underway, some players feel Nintendo is inching closer to the way Sony and Microsoft handle things, and they're not thrilled about paying extra for DLC on top of a base game that already costs around €80.

To be fair, this is a debate about business models, not about whether the DLC itself is any good — the content hasn't even arrived yet. But the reaction shows how sensitive players have become to anything that feels like content being held back for a second payday.

So where do you land on this? Is announcing DLC less than a month after launch just standard practice now, or has Nintendo crossed a line? Drop your take in the comments — we're reading.