What should the DLC comprise of? What should be the primary focus? What was the most disappointing aspect of The Witcher 3's free DLC, and what can they do to improve?
How would they ward that off with DLC? This is not Assassins Creed, game has no drm or always online -> nothing stops people from adding DLC as soon as its released. The only ward function from DLC would be the creation of enough good will that people want to support CDPR...Let's be real, free DLC are there to ward off piracy while at the same time providing good publicity. If we go by Witcher 3, it will be something like cosmetics(haircuts, tattoos), little side quests and maybe something like a photo mode. All things that could have been there from the beginning, but were (probably) added later due to time constraints, or cut to have something to give for free.
A well done horde mode or score attack would be fun. Make it similar to TW2 arena where you earn XP and money and then have to upgrade your character between waves. That was a great way to play test builds.
providing good publicity
That is only reason, even in witcher 3 item you get are ok nothing special, and one of free DLC is New game+ like really? but people swallow that marketing trick so easy, omg they give us free stuff, we need to bow to them.
Make it similar to TW2 arena where you earn XP and money and then have to upgrade your character between waves. That was a great way to play test builds.
NEW DLC: Get amazing extra outfits for your favorite companions, just 300 WP per outfit - or 800 if you get all three!
(1000 WP or Witcher Points only 11,99€)
Aren't Free-LCs usually just content they didn't have time to add, and had to cut?
Ah, fair point. Maybe some of the quest DLCs/haircuts were.Imo not really, or at least not all of them: Different outfits for Triss, Yen and Ciri are by no means necessary - and they are not contextually different but a complete switch (DLC on/DLC off), so there is no ingame reason for them (their absence is not noticeable -> not cut in trad. sense).
For NG+ maybe so, thats a feature often added as a later update (if its added at all, that is - also many RPGs just get it as a mod, if at all)