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This unique console example required you to physically lock cartridges together.

Extra material produced for an existing game, either by the game's original production company or by a third party. Expansion packs generally provide a new story line, more levels or maps and occasionally new items, equipment or units.

What makes an expansion different from a new game or a stand-alone game or even a sequel is that you usually need to have the original game installed to play it. The expansion contains more data for the game and does not have a game engine of its own, and it usually doesn't come with the original game. Although a few companies have been releasing standalone expansion packs, which do in fact come with the engine, and allow the gamer to play with the extra content by itself, but having the original game too may have benefits (such as an Old Save Bonus allowing you to pick up with your endgame character, and avoid bag-spillage).

There has been some controversy over the fact that additional purchasable content on some games actually consists of unlocking material which shipped with the original game. While this practice is not exactly fraudulent, and has been employed for productivity software for years (for a commonplace example, Windows Vista's five or so versions are all included on every disc, and the license key determines which features will be enabled), some gamers have felt cheated by being compelled to pay extra for content they already physically possessed.

This is not a new phenomenon. It is said that back in the 1970s, IBM would sell a low-end version of its original 360 mainframe, that if the customer ordered a higher-end version (which cost several thousand dollars for the upgrade), IBM would send out a technician who simply used a clipper to sever one wire. The technicians, of course, were told to behave as if this was a complicated procedure.

Nearly every RTS game ever made had at least one expansion pack. While the older games usually just added bonus missions that were more challenging than the original game, it has become custom to expand the different factions' unit lineup as well as frequently adding new factions to the game altogether.

MMORPGs used to rely heavily on this model and the biggest titles with physical editions still do, either as the sole method of distribution or as an option for those with poor internet connections. Free-to-Play titles deliver most of their content updates online but may occasionally bundle several patches together on a disc in an example of this trope.

Not to be confused with third party self-titled add-ons, which usually just contain maps made with the games map editor (and usually not very advanced either). Third-party add-ons are often (though not always) produced by a game's fan community, and can take the form of extended (or heavily-revised) storylines, additional missions, new weapons, or a 'Total Conversion', which is a time-intensive process that (as the name suggests) converts the game into something else entirely, and usually involves a graphical overhaul, a new soundtrack, and even (in the most extreme cases) new model design and programming extensions (some of which push the game's original engine far beyond its design limitations).

Related to Downloadable Content, which, depending on what and how much they add to their base games, are basically downloaded Expansion Packs. See Mission-Pack Sequel for when developers try to pass these off as entirely new games. Expansion packs have sometimes been retooled as mission-pack sequels because publishers would rather have stand-alone games to sell to a wider audience, or because the hardware on a particular platform isn't conducive to physically separating the Game Engine from the scenario data.

These aren't just for video games either; Board Games, and Euro Games in particular, are noted for having a lot of them. See also Source Book.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action-Adventure Games 
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was going to receive one on the ill-fated Nintendo 64DD add-on, but the DD's commercial failure led to it never being released. Remnants of that plan remain in the finished game; leftover codes can force a save to be marked as a "Disk" save, but all it does is make it unusable, as it needs the never-released expansion to play. Despite this, development on Ura Zelda never truly ceased, and it did eventually see a release as Ocarina of Time: Master Quest on a bonus disc bundled with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, then later as a separate unlockable mode in the 3DS remake.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received two expansions. The first of these, The Master Trials, adds the Trial of the Sword — a 45-level gauntlet with a fully upgraded Master Sword as a reward. It also adds a harder difficulty mode called Master Mode, a progress tracker called "Hero's Path", and additional items to help your exploration of Hyrule. The second expansion, The Champions' Ballad, adds a new storyline quest that starts after you've defeated the four Divine Beasts. This quest ultimately ends with Link gaining his own Divine Beast, the Master Cycle Zero.

    Adventure Games 
  • It Came from the Desert (1989) had the data disk Antheads: It Came from the Desert II.
  • Uru, the MMO spin-off of Myst, received a gratis expansion due to its general failure as an MMO. To D'ni gave non-beta players offline access to previously online-only areas. Path of the Shell was sold later. They rendered an installation incompatible with any online play, which had been shut down, until the GameTap-funded revival in 2007.

    Dating Sims 
  • Galaxy Angel Eternal Lovers contained a Chitose story path for Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers.
  • Galaxy Angel II: Mugen Kairou no Kagi includes a bonus disc for Zettai Ryouiki no Tobira, allowing the player to open Natsume's route.

    Driving Games 
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts received one called "LOG's Lost Challenges".
  • F-Zero X had one released only in Japan for the failed Nintendo 64DD add-on that included a car editor, a track editor, two new cups, and a few new music tracks, including a brand new remix of Mario Kart's Rainbow Road, since the base game reused another piece of music for said course instead.
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Five years following its release, the game received a massive expansion known as the Booster Course Pass. It incorporates 48 extra courses that add to the existing 48 from the base content (thus doubling the total to 96), including remade and upgraded tracks from previous games, courses from the subsequent mobile game Mario Kart Tour, and a few brand-new tracks. Courses are released in six waves between 2022 and 2023. Starting with the fourth wave, it also adds characters that weren't originally present in the roster.
  • Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 got a "Ver. B" patch that allowed anyone, not just players who clear Story Mode without losing a single stage, to achieve the 815 HP setting by driving 5,000 kilometers. Cue outcry from players skilled enough to be undefeated in Story Mode.

    Fighting Games 

    First Person Shooters 
  • Borderlands had four DLC campaigns which added new areas to explore as well as new weapons. Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot added a bank to store extra items in while The Secret Armory of General Knoxx added in a new vehicle and a Superboss meant as a high level challenge. The sequel also had DLC campaigns that followed the same formula, with each one also adding at least one new Raid Boss.
  • Doom:
    • Doom II: One year after its release, the game received an expansion titled Master Levels for Doom II, a collection of 20 levels (plus a secret one) made by different people under contract. It retains all the assets (such as enemies, level textures and weapons) from the original, now remixed into longer, more intricate maps. There's also Final Doom, which provided two full level sets in one package, TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, the first of which was originally intended to be a freeware Game Mod until id Software struck a publishing deal with its development team. Lastly, No Rest For The Living was released as an add-on by Nerve Software for the Xbox Live Arcade release of Doom II as well as its inclusion within the BFG Edition of Doom 3; it has only eight levels (plus a secret one), but they're considerably longer and more challenging than those of the vanilla game. All these expansions have since been available (alongside other fan-made mods) as free DLC add-ons for the Unity ports of Doom and Doom II for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.
    • Doom 64: The Updated Re-release for the game includes The Lost Levels, a set of six maps (plus a bonus seventh map) taking place after the events of the main story.
    • Doom³: Resurrection of Evil is a direct sequel to Doom 3's story that adds to the base game a five hour campaign, three new weapons, a few new enemies, and a final boss. The BFG Edition also includes an additional mission pack titled The Lost Mission, which is a couple hours long but adds no new content besides maps.
    • Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods is a two-part DLC that takes place after the base game, featuring new levels and enemies.
  • Ghost Recon ultimately ended up with three: Desert Siege, which takes place during a second war between Eritrea and Ethiopia; Island Thunder, which takes place in Cuba following the projected death of Fidel Castro; and the PS2-exclusive Jungle Storm, which takes place in Colombia as the Ghosts are deployed to finish off the guerilla movements that started the problems in Island Thunder. On consoles they were released as separate games, which has left it in the somewhat unique position of the original game and its first two expansions frequently being considered a "trilogy".
  • Half-Life had a number of successful expansions, including Blue Shift, Decay, and Opposing Force, and the sequel continues this tradition proudly with the Half-Life 2 Episode One and Episode Two.
    • The class-based multiplayer game Team Fortress Classic can also be considered an expansion pack for Half-Life 1. In addition to recycling the vast majority of its assets from Half-Life 1, it was available as a free add-on for all owners of the original WON retail version of the game and was bundled with every subsequent retail release. It's not for nothing that the game sports the lambda logo on its cover art. To this day, the "Half-Life Complete" pack on Steam still includes it.
    • Thanks to Steam, the Episodes also blur the definition between expansion pack and sequel: if Half-Life 2 is installed, the Episodes will re-use assets and engine components from that game, acting like expansions; but if it isn't, they'll add the necessary files themselves.
    • Meanwhile, Blue Shift inverted the concept: It was packaged with its own copy of the engine and was in fact a full standalone install, but marketed as an expansion pack rather than a sequel due to its short length and unaltered gameplay. It was also sold at retail with Opposing Force bundled, with the two expansions together roughly equaling a full-length game.
    • There's also Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, predating the Episodes. It is even shorter than Blue Shift (consisting of only one map), which is because it was based on cut content from the original Half-Life 2. It is also available for free, unlike other expansions for the series, due to the game serving as a showcase for the HDR lighting system of the Source Engine. Its canonicity is also brought into question (this is the only Half-Life game where the G-Man does not appear at all), although the location where Lost Coast occurs is referenced in Half-Life: Alyx.
    • A third party, We Create Stuff released (before Portal came out) a flash-based 2D game based on the idea of Valve's 3d Puzzle game. We Create Stuff then released a complete replacement map pack for Portal that can best be (charitably) described as exceedingly Nintendo Hard.note 
  • Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II had Mysteries of the Sith, which added a campaign focusing on Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn's apprentice.
  • Medal of Honor: Allied Assault has two of them. The first is Spearhead, which adds British and Soviet weapons like the Sten and Mosin-Nagant, and a new campaign centered on US Paratrooper Jack Barnes from his time and Normandy and Bastogne, as well as his reassignment to the OSS late in the war. The second and last is Breakthrough, which adds Italian weapons and an entirely new campaign set entirely in the Mediterranean.
  • Monolith Productions has a bit of history with both third-party and self-made expansions for their games, particularly first-person shooters:
    • Blood (1997) first had the third-party Cryptic Passage which just added new levels. Shortly afterward came the Monolith-produced Plasma Pak, which featured a new episode called "Post Mortem", included new weapons, enemies, and various changes and bugfixes.
    • First Encounter Assault Recon had just third-party expansions, "Extraction Point" and "Perseus Mandate", which continued/complimented the base game's story, as well as adding new enemies and weapons.
    • F.E.A.R. 2 had the first-party, 4-mission Reborn DLC campaign.
    • Aliens vs. Predator 2 had the third-party expansion "Primal Hunt", a prequel to the base game.
    • There were also a pair of third-party expansions for Shogo: Mobile Armor Division that never saw release.
    • Blood II: The Chosen had an expansion pack called The Nightmare Levels, which is Another Side, Another Story, as you get to play as the other three Chosen in small episodes.
    • TRON 2.0 had Killer App.
  • Postal 2 has the Apocalypse Weekend expansion, which adds two more days to the plot, and is (now) bundled with the base game. The Paradise Lost expansion — released a whopping twelve years after the original game — is a separate purchase, and adds a plethora of new items, features, and is roughly the same length as the base game.
  • Quake has Dissolution of Eternity, by Rogue, and Scourge of Armagon by Hipnotic. Quake II has The Reckoning, by Xatrix, and Ground Zero by Rogue. And Quake III: Arena has Team Arena by Id themselves.
  • Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad received a standalone expansion called Rising Storm, set in the Pacific Theater, and released in May 2013. It added four new factions: the US Army and Marine Corps, and the Japanese Army and SNLF, complete with American and Japanese weapon arsenals.
  • Serious Sam 4 has a standalone expansion called Siberian Mayhem, which expands on the Russia chapter that was only 2 levels long in the main game. It was developed by a group of fan modders called Timelock Studio and was originally pitched as DLC, but Devolver Digital decided it should be released separately.
  • SiN has the Wages of Sin expansion pack by 2015 Inc., which adds a new set of levels, fixes a few bugs, and adds a few new features, such as the ability to use the standard handgun two at a time.
  • Shaw's Nightmare has the Fotom Pak.
  • The one for Star Trek: Elite Force had the rather bluntly descriptive title of Star Trek Elite Force: The Expansion Pack.
  • Unreal has the expansion pack Return to Na Pali, which adds a new campaign that continues the story from the ending of Unreal, along with giving you a couple of new guns to play with.

    Hack and Slash 
  • "Vergil's Downfall" for DmC: Devil May Cry.
  • The Xtreme Legends releases for the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games. As consoles are generally not expansion-friendly, they've traditionally also worked as stand-alone games, but there's really nothing worth playing if you do use them as such... and with the advent of DLC, Koei seems to be moving towards just making them straight expansions.
  • The Sengoku Basara series has also had expansions (Battle Heroes for the second game and Utage for the third) which made certain NPC characters playable and added some new game modes.
  • The home releases of arcade classic Gauntlet saw a 512-level expansion The Deeper Dungeons; many of the levels were designed by fans in a Europe-wide competition.

    Massively Multiplayer Online Games 
  • Almost all MMORPGs that remain popular long enough will release numerous expansion packs. Ultima Online and EverQuest both have over a dozen expansions apiece.
  • Final Fantasy XIV is particularly notable for being terrible at launch, and only with its first expansion, A Realm Rebornnote , did it achieve the popularity it has today. Since then, four expansions have been released, each including new areas, jobs, and other content.
    • Heavensward, which includes the frozen mountains of Coerthas in which the theocracy of Ishgard is settled, in addition to a new playable race in the Au Ra and three new jobs: the gunslinging Machinist, the card-powered Astrologian, and the menacingly noble Dark Knight.
    • Stormblood, which takes the action eastward into the conquered nations of Ala Mhigo and Doma. Three more classes also join the ranks: the Samurai, The Red Mage, and later on the Blue Mage.
    • Shadowbringers brings the heroes to the light-ravaged world of the First, brings two more classes into the fold (Gunbreaker and Dancer), and introduces two new playable races (the Viera and Hrothgar).
    • Endwalker, which marks the end of the story arc of the Ascian threat, a tale which takes them across the island nation of Thanvnair, the scholarly settlement of Old Sharlayan, the heart of Garlemald, and even beyond the planet. It introduces two jobs: the Reaper and the Sage, and playable male Vieras (with female Hrothgars coming at a later date).
  • The Phantasy Star series from Online onward:
    • Phantasy Star Online had two expansions over the course of its run: Episode 1 & 2 adds a second story campaign and three additional character types, while the PC-Exclusive Blue Burst adds another campaign in the form of "Episode 4".note 
    • Phantasy Star Universe has Ambition of the Illuminous, which includes new content and a new story campaign that focuses more on player-created characters.
    • Phantasy Star Online 2 has a yearly tradition of rolling out loads of new content each year in the form of "Episodes", each of which includes new stages and classes.
  • The first PlanetSide had the paid-for Core Combat expansion, which added underground caverns made by the Precursors, several new ancient weapons, vehicles, and game mechanics. However, the expansion flopped, with very few players entering the exclusive underground zones. The Aftershock free expansion added Humongous Mecha and required Core Combat, though both were eventually made available to all subscribers.
  • Rift had Storm Legion, which promised to triple the size of the game's world.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic:
    • Rise of the Hutt Cartel, which introduces storylines on Makeb and Oricon, and the daily quest hub CZ-198.
    • Galactic Strongholds, which gives players access to customizable Player Headquarters.
    • Galactic Starfighter, which introduces an objective-based PvP mode.
    • Shadow of Revan, which introduces storylines on Manaan, Rishi, Yavin 4 and Ziost.
    • Knights of the Fallen Empire, which introduces an episodic single-player campaign, the planets Zakuul and Odessen, and an overhauled gear and companion system.
  • World of Warcraft.
    • The Burning Crusade, which released Outland as the Expansion Pack World (seeing a connection already?) in addition to a lot of other stuff, including two new playable races.
    • Wrath of the Lich King opens up a new continent, Northrend, and introduces death knights as a playable class.
    • Cataclysm, besides adding new areas, refactors all the initial zones to the game's then-current standards, introduces two more races, and adds high-level stuff amidst the old zones that have largely been ignored.
    • Mists of Pandaria adds the continent of Pandaria, playable pandaren for both factions, and the monk class.
    • Warlords of Draenor features the world of Draenor, an alternate universe past version of Outland, and updates player character models.
    • Legion introduces the Broken Isles, customizable Evolving Weapons, and the demon hunter class.
    • Battle for Azeroth adds allied races (basically unlockable sub-races) and lets Alliance players quest in Kul'Tiras and Horde players quest in Zandalar.
    • Shadowlands opens up the titular afterlife as a new area, and revamps leveling, crunching the huge 120 levels to just 60.

    Idle Game 

    Platform Games 
  • New Super Mario Bros. U has New Super Luigi U, which contains 82 levels that are more difficult than the standard game, while also including tweaked character physics and Nabbit as a playable character. Luigi U is also a standalone retail release, playing with the trope. Both games were later bundled together as a single game, which formed the base for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
  • Skylanders has several expansions per game that add new levels, battle arenas, or racetracks.
  • Sonic & Knuckles is a cartridge game that is literally attached to the previous title, Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This is because they were originally meant to be one game, but it was split in half, both in order to meet the deadline of a McDonald's tie-in to Sonic 3 and due to the full game's unusually large filesize (it couldn't fit on a normal cartridge, and instead had to be put onto either two normal carts or one very expensive larger cart), and a lock-on system was devised to allow the games to be played on their own or combined into one game. The feature also allows people to lock Sonic & Knuckles onto other games—locking it onto Sonic the Hedgehog 2 allows players to play through the game as Knuckles, and as an additional Easter Egg, locking it onto the first Sonic game results in an expanded version of the 3 & Knuckles sphere-collecting Bonus Stage with 128,016,000 different possible stage layouts and a password system allowing players to select whichever layout they wish, and locking it onto any other game will result in roughly the same but without the ability to advance through the stages after completing them.

    Pinball 
  • Nine months after Metallica was released, Stern Pinball conducted a fan poll for two more songs to be added via a software update. The winners were "Ride the Lightning" and "Blackened".
  • The Pinball Arcade is a framework for playing digital reproductions of Physical Pinball Tables. Players buy packs of one or two tables to add games as desired. They can also try games for free, but play stops once the lowest high score is reached.
  • Zaccaria Pinball has Time Machine as a free table, but additional games must be paid for separately.
  • Similarly, Zen Pinball and Pinball FX comes with Sorcerer's Lair for free, but additional tables (most of which have prominent licenses) require separate in-app purchases.

    Puzzle Games 
  • Oh No! More Lemmings was originally conceived as an Expansion Pack for Lemmings, though was released as a standalone game. It is abundantly evident in the learning curve, which is a lot steeper in Oh No! More Lemmings, where there's one category of stupidly easy levels that were clearly added in as an afterthought, followed by four categories of Nintendo Really Fucking Hard madness...
  • Owners of Tetris: The Grand Master 2 — The Absolute got a free update kit called Tetris: The Grand Master 2 — The Absolute PLUS (commonly referred to as "TAP"), which added some new modes: TGM+ (garbage rises from the bottom if you're clearing lines too slowly), T.A. Death (pieces drop instantly and you must survive for 500 levels, or 999 if you clear the first 500 fast enough), and allowed players to play Doubles mode on one credit. In addition, the "Grand Master" rank in Master mode is more difficult to obtain, as if it wasn't already hard enough.
  • Worms: Reinforcements was an expansion for the original Worms that added a single-player challenge mode, new sounds and custom levels, and many game balance adjustments. Added items were health crates and the Mole Bomb (which rarely appeared due to a bug).

    Real Time Strategy 
  • Every Age of Empires title got an expansion that introduced new factions and units.
    • Age of Empires I has The Rise of Rome, which also added the ability to queue unit production instead of manually ordering one at a time.
    • Age of Empires II has The Conquerors, which introduced New World civilizations to the series (and added Spain and Korea). The HD Edition added The Forgotten, with 5 new civilizations, and The African Kingdoms, which added four more civilizations. The Definitive Edition release added 4 new civilizations, and it had its own set of expansions. Lords of the West added 2, Dawn of the Dukes added 2 more, and Dynasties of India added 3.
    • Age of Empires III has The Warchiefs, which added playable Native American factions, and The Asian Dynasties, which added Asian factions in the Americas.
    • Age of Mythology has The Titans, with a new campaign and enormous Titan units for all civilizations. The HD Edition added another expansion, called Tales of the Dragon, focused on Chinese Mythology.
  • Battlezone (1998) had the second-party developed The Red Odyssey expansion, which included two new brutally difficult campaigns; one for the returning American NSDF, and another for the new Chinese Red Army, which avoided the Cosmetically Different Sides of the NSDF versus Soviet CCA of the vanilla game. A mission pack containing 45 instant action and 52 multiplayer maps was also released. In the Updated Re-release, The Red Odyssey was released later as DLC.
  • The Command & Conquer series considers them obligatory. The first few (The Covert Operations for the first game, and Counterstrike for Red Alert) just added new missions, but from The Aftermath for Red Alert, they always added new units as well.
    • Tiberian Sun: Firestorm, while adding little to the core gameplay, had a new internet mode that allowed players to join either the GDI or Nod in an attempt to conquer the world.
    • Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge added a third faction lead by the eponymous Soviet psychic, as well as adding new units to the existing factions (the Soviets in particular underwent significant changes, what with Yuri taking all their psychic tech with him).
    • Kane's Wrath, in addition to bringing the "multiple branches per faction" idea from Red Alert 2 to the Tiberium games, also told the story of what exactly Kane was up to both between Firestorm and Tiberium Wars, and between TW and Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.
    • Red Alert 3: Uprising has the obligatory three "what happened after the war" campaigns, along with a fourth campaign telling the Origin Story of the Empire's special infantry unit, Yuriko Omega.
  • Company of Heroes had two standalone expansion packs — Opposing Fronts added a British faction and the German Panzer Elite for multiplayer-use along with single-player campaigns for the factions. Tales Of Valor provided three single-player episodes, new units for the multiplayer factions which would replace current units while chosen, and three new multiplayer game modes (two strongly resembling a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena and another being a Hold the Line game mode).
  • Commandos had a standalone expansion titled Beyond The Call Of Duty that added new missions which upped the difficulty, changed the commandos' voices, and added new weapons and equipment for the commandos, including non-lethal attacks for the Green Beret, the Driver, and the Spy.
  • Dawn of War:
    • The game's first expansion pack, Winter Assault added the Imperial Guard as a playable faction, playable with its own story campaign. Dark Crusade also introduced two additional races (The Tau and the Necron), and "Risk"-Style Map campaign, which was a Standalone Expansion Pack.
    • Dawn of War also got a third expansion pack, Soulstorm which added Dark Eldar and the Sisters of Battle.
    • Dawn of War had a notable exception, or at least Playing With, to the typical restriction of needing the original version: You actually could buy and play the expansion packs standalone, and freely play the single-player campaigns. However, playing Multiplayer restricted you only to the factions introduced in that expansion pack.
  • Dawn of War II had two standalone expansion packs: "Chaos Rising", which introduced Chaos, and "Retribution", which introduced the Imperial Guard. Chaos Rising was the traditional version of an expansion pack, while Retribution was a standalone. Retribution discarded the previous game's requirements for multiplayer factions, as well, making all six factions playable by itself.
  • Empire at War: Forces of Corruption adds a third faction to fight both The Empire and Rebellion, the organized crime of the Star Wars universe. It also includes new maps and a new storyline.
  • Massive Entertainment's first RTS Ground Control received an expansion pack, furthering the adventures of major Parker. A few faction tweaks and some additional options for units added a bit more depth.
  • Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots introduces six new factions, as well as new campaigns, game modes, and game mechanics.
  • The Brood War expansion for StarCraft picked up the story with a 20-hour campaign and added 8 new units (to complement the original's 30 non-builder units).
  • StarCraft II has two standalone expansions. The first game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, serves as a base for both StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (released March 2013) and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (released November 2015).
    • Wings of Liberty is the terran (human) campaign, Heart of the Swarm is the zerg campaign, and Legacy of the Void is the protoss campaign. Each section has 20+ missions on its own, more than the total of all three factions' in previous installments. Wings gives each race about 15 general non-builder units, plus 10 campaign-specific ones for the terrans. Heart adds 2-3 new general units per race and 14 campaign-specific ones for the zerg. Legacy adds 2-3 new general units per race and 23 campaign-specific ones for the protoss.
  • Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds had Clone Campaigns as its Expansion Pack. This included two new campaigns, two new factions (Confederacy and Galactic Republic), as well as new techs and units.
  • Syndicate had an expansion for the first game titled American Revolt.
  • Total Annihilation had two expansion packs, The Core Contingency and Battle Tactics. The first was a full expansion complete with campaign and dozens of new units, the second a map and mission pack.
  • Warcraft II had Beyond the Dark Portal, which took the fight, well, beyond the Dark Portal, to the orcs' homeworld of Draenor, adding several hero units and a new tileset in the process.
  • Warcraft III had the Frozen Throne, which added lots of new heroes, units, buildings and maps in addition to a new campaign. One of the new places visited in the story was Outland, the ruined remains of Draenor.

    Roguelikes 
  • The Binding of Isaac has had multiple expansions. Typical features are new room types, tonnes of new items, a new character or two, and a new Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Wrath of the Lamb more than doubled the content of the original game, adding so much stuff the team had to stop because it was more than Flash could handle. This inspired them to remake the game in a new engine with all the missing content a few years later. Said remake has also had multiple expansions, Afterbirth, Afterbirth+, and the final one, Repentance, being the largest addition to the game ever.

    Role-Playing Games 
  • Originally designed as Baldur's Gate III, Baldur's Gate II's expansion Throne of Bhaal was the climax to the Bhaalspawn story. The game that would later be developed as a "Baldur's Gate 3", The Black Hound, had nothing to do with the BG series' Bhaalspawn saga. It was only named that due to Interplay lacking the rights to make Dungeons & Dragons games that weren't called "Baldur's Gate", the same reason for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Throne of Bhaal was more a "proper" expansion pack, as compared to Tales of the Sword Coast, which added a few dungeons (though they were big ones!), spells, and items and raised the level cap without actually impacting the main story. The original Baldur's Gate eventually received a proper story-driven expansion pack, Siege of Dragonspear... but only in its 2012 Updated Re-release incarnation by Beamdog.
  • Blue Dragon had a pack of special items released for download, then an entire new Bonus Dungeon, then a New Game Plus mode that made the game super difficult.
  • City of Villains is an expansion pack and Gaiden Game for City of Heroes. It is also an example of an expansion that is fully built into the core game, and has to be unlocked by paying the complete price of an additional game. Furthermore, as of the end of 2006 City of Heroes has at least two smaller "bonus" packages that add extra powers and costume options to the game which can only be activated via separate purchases from NCSoft. (As of 2008, the games are no longer separate and everyone who had only one can access the other for no extra cost. 2010's Praetorean story arcs will be another stand-alone gaiden game that can be an expansion pack for City of Heroes / Villains.)
  • Cyberpunk 2077 has Phantom Liberty, a story expansion which is exclusive to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions of the game. The expansion adds a new district to Night City, Dogtown, and is basically an extra game in terms of content, adding in new vehicles, weapons and skills tied to the Relic. Unless the player chooses to play the story expansion right away from the main menu when starting a new game, Dogtown cannot be accessed until after the player completes a few main quests in act 2.
  • Diablo II had an expansion, Lord of Destruction, where you traveled to the Barbarians' homeland of Arreat and fought Diablo's older brother (It Makes Sense in Context).
    • The original Diablo had an official expansion pack called Hellfire, but it was made by a third party and was pretty sloppy in quality.
    • Diablo III has Reaper of Souls, which adds a new act, a new class and many more.
  • Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance continued the story of Divinity II: Ego Draconis so well, that they were henceforth only ever released bundled together (under the subtitle The Dragon Knight Saga).
  • Dragon Age:
    • Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening picks up the story where Origins left off, with you in charge of rebuilding the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. You have the option of importing an Origins character sans any DLC content save the "Return to Ostagar" stuff (since the other DLC content is incompatible for some reason), or starting fresh with a level 18 Orlesian Grey Warden Commander. There are enough new features to call it an expansion (new talents, higher level cap, new companions), but not enough to call it a sequel (it's still basically the same game).
    • Dragon Age II was expected to have an expansion pack, as well, titled Exalted March. However, due to the sequel's controversial reception, all planned expansions for it were scrapped a year after the release (except for two DLC campaigns that have been released in the meantime). Some parts of the expansion's planned storyline, according to the Word of God, were reintroduced in the next main game.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire was originally planned to be an expansion pack to Daggerfall, but this idea was scrapped during development. Battlespire was then released as a stand-alone Dungeon Crawler.
    • Morrowind has two expansion packs, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, adding additional areas and quests, and possibilities (as the title hints, the character can become a lycanthrope). However, they also update the game .exe to include additional functions not present in patches for the original game, introducing unfortunate dependencies on the expansion packs for the vast majority of the enormous selection of Morrowind Game Mods created by the community.
    • Oblivion has had several small downloadable content packs, and two full sized expansions — Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles.
    • Skyrim has two major DLC expansions, the first being Dawnguard. It adds small new areas to the ends of the world map, and new vampire and werewolf content with a quest line where you can choose to join the vampires or Dawnguard (vampire hunters). The second major expansion, Dragonborn, adds Solstheim, the Nord-ruled island north of Morrowind from the Bloodmoon expansion, as well as side trips into the realm of Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge. The Special Edition includes both of these expansions out of the box.
  • Fallout:
    • Fallout 3. Mothership Zeta, The Pitt, Operation Anchorage, and Point Lookout all count, but the most important Downloadable Content is Broken Steel, which completely changes the ending of the vanilla game so as to allow you to play after beating it, as well as adding some new sidequests and increasing the level cap.
    • Fallout: New Vegas does similarly, with added bonuses: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, in addition to the obligatory new sidequests and items, increase the player's level cap by 5 per expansion (up to 50 with all four). There's also the Gun Runners' Arsenal, which as its name suggests adds a ton of new (highly-expensive) weapons for the player to use, and the Courier's Stash, which gives the player all four of the pre-order armor and weapon sets.
    • Fallout 4 is different in that it has two big expansions with several smaller ones: the two big ones are Far Harbor and Nuka-World, which bring the player character to new locations, with the smaller ones being Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, and Vault-Tec Workshop, which add several more options for the settlement building in-game.
  • Grim Dawn have two expansions. Ashes of Malmouth which add two chapters, new content and the Inquisitor and the Necromancer as playable classes. Forgotten Gods and an extra chapter, more content, the Oathkeeper class and an endless dungeon mode.
  • Tribes of the East, the second and last add-on to Heroes of Might and Magic 5, is an example of a stand-alone expansion. Mostly so because the main game's flaws, which mostly were addressed in this expansion, caused mediocre sales. However, there is no real bonus to owning the main game and the expansion, since all features except the campaigns are contained in TotE.
  • The original Icewind Dale also received a very short expansion pack, Heart of Winter. The game designers acknowledged the short length of Heart of Winter and released a free downloadable second expansion pack called Trials of the Luremaster. You need your copy of Heart of Winter installed to play it however.
  • Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 each had enough Downloadable Content to collectively count as good-sized expansion packs, and could be purchased together by buying the season passes. 3 added 13 hours of single player gameplay in four episodic packs,note  dozens of new weapons and powers, one new full party member, several new guest party members, and two new sets of enemies and bosses (plus 'possessed' variants for the Collectors). 2 which added 11 hours of single-player gameplay in six episodic packs,note  two full party members, two guest party members, a new vehicle with unique levels and mechanics, about a dozen new weapons and powers, four bosses,note  and new variants for many existing enemies. 3 also received about an expansion pack's worth of free multiplayer updatesnote  that easily doubled the amount of content available in that mode in terms of classes, weapons, maps, and enemies.
  • Monster Hunter:
    • Monster Hunter: World has Iceborne, which introduces the long-awaited cold-weather area not present in the base game, the highest quest rank, many iconic returning monsters such as Nargacuga, Tigrex, and Glavenus; and new ones like Namielle, Shara Ishvalda, and subspecies for monsters seen in the vanilla game. In comparison, previous games used to be re-released with expanded content, and whenever possible included an option to import saves into those expanded versions so players didn't have to start over again.
    • Monster Hunter: Rise has Sunbreak which, in addition to adding a new quest rank that features brand-new monsters like the Three Lords (Garangolm, Lunagaron and Malzeno) and subspecies for existing monsters, also has a more elaborate storyline that develops in a new land, a new hunting area plus a returning one from the second generation, and returning veterans like Seregios, Astalos and the Magalas (Gore and Shagaru, with the Chaotic variant of the former being added via a post-release update).
  • Neverwinter Nights had two clear expansions, Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark, each of which introduced a new campaign, several new spells, weapons, feats, and prestige classes. Hordes of the Underdark also increased the level cap, introducing an epic tier to the game. In a strange twist, canonically the PC of Hordes of the Underdark is the same as Shadows of Undrentide, but NOT the same as the one in the original campaign.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 ended up with two expansion packs too: Mask of the Betrayer, which is considered by many to be the Spiritual Successor to Planescape: Torment as well as Storm of Zehir which attempted to replicate the dungeon crawling style of the Icewind Dale games. NWN2 also had a smaller expansion titled Mysteries of Westgate that was distributed as DLC.
  • Path of Exile added numerous free additions to the game that greatly expanded the game's scope. The game first launched with three acts and three difficulty settings. Over time it's added: a new end-game boss, item crafting, a fourth act, Ascendancy classes, an expanded end-game system, a ten-act campaign, and three seperate expansions to the end-game, including a sequel. Many of the temporary seasonal league content has also been integrated into the main game over time, with growing complexity for each league.
  • Persona
    • Persona 3 proved so popular that an expansion game, Persona 3: FES was released. This contains the original game but with an extra difficulty level (Hard), new calendar events and additional Personae to summon. The real meat of the expansion comes in the form of an extra 20-30hr scenario which serves as a direct sequel to the events of the main game. All this plus the fact that it retails for less than the original means that there's little to no reason to purchase the original any more.
    • Persona 4, likewise, would receive its own expansion game: Persona 4: Golden. In addition to the expanded selection of summonable Personas, it also includes two new Social Links: one for side character Tohru Adachi, and another for newcomer Marie. Other features include a new area to explore and a garden for creating healing items for dungeons.
    • Persona 5 has its own expansion, called Persona 5: Royal. Along with the expanded selection of summonable Personas, the game features new Social Links and a new playable ally in Kasumi Yoshizawa (Codename: Violet), along an expanded story leading to a new ending should players meet specific requirements.
  • Pokémon: Starting with Pokémon Sword and Shield, the series began doing this in lieu of the traditional "third version", instead offering a set of two Downloadable Content expansion packs that add new areas, challenges, and new and returning Pokémon.note  Shortly after both expansions are released, the physical games are rereleased with the expansions already included.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne has its "Maniax" edition released in Japan, which featured [[Director's Cut content excluded from the original release
of the game]] and a brand-new dungeon that could unlock a brand new ending, in addition to featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series. The "Maniax" edition of the game would be the one to receive an international localization
  • Sorcerian had three add-on scenario packs released in Japan by Falcom, the latter two shifting the setting to Sengoku Japan and Ancient Egypt. There were also two third-party scenario disks, not counting the five Selected Sorcerian disks of Official Fan-Submitted Content.
  • Each of the "Soulsborne" games by FromSoftware (bar Demon's Souls) got an expansion pack in the form of Downloadable Content. Either one single DLC, or multiple episodic DLCs that are closely connected. Generally, their DLC includes new areas, bosses, enemies, and weapons, and are set in either the distant future or the distant past.
    • Dark Souls 1 has Artorias of the Abyss, set centuries before the first game, with the Chosen Undead taking the place of Knight Artorias, rescuing Dusk of Oolacile and killing Manus, Father of the Abyss. It ties directly into the sequel, as Nashandra was born from a fragment of Manus' soul.
    • Dark Souls 2 got three separate episodic campaigns that were later released as one in the form of the Lost Crowns DLC.
    • Dark Souls 3 has two DLCs that are directly tied to each other, with The Ringed City picking up directly where Ashes of Ariandel leaves off. In the latter, the Ashen One enters the Painted World of Ariandel at the request of a mysterious Old Soldier named Slave Knight Gael and battles its corrupted inhabitants in an effort to burn away the rot infecting it. In the latter, the Ashen One pursues Gael through the titular isolated city and ends up in the future at the end of the world due to the city being an island in the sea of time sustained by a slumbering god. The Ashen One then has to fight their way through the dying city in order to retrieve 'pigment' for the Painter, who intends to create a new Painted World for refugees of the dying old worlds. Serves as the Distant Finale for the whole Souls series.
    • Bloodborne has The Old Hunters. The Hunter travels to the Hunter's Nightmare, a world where hunters from the past are trapped forever. In the process they discover the source of Yharnam's curse. It adds 3 new areas, 5 new bosses, an array of new weapons and armor sets, and is leagues more difficult than the base game.
    • Elden Ring has the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, of which only a piece of concept art has been released as of this writing.
  • Ur-Example: Epyx's games Temple of Apshai and Hellfire Warrior each had two expansions: Upper Reaches of Apshai and Curse of Ra for the former, and The Keys of Acheron and Danger in Drindisti for the latter.
  • Touhou Labyrinth received an expansion pack in the form of Labyrinth of Touhou Plus Disc. The expansion pack added ten more floors to explore after the main game, more playable characters, new items, extra bosses, and a New Game Plus feature. The expansion pack's content were later added in the Labyrinth of Touhou Special Disc re-release along with more extra features and improvements.
  • Ultima:
    • Ultima VII: The Black Gate had an expansion titled Forge of Virtue.
    • Ultima VII Part II: Serpent Isle is sometimes mistaken for an expansion pack, but was actually the next fully-fledged installment of the series — the only reason it wasn't released as "Ultima VIII" was that due to time constraints, it ran on the same Game Engine as The Black Gate and series creator Richard Garriott insisted on programming an engine from scratch for each numbered installment. Serpent Isle eventually got its own expansion, The Silver Seed, but due to clumsy marketing and a rushed release (ordered by corporate suits), The Silver Seed was shipped partially unfinished; while the expansion is in 'winnable', numerous unchecked plot holes, dangling story threads, and even one or two only partially-designed-but-abandoned-midway sidequests mar the experience.
    • Ultima VIII was supposed to receive its own expansion, The Lost Vale, but it became a sad case of Vaporware.
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt added two: Hearts Of Stone and Blood And Wine. The former adds more quests and a new storyline to the Velen/Novigrad region along with new monsters and roaming bands of former Order Of The Flaming Rose knights. The latter adds a new region, Toussaint, and is practically a whole extra game in terms of content. Also, unless being played standalone, it can't be accessed until Dandelion is rescued during the base game's main questline.
  • Xanadu Scenario II: The Resurrection of Dragon, an expansion to Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu which included some of Yuzo Koshiro's earliest video game music.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:

    Rhythm Games 
  • Just Dance: Just Dance: Summer Party is a compilation of most DLC from Just Dance 2.
  • Rock Band:
    • Track Packs consist of 20 or so songs that are usually available as DLC in the main games packaged onto a disc to give players unwilling to purchase DLC or without an Internet connection a sampling of the massive list of downloadable songs available for the series. Some of the songs are timed exclusives for the Track Pack before getting released as DLC later. Those with an Internet connection can use a one-time code on the instruction manual to port the songs over to the main games' library. The entries include:
    • Vol. 1 (Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 only)note 
    • AC/DC Live: AC/DC's setlist off their Live at Donington movie/album from their 1991 show at Donington Park. Unlike the other Track Packs, songs on this one are entirely exclusive and were never released as DLC.
    • Vol. 2
    • Classic Rock
    • Country
    • Metal
    • Country Vol. 2

    Sandbox Games 
  • Assassin's Creed III has an expansion pack called The Tyranny of King Washington. Curiously enough, it ended up getting split into three DLCs instead of one whole set.
  • Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 for the Playstation actually required you to have the original GTA disc to boot it. That is, it wasn't standalone like a Mission-Pack Sequel.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two downloadable expansion packs that were originally Xbox 360 exclusive, but were released for the Playstation 3 and PC a few months later.
  • Horizon Zero Dawn has The Frozen Wilds, an expansion that includes a separate storyline, an entirely different set of collectables from the rest of the game, and new, deadlier Machines.
  • Horizon Forbidden West has Burning Shores, a PS5-exclusive expansion.
  • Subverted by Mount & Blade. Warband was formerly announced as a classic expansion pack, then became a standalone one and was later on finally confirmed as a greatly Updated Re-release (and minor Continuity Reboot).
  • Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell is a stand-alone expansion that uses the gameplay systems of Saints Row IV while also adding tons of new content.
  • X-Universe series:
    • The first game X: Beyond The Frontier has the X:Tension xtension pack, which expands the content and allows the player to purchase and fly other ships.
    • X3: Terran Conflict is a standalone expansion pack for X3: Reunion, though it offers so much new content that it is typically referred to as a separate game. X3: Albion Prelude is an expansion pack of an expansion pack — it requires Terran Conflict to run, though it runs from a separate executable and the player does not carry over progress in from Terran Conflict.
  • X: Rebirth received two, which were timed to release simultaneously with massive free Downloadable Content updates that address core gameplay issues.
    • The Teladi Outpost adds a new ship set, solar system, some new mechanics and such, and unlike all previous expansion packs it allows you to continue on your old save game. 'Teladi Outpost was free for all owners to pre-order until the day of release, as a way to Win Back the Crowd after the game's disastrous launch a year prior.
    • Home Of Light adds three new solar systems - one of which has unique spatial anomalies - new factions, new weapons, and a new station type.

    Simulation Games 
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons adds in the Happy Home Paradise DLC, a sequel to Happy Home Designer. The game itself has the player assisting a resort to build perfect homes for various NPCs, but also brings in new features to your island including adding pillers to the inside of houses, new types of counter-tops, creating non-home buildings, and being able to invite villagers from your island to the resort.
  • The first game in the ARMA series,, Armed Assault, only had a single standard expansion, Queen's Gambit (with an additional island and a new campaign). Then ARMA II came along and received some DLC. But the real expansion pack and DLC fever started with the release of ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead, itself a standalone expansion to the original II (with a brand new setting and lots of new features). So far, Arrowhead has received the British Armed Forces, Private Military Company, Reinforcements and the Army of the Czech Republic expansions. And lately, ARMA's helicopter sim cousin Take On Helicopters has also been receiving various small expansions, usually in the form of Downloadable Content.
  • Descent II: The Vertigo Series and Descent 3: Mercenaries.
  • Euro Truck Simulator 2 features a range of DLC, with the marquee release each year being a map expansion that focuses on adding a new region to the expansive game world.
    • Going East! significantly expands Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and adds Hungary as a new country.
    • Scandinavia adds Denmark as well as southern Sweden and Norway.
    • Viva La France! significantly expands France, including the island of Corsica.
    • Italia is similar, expanding Italy including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
    • Beyond the Baltic Sea adds the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as southern Finland and the Russian regions of Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg.
    • Road to the Black Sea adds Romania, Bulgaria, and the European portion of Turkey.
    • Iberia adds Spain and Portugal.
    • Heart of Russia expands Russia to cover most of its European population centers.
    • Finally, American Truck Simulator also features a similar model, with the base game focusing on California, Nevada and Arizona, with all subsequent states being their own DLC.
  • The Porsche expansion pack in Forza Motorsport 4 re-introduces 23 of Forza Motorsport 3's Porsches, adds 7 new ones that weren't in previous games, adds achievements, and adds more single player events.
    • A Rally expansion pack was revealed for Horizon about a week before release. Later on, a free expansion pack called the 1000 Club was released that added special small tasks for players to complete in every single car in the game.
    • Horizon 2 received an expansion pack called Storm Island that added a whole open world island for players to drive on, complete with its own championship. Later on, the game received its own Porsche expansion pack. Additionally, a standalone expansion called Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious was released initially for free for a couple weeks' time that was essentially a glorified demo of the full game complete with its own storyline and set of achievements, and was also released on Xbox 360 unlike the other two expansions that were released only for the Xbox One.
    • Horizon 3 got an expansion pack called Blizzard Mountain, which added a whole new winter-themed map for players to explore, along with its own championship. Later, the game received another campaign expansion, the Hot Wheels Expansion, which has another new map focused on stunts, along with vehicles based on Hot Wheels toys.
    • Horizon 4 followed a similar formula to the third game, with the first expansion being Fortune Island, which adds a new island to the map with extreme terrain and weather conditions, and the second expansion being LEGO Speed Champions, with a new Lego-themed map and vehicles made out of Lego bricks.
    • Horizon 5 follows a similar formula to the previous games with its expansions. The first expansion was Hot Wheels, which, similarly to the Horizon 3 expansion, featured a new map focusing on stunts that's located above the main map in the sky and vehicles based on Hot Wheels toys. The second expansion was Rally Adventure, which added a new off-road themed map with its own events that can be played either as standard races or rally events complete with a co-driver guiding the player with pace notes.
  • The first generation IL-2 Sturmovik series released its new games as standalone expansions, with smaller addons (new planes, maps, missions and audio packs) usually released either as classic expansion packs or Downloadable Content.
  • Fasa's MechWarrior 2 received several: Ghost Bear's Legacy and a multiplayer expansion called the 8 player pack.
    • Might be mistaken for an expansion: MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries was a standalone game.
    • MechWarrior 3 got one as well, a bit harder to find though. Pirates Moon it was called.
    • Pretty much all incarnations of MechWarrior 4 received an expansion:
      • MechWarrior 4: Vengeance was followed up by MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, which continued the story from a different view point. Pretty much Darker and Edgier, as it picked up after the worst possible ending. Pretty much Battletechs/MechWarriors m.o.
      • Another expansion for MechWarrior 4: the Clan 'Mech and Inner Sphere 'Mech packs. Adding additional Battlemechs and weapon system to the games. Only usable in Multiplay however.
      • While not an expansion per se, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries plays around the same timeframe as Vengeance and Black Knight. Furthermore, the 'Mech pack expansions could be installed for Mercenaries as well.
    • Same universe, different genre: the first MechCommander game received a gold upgrade. Which included different difficulty settings (and boy did the vanilla game need one!) and a whole new multi-mission campaign!
  • The original Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis first received the Red Hammer expansion, which only added a new campaign for the Soviet forces and was made by the game's publisher (Codemasters). The second and more substantial expansion was Resistance, which was made by the main developers again and offered a lot of technical and gameplay improvements (RPG Elements, sidearms, better sounds, animations and graphics) in addition to a new setting and new guerilla warfare-themed campaign. Notably, the devs also offered various vehicle and weapon addons prior and after the release of Resistance in the form of free Downloadable Content — this was still a relatively new concept back in 2002-2004. All of the addons and most of the expansions were later included in the collector's edition of the game.
  • Rainbow Six had a follow up in the form of Eagle Watch, a series of depressingly tough levels. It's sequel contained Urban Operations that included mod support (such as replacing Rainbow with SEAL Team Six and several 9/11 fan add ons), Covert Operations that includes a counterterror encyclopedia and officer test (in story one of the members of Rainbow was moving from an enlisted soldier to intel), and Black Thorn, which interestingly changed an airport level to a bus terminal after September 11, and the developers released the map for modders to play around with. The third game was followed up by Athena Sword and a Korean only expansion pack that is free to download. The XBOX and PS2 conversions were similar in having stand alone expansions to the main game, some deviating from the PC versions.
  • RollerCoaster Tycoon. The first three games have had two expansion packs each.
  • The Operation Jumpagate expansion to the 3DO game Shockwave is a rare console example: it was unplayable if the player did not have a complete save file of the original Shockwave.
  • Silent Hunter IV has the expansion U-Boat Missions, that allows you to command a German submarine with base on the Japanese-occupied South Eastern Asia.
  • The Sims is worldwide known for being an Expansion Pack Cash-Cow Franchise, the first one having seven expansion packs (all now conveniently packed with the original for the price of one game, spiting everyone who actually bought them separately) and the sequel having 8 expansion packs containing new game features and content, and 10 lower priced 'stuff packs' containing content only. The Sims 3 has 11 expansion packs and 9 Stuff packs. The Sims 4 has 11 expansion packs, 10 'Game' packs (which are basically a hybrid between expansion and Stuff packs) and 18 'Stuff' packs so far.
  • Star Trek: Starfleet Command series gained a massive one for the second incarnation, adding new factions like the Orion Syndicate. Full title: Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Orion Pirates
  • How Commander Pavel Chekhov ever became a full fledged commander is beyond many. Apparently he lost a whole disc with missions for Interplay's Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Luckily these were found and added in an expansion called... Chekhov's Lost Mission. It did not add much to the core game, aside from 5 new missions with brutal difficulty, tying up a few dropped story lines.
  • Star Wars' X-Wing series featured expansion packs for all games except X-Wing Alliance:
    • X-Wing had two expansion packs, Imperial Pursuit and B-Wing. Each added an additional campaign, with the latter also introducing the titular B-Wing as a fourth flyable craft. A third expansion was planned, centered on the Rebels' time on Hoth, but this was canceled.note 
    • TIE Fighter also had two expansion packs, Defender of the Empire and Enemies of the Empire, each of which added three additional campaigns to the game. Notably, Enemies was only available via the game's Collector's CD; the game consequently has been criticized as One Game for the Price of Two, particularly as both the base game and Defender ended with the Zaarin storyline unresolved.
    • X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter had the Balance of Power expansion, which added a single player campaign for each side as well as additional spacecraft types.
  • SWAT 4 had The Stetchkov Syndicate. It added a new single player campaign with seven missions related to the titular Bulgarian mafia clan, numerous AI, command interface and multiplayer improvements, and several new weapons, including a nifty tear gas grenade launcher, a special marksman rifle and a more modern taser pistol that could double as a melee weapon.
  • Vietcong had Fist Alpha and Red Dawn, while Vietcong 2 had Fist Bravo.
  • Wing Commander has expansion packs for both the first two "mainline" games and for the spinoff Privateer. Once the series began using Live Action Cutscenes, however, it became impractical.
    • For context, Secret Ops was the sequel to Prophecy, which was released for free in a series of episodic releases. Instead of FMV, there was additional text-based content (in the form of emails, news articles, posted orders, etc.) that you would look up online between episodes. The game was eventually taken offline, and was only legally available afterwards as part of the "Prophecy Gold" package, a box that included Wing Commander Prophecy and Wing Commander Secret Ops. Without the online story content.
    • The SNES version of Secret Missions, the first WC1 add-on, was a fully separate game that didn't need the original, but that was a function of cartridge-based games for which the method described in the Sonic & Knuckles example, above, was impractical on the basis of costs (WC at the time not being the cash cow that was the Sonic series).
  • The first Zoo Tycoon game had two: Dinosaur Digs & Marine Mania. The second had four: Endangered Species, African Adventure, Marine Mania & Extinct Animals.

    Stealth Games 
  • Metal Gear:
    • Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions was, in America and Japan, simply a (literal) mission pack spinoff to the original MGS. Unfortunately, for reasons known only to Konami, they added a disc-check onto the European versions, requiring players to own Metal Gear Solid for the game to boot. Doubly-unfortunately, the disc check doesn't work on certain PS2 models and most PS3 ones, rendering European copies of Special Missions unplayable on those consoles.
    • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was followed by Portable Ops Plus, a stand-alone expansion that focused on adding more multiplayer modes and character types from other MGS games in addition to those featured in the original MPO.

    Survival Horror 
  • Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach has Ruin, in which you control a new character named Cassie who arrives at the abandoned Pizzaplex following the events of the main game after she receives a message from Gregory, who is trapped inside the building and must be rescued by Cassie.
  • Goosebumps: Night of Scares gains an extended edition five years later, titled Dead of Night. Players reprise their role as Twist, and once again Slappy the Dummy is on the loose and had Stine imprisoned in his typewriter.

    Third Person Shooters 

    Turn-based Strategy/4X 
  • Civilization has this as a tradition beginning in earnest with the third installment. In each case, there are two expansions, with the second expansion including all or most of the content from the first. The pattern has been that the first expansion is mostly just new content grafted onto the base game, while the second also includes some upgrades and refinements to the game mechanics made after consultation with the player community. In III and IV, the second expansion also featured most of the "scenario" variants (typically based on a particular historical period, e.g. Sengoku Japan or Charlemagne's wars).
    • Civilization III: Play the World and Conquests
    • Civilization IV: Warlords and Beyond the Sword
    • Civilization V also has two expansion packs — Gods and Kings and Brave New World.
    • On top of the regular expansions Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm, Civilization VI also added in two battle pass style expansions which bring in new content over a period of time. The first is New Frontier Pass, which brought in new civilizations, new leaders for old civilizaitons, Personas, new modes, new districts, new city-states, new Great People, and other features. The second, Leaders Pass, just added in 12 new alternate leaders for existing civilizations and 6 new Personas.
  • Endless Space has the Disharmony expansion pack, which introduces a new mechanically unusual race and revamps the oft maligned combat system, along with a host of other smaller changes. The game also has about a dozen free micro-expansion packs, which introduce new Hero Units, planetary anomalies, and random events.
  • Endless Legend has the Guardians expansion pack that adds five unique and extremely powerful Elemental Embodiment Hero Units, civilization wonders, city specialization, random events, and new terrain anomalies.
  • Every Heroes of Might and Magic game since the second has had at least one expansion. Although, most of the 3DO/New World Computing era were Mission Pack Sequels, with only Armageddon's Blade for III adding a new town.note  The Ubisoft era made new towns a standard feature for every expansion.
  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has the Alien Crossfire expansion pack, which adds five new human factions and two new alien ones.
  • Syndicate has a single expansion pack called American Revolt. It is notably quite difficult.

    Non-video game examples 
Card Games
  • Bang! has several: Dodge City, Gold Rush, Armed & Dangerous, High Noon, A Fistful of Cards, Wild West Show, and The Valley of Shadows.
  • Digimon Card Game has a new expansion about every other month, as well as semi-annual starter decks that contain their own unique cards (though all cards can be used together since there's only one gameplay format).
  • Magic: The Gathering averages one expansion every 2 months or so.
    • From 1996 with Mirage to 2015 with Dragons of Tarkir, three of these expansions took place in the same setting and built somewhat on the mechanics of the previous ones, forming a "Block" of one large expansion and two smaller ones (usually). The fourth was a "core set" released in the summer designed to introduce new players to the rules and reprint certain mainstay cards to keep them in circulation.
    • From 2015 with Battle for Zendikar to 2018 with Rivals of Ixalan, they followed a two-block paradigm that replaced the Core Set with an additional expansion, and did two blocks of two sets per year instead of just one. However, this rapidly proved unpopular, leading to...
    • The three-and-one model, with three large-set expansions and the reintroduced core set, which continues into the present (though the core set was later removed again in favor of another expansion). There have still continued to be several expansions that tie into each other unofficially, like the year-long buildup to War of the Spark that included elements of the previous two blocks (as they all took place on Ravnica); the double-feature of Innistrad sets Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow; the Dominaria focused sets Dominaria United and The Brother's War, and the New Phyrexia sets Phyrexia: All Will Be One and March of the Machine.
    • Naturally, this doesn't include the various supplemental sets that aren't always legal in all formats or attempt to introduce new ones. Usually these come in the form of a large, draftable set in the summer that ties directly into commander or modern formats, like the Horizons or Masters sets, or major Universes Beyond sets like Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy,
  • Pokémon also introduces a new set every month or so, often tying in to the new games.
  • Saboteur 2 is an expansion for Saboteur that divides the miners into two teams (blue vs. green), and adds other new role cards. It also adds new action cards and new tunnel cards.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! can top that with a new set every three months, as well as all the special packs.

Tabletop Games

  • Also popular with board games. Settlers of Catan has several expansion packs as does Alhambra. Sometimes these are combined into one set as a 'big box' release.
  • Final Girl is literally built around these, to the point you need at least one expansion to play it. The Core Set contains the parts that are used in every game, while the rest of the content is in the Feature Films, which contain the Final Girl (the player's character), the killer, and the map. The Feature Films are structured such that any Final Girl can be used against any killer, and both can be used on any map.
  • Res Arcana has received two expansions:
    • Lux et Tenebrae: Its biggest additions are the Demons artifact type, support for a 5th player, and the "Inscription" magic item, which has the unique property of giving you scrolls that can be saved up for later rounds. It also tweaks the rules to Nerf the Monuments strategy a bit, and adds some new artifacts, mages, etc.
    • Perlae Imperii adds the valuable Pearl essence to the game and increases the goal to 13 Victory Points. It also introduces a new magic item, new artifacts, new Places of Power, etc.
  • 7 Wonders:
    • The original game has the expansions Leaders (which adds leaders to the game), Cities (which adds a new card type, support for an 8th player and team rules, and a few other things), Wonder Pack (which just adds four new Wonders), Babel (essentially two expansions — one based around building the Tower of Babel, and one based around building great structures) and Armada (which brings naval combat and exploration to the game).
    • The Duel spin-off has received two expansions: Pantheon, which adds gods who can help you or hinder your opponent, and Agora, which adds a Senate mechanic.
  • Trivial Pursuit has its share. Feeling like questions about decades? Music? Sports? Movies?
  • Villainous (Ravensburger) has several expansions that add new villains with new playstyles.
  • The base game of Wingspan covers North American birds, and is intended to have an expansion per continent. As of late 2022, three have been released. Note that the expansion Wingspan Asia can also be played as a stand-alone game for two.

Other

  • Real Life version: At Disney Theme Parks, Toontown was added to Disney World (although after the New Fantasyland expansion it became the Storybook Circus sub-area), New Orleans Square and Bear Country (Critter Country today) to Disneyland Park, and Disney California Adventure for Disneyland Resort.
  • Dominion is an interesting case. There are 10 expansions (3 small (150-card), 5 standard (300-card), 1 large (400-card), and 1 extra-large (500-card)) and one set that contains basic cards with updated art. To play any game, you need a base set (Original or the first edition Intrigue) or the non-playable base set plus any expansion. To make this confusing mix even odder, while the non-playable base-set contains only cards that are in the base set and intrigue, they're an updated design, so some players may purchase this set even if they already have one of the two base sets. It provides no new cards, but they are nicer-looking versions of old cards you might have at least two full sets of already.
  • Supplements for tabletop RPGs are almost inevitably this. It's in the nature of these games that all one usually really needs to buy to play one are from one to three "core" rulebooks and any special dice it requires — but that doesn't keep rules expansions, new setting information (or new settings altogether), pre-made scenarios and the like from also selling.
  • Many Shimajiro toys support having additional add-on modules or extra activity cards offered separately from the main product, which makes getting the toys even harder than it already is if you don't live in Japan.
  • Tamagotchi: The Tamagotchi P's in Japan feature USB-like items called a "pierce", which downloads new characters, items, destinations and backgrounds into the toy. The Tama-Go in the US had a similar thing with the "Gotchi Figures"; when plugged in, they added new games and items. The Tamagotchi Smart smart watch similar has TamaSma Cards featuring new characters, food, items, backgrounds, and watch faces.

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