Over the years Valve has done a beautiful job of constantly updating their PC releases with free content. This has been their strategy to combat piracy and to keep overall enthusiasm amongst their player base at a high level. But Valve had, until now, been unable to work out a free distribution model with Microsoft on the Xbox 360. It seems now that they have been able reach said agreement.
I am extremely interested to see where Microsoft goes from here. Will they continue this trend with other DLC? Valve and Criterion (developer of Burnout: Paradise) are two developers that seem to see the benefit in offering free content for their games, but will others view this as undercutting the DLC market? One thing I know is that Valve and Criterion have some of the most loyal fans and these consistent, free updates definitely have something to do with it.