Kerbal Space Program getting paid expansions on top of "all future content" buy-in model

Kerbal Space Program is a game where you send... aliens? I think they're aliens... on space missions. It launched its first alpha just about two years ago, and has since followed the Minecraft model of slowly adding features while increasing the price, in a lead-up to an official 1.0 release. Originally, much like Minecraft, the devs, Squad, promised that alpha adopters would, "get all future updates for free." A stir has recently been caused when the intention to produce expansion packs with a separate cost, post-launch, was mentioned in a livestream .

Squad's Community Manager attempted to clarify in a Reddit thread : "We said free updates, and free updates you will get. What you won't get is free expansions/DLC. There isn't a company out there that does this differently." Dissenters were quick to point out that Mojang, whose pre-release pricing model Squad has emulated, in fact have put out large amounts of content, equivalent to "expansions/DLC" in other games for free, and continue to do so post-1.0.

Do you think the developers have reneged on what was promised? Is the distinction between "update" and "expansion" meaningful in these kinds of cases?

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Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.