Yes, I'm optimistic, possibly giddy. You don't need to tell me how business works.
I concede that Idolmaster's DLC strategy is on a completely different level than other games. I guess I was thinking of Western releases like Valkyria Chronicles, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Atelier Totori, which have some DLC but DLC is not central to the game. Rolling out the DLC quickly there is better because they aren't quite as replayable and players might wander off.
For most part, im@s is definitely not like most games, because the expectation with most games is one of a relatively short tail - You expect most people to be done with the game in a period of time (I'm estimating the period to be approxmently six months, if the Disgaea 4 stats are any indication) and that'd be that.
Due to the design (and how it's used in Japan) it's constantly being used. Live for you got some absurd number of catalogs (and I have all the DLC to prove it) and was basically supported for about 18 months after its release.
In the MAD community, it's still being used, and the game's nearing 4 years old. We're starting to see a move towards PS3's im@s 2 being the standard though. I don't suppose anyone who can speak Japanese could get the code they use to achieve a virtual blue screen via algorithm while we're on the topic?
The projected support life of im@s 2 I'm hearing figures of between 18 months to 2 years, where then a new game (actually two) will then proceed to move ahead to provide further support to the im@s brand.
In short, it's better to not think of im@s 2 as a standard singleplayer centric game, and more something akin to say a multiplayer game, which gets map packs and the like thrown at it at regular intervals.
Or maybe a MMO which has a base pack, plus subscription packs you pay more for. At least here, you only have to buy a pack once, instead of rent it.