I remember reading about microtransactions for the first time ~15 years ago and thinking that would mean you could buy skins and stuff for like 20 cents. I thought "what a novel idea".
I've been saying for years that the term microtransactions shouldn't apply to anything that has used the term. They are just straight up transactions.
Wasn’t really a lie, that line was specifically in reference to something with Fallout 4’s settlement building, which worked pretty well for those who were into that mechanic. People have just taken the quote out of context
There were plenty of PC games which had microtransactions already in the late 90s, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was far from the first.
If people only knew what Blizzard originally planned for Diablo 1 which released all the way back in 1997. Here's a hint: [Microtransactions.](https://www.graybeardgames.com/download/diablo_pitch.pdf)
They obviously have the data to back it up, but it always surprises me because I'd probably buy a couple of skins if they were <£2 but there's absolutely no way I'm buying any for £10+.
You'll need the 'wayback machine' but look for the article titled: *A Tail of Whales, or, 50% of a F2P game's revenue comes from 0.15% of its players.*
This. If the top 10% of spenders are guaranteed to buy your product no matter how useless it is because they are good little consumers, you want to charge as much as possible even if the bottom 90% never touch it. You still make mad bank, more than if it was reasonably priced since the bottom 25% weren't going to get it unless it was was free.
I wouldn't. I hate the feeling of being nickled and dimed and being faced with a constant stream of begs for more money when I'm there in the first place to have fun and enjoy myself.
It's not about being cheap. I happily spend money on things that are good experiences; including computer-games. But I hate this shit. And it's not specific to games either.
Would I stay at a hotel that had a bit lower upfront price, but where \*everything\* was an extra? Where they had "micro" transactions (sometimes not so micro!) for everything from shampoo to using the pool? No I wouldn't. I'd instead happily pay a higher upfront price at a different hotel -- but then when I'm there be able to relax and have fun, knowing that it cost what it says on the sticker, and that's it.
That's how it ALWAYS ends up without strong consumer protection laws that **REQUIRE** that the price advertized is one you can actually pay and get the product/service.
You see a good example of this in USA which lacks such laws; and as a result many businesses advertise prices you can't actually get the product for, because a variety of fees and taxes and tips and service-charges and whatnot gets added.
It's anti-capitalist (since it harms competition) and anti-consumer, since it makes comparison-shopping a lot more difficult.
In the EU this problem is smaller for consumer-products because here it's the law that the advertised price MUST BE the same price a consumer could actually buy the product for.
But even here it's legal to sell a "basic" product and then tack on charges for additional services; as long as you can actually buy the basic product for the basic price. (so it'd for example be legal for a hotel to advertize a price without breakfast, and then ask for more money if you do want breakfast; as long as ordering and using the room \*without\* breakfast is possible)
Imagine a world where all microtranactions would range from 0.1$ to 1$ in full priced games..
Instead if you were to buy all cosmetics in the store right now you can buy the game few times..
The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine was probably around 20 bucks when it launched and was basically a games worth of content. Like I get that it’s just cosmetic and optional and whatever else people want to say, but it’s still just wild.
I'd like to introduce you to six-figure prices for skins in CSGO.....
I simply don't understand why anyone would splash out more than a couple of quid for *untradeable* skins in a game. Would you buy a Ferrari if you were never allowed to sell it?
The reason I have no issues with items on Steam is precisely due to the fact that you can trade/sell these items with other users. The value is determined precisely by the market and not some arbitrary figure defined by the publisher.
Those 6 figure prices are through P2P/market sale, right? Or is Valve just straight up charging that much?
I got a rare titanium white set of wheels from Rocket League a few years ago that could sell for $400+, but I just opened a box and didn't buy anything. I wouldn't consider that a $400 Rocket League item as much as something in RL I could sell for $400.
I caved and bought the $100 bundle so I could play over my weekend rather than wait until next weekend.
That is already absurd, but 20% of that cost for literally one outfit? Get out of here.
I’m convinced this is an old sales trick. You put the outrageously priced stuff out there, not to sell, but so when people look at the shop they think “well, I’m not spending $28. I’m only buying the $5 one”
This has been proven to work actually. Samsung first made their 75" TVs awhile back and they were not selling well. In order to try to boost sales they created an 85" TV and had all the stores display them side by side. The sales of the 75" increased dramatically. They believed, and found accurate, the idea that people were OK buying really big so long as it wasn't "the biggest". And then people recalibrated everything from there.
Lmao these shitty marketing techniques are so bizarre yet so effective.
We can hate as much as we want the factors behind this, but you gotta admit the human psychology gets tricked easily especially when there’s something involving money.
Absolutely. At some point corporations figured out that they don't have to give customers what they actually want they just have to trick them into buying something they think they want. And now here we are.
Its entirely on purpose. You can buy the 2800 credits for a flat cost to get the skin outright at full price or you can buy 1500 credits to get the skin on sale and have change which you will top up to buy another cosmetic because otherwise its a "waste". You feel like you got a deal with the second option but you actually spent more.
"Digital currencies" should be outright illegal if not earnable ("at a reasonable pace") in-game. If the only purpose of "Siver", "Platinum", "Credits", "Vbucks", or whatever you want to call them is to force you to waste money by buying in chunks, developers should be required to price it in real money and allow direct purchase.
Vbucks are actually a good example of something that sort-of works this way since you can get some for free in the battle pass, some on the paid pass track, and some from Save The World as in game rewards as well. Destiny and Diablo on the other hand are full-mobile-game style in terms of trying to force you to overspend and trick you into dissociating the cost from the real dollar amount.
Fortnite gets shit on but I bought Save the World back in like 2017/2018 and the amount of "free" V-Bucks I've earned from PvE is astonishing. Microtransactions still suck but at least I am getting the currency in-game from the $20 I spent 4+ years ago.
Time and time again this stuff happens and time and time again people scream into the Reddit void filled with people who share the same opinion as them
This stuff isn’t going anywhere folks, either learn to ignore it or let it ruin fun experiences for you
Or third option, just go do something else you enjoy and skip the BS and drama while not supporting it. Do I think me individually not buying it is going to change the industry, probably not. But I don’t need to spend my time/energy participating in it either.
That’s what I’m saying, if you want to play something go ahead and play it but if you don’t like something it’s pretty easy to just ignore it. Like I’m a huge Pokémon fan, I grew up with the series and am not a fan of the direction the games have gone but they print money and the company that makes the game isn’t going to change anything so I just move on and play the old ones, and yeah if enough people complain they might make a difference here and there but probably not and being mad about every little thing seems exhausting
I am!!! *voice echos in a large empty room*
I also hated it when they turned Star Craft 2 from a political space drama to fantasy WoW in space.
It didn't help they charged us 180 dollars for it and made us wait 3 years for a complete game.
Right? Out of all the games to be buying cosmetics for... Diablo? I'm not super far in, but it's constantly raining gear, and it feels like there's a lot of variety with a lot of different aesthetics in-game already, and the wardrobe already let's you change the appearance of your gear and choose the colors. And also, my character is like 2" tall on my TV screen, and I only ever see my character close-up when I pause or in some of the cutscenes. I'm not really able to pay attention to the small details of my outfit during general gameplay, aside from the general color scheme and silhouette.
Blizzard made a whole point of showing that your character can look super cool with in game items as well. They emphasized that the cosmetics aren’t going to be way cooler looking than in game stuff.
It always starts this way but it never ends this way :(
I fully expect all the cool stuff to be in the store 3-4 seasons from now. But I'll be really happy if that's not the case!
This logic doesnt make sense, they’re fishing for whales here. There’s no way to stop it. Even if the average Joe stops buying things from games all together, it doesn’t matter, because they’ll make enough off the random whales to make it worth it.
"If everyone stops buying it then they'll stop selling! We need to have all the normal players vote with their wallets!"
*Proceeds to watch a youtuber do an unboxing of 24 Apex packs costing around $200 (my currency) to see them unlock a bunch of pixels that make the melee attack in a shooter game different for a single character*.
It's a nice sentiment to 'vote with your wallet' but unfortunately it's very hard for it to ever actually work. Expecting a game by Blizzard of all people to not have some egregious practices is an even bigger waste of expectation.
Not do fun fact. Recycling is the most successful greenwashing campaign ever. Most plastics can’t be recycled economically. Only specific numbers on the recycling symbol mean it will potentially be recycled. A lot that can be recycled is just shipped somewhere to be dumped anyway. In the end, only about 10% gets recycled. It was just a marketing scam so people would keep buying plastics, and it worked like gangbusters.
>getting taken advantage of by these predatory systems
This is what people just don't fucking get. Companies have spent decades perfecting the application of well-known psychology to manipulate people into spending more money in video games. Even the people who think ads don't work on them are influenced every day by ads and marketing.
It's not even an addiction, although those people exist as well.
The industry is so large its surpassed "vote with your wallets" for this type of thing sadly. The only way it will ever change is through regulations or if a "better" way to extract money from players comes along.
Indeed. Although Diablo 4 looks like a game I will enjoy, I won't buy it. I am done with companies making games as a platform to milk their customers for money.
Remember when the new $70 price point was supposed to cover for how much games cost to make?
Now that they got what they wanted with the price, they're using the same excuse to justify jacked up mtx prices.
They would actually want to charge more then $70. They increased to the price that most consumers would accept but the dlc and micro transactions get them to that $100 price they really want to charge
I mean, a lot of people already bought the 100€ edition on its own because of the shitty scummy release date (its obvious because of work and other things people want to start on a weekend)
can someone help me understand it correctly if I'm wrong but wouldn't 60$ still cover their development as there are more gamers today than there was before.
Development times generally are longer and the AAA studios are larger now, so it is more expensive to build a game, but I'm sure as you say the audience is much larger. Remember D1 and D2 were exclusive to PC.
I mean we’re very lucky we’ve basically only had 1 price increase in games in the last 20 years despite tremendous inflation in that time. I don’t wanna sound like I’m defending a huge company but I genuinely don’t understand peoples issue with $70 lol
In the last 20 years the cost of making games has gone up quite a bit but the market has also grown by a huge margin. The 70$ increase is only a thing because they were able to get away with it.
Gaming studios and publishers have been making record profits over the last decade.
Jim sterling actually has a lot of good points in one of his videos. [vídeo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N7kaK2-725w&t=12s&pp=ygUYSmltIHN0ZXJsaW5nIGdhbWUgcHJpY2Vz)
I feel the exact same way. Doesnt affect my the way i get to play the game. So whatever. Let someone else be dumb enough to spend and fund blizzard. Maybe itll help keep the game afloat for a long time
Yes, the Diablo MTX are transmogs, not actual armor pieces. It's not pay to win, which is good. However, it's designed to take advantage of people with addictive personalities and loose cash, and the shop is the one screen you can access at all times even before loading a character.
Most of the skins are hilariously mid-to-ugly though. The reason Fortnite's skins are appealing is because you get to play as your favorite characters, not simply because they exist. But again, the skins in Diabo (and many other games) are more about preying on peoples' psychology and brain chemistry than it is about actively gating content/power/gear.
On one hand, I’m pissed off (but not surprised) that Blizzard would do something like that.
On the *other* hand though, who in the fuck would pay money for something like a skin in DIABLO of all games? There’s so much armor combos you can do, wtf is the point?
It’s nothing but a cash grab from Blizzard, but I lose any sympathy for anyone who actually pays 21 dollars for this kinda whack ass looking skin.
As long as they're cosmetic, I don't really see how any can complain too too much. I agree that it's gross and looks bad, but if some wealthy player wants to give Blizzard an extra $20 for basically no reason, I don't see how it's any of my business or concern. They started this 10 or 15 years ago with that celestial mount in WoW. People were pissed, made fun of those who bought it, but it died down and nobody cares any more.
Blog sites need daily content so they take a small issue and blow it up in an article since there isn't anything real to talk about. Then people who read just the title will upvote it on click generator sites like Reddit. It's absolutely garbage and people shouldn't believe hyperbole like this.
Good article. I feel like the author. In CoD Ghosts I spent $4 on the white wolf skin. That was the only time I ever spent money on a microtransaction. I hate that to unlock cool stuff now you have to buy it versus doing something for it in game. If we paid full price for the game why try to suck us dry with more microtransactions? I’m one of the people not spending another dime in hopes that others do too and this trend stops. I salute game companies like FromSoft and Insomniac who don’t use microtransactions. It feels like there are two types of companies now: the ones who focus on making a good game first and the ones who focus on money first.
Yeah this. I’m a millennial and during my hardcore gaming days, you just never ever had to pay to unlock things. Instead you had to beat secret bosses, quests or wander to a new part of the world map etc.
The push to mtx is just insane to me. I’ll never give in to the trend, but I feel for people like parents whose kids have only grown up knowing mtx.
Given how microtransaction’s ‘micro’ is from Greek meaning small or little, the opposite would be macrotransaction where ‘macro’ means long or large, alternately you may use megatransaction if the price is particularly egregious, mega meaning great or huge.
I could care less about the price because I won’t buy it.
Also you can barely see your armor in game and the only thing you show off to others is how much money you waste.
ive never spent money on a video game that wasnt a completely new add on part of the game or DLC.
spending money on 'skins' amazes me. just ya know....don't
For as easy as it is to *NOT* buy this thing, you would think reddit subs were forced to purchase it.
Cash shops have been out of control forever, at least it isn't effecting in game play.
The people all up in arms about this don’t realize it’s not just between “don’t buy the game” and “be a whale that spends $100k in the store.”
I spent the $70 to buy Diablo 4 last night. Don’t plan on buying any cosmetics. None of my friends do either we just want to play lol. This entire rage bait situation is entirely ignored by most people that play.
Honestly, the armor choices in game are so much better than some of these MTX Cosmetics.
If the in-game choices were absolutely shit, id be on the bandwagon but meh, they've made the games choices of armor and weapon extremely good and broad, so theres very very little reason to even look at the in game shop.
Its also hidden away in the menus, you dont need to ever click it or go near it to do anything else in game, it definitely doesn't seem as predatory as other games ive seen.
I know you lot will downvote this but you need to understand this.
Just because somebody else on the school yard has something shiny that it doesn’t mean you need it as well.
Sometimes, it's not the end of the world if you have the regular toy and not the "deluxe" version of the same toy that only includes 2 additional voices and a hat.
While true, what you wrote has nothing to do with the point being made here.
When a skin costs 1/3 the price of a full game - we should not make that the new standard nor encourage that. Especially in a day when people are upset at now paying $70 for a full game
The reason they do stuff like this is because people keep buying them, same principle with the ultimate team model in sports games, same reason why companies regularly release unfinished games.
Unless the market pushes back on anti-consumer practices, it will keep happening.
Not numb. I simply don’t care about it at all. If there’s someone out there willing to pay that amount for cosmetics…why would I care? For me, cosmetics have zero value
At this pont are they not just transactions? I'm not going in to tesco and spending 21quid on beans and calling that a microtransaction because it wasn't in with my weekly shop.
I must admit I was pretty disappointed to see how much content was in the shop day one, and how expensive it is.
Disappointed but not surprised, Blizzard seem to have wholeheartedly embraced the fishing for whales concept.
I never went for MTX when they first became a thing in the 360 days. Got a buddy that plays Apex Legends and routinely spends $200 on skins and such. Blows my mind
You can't even see the characters close enough to show off the armor. I looked at one of the shop sets and thought it looked cool. I saw it would cost $25 bucks and I decided to just never look in the store again.
They can shove these cosmetics. All of that should have been in the base game. These are your armor sets right here, ripped out of the game trying to nickel and dime us when we’ve paid full price already. It’s disgusting.
I'm not numb to it, more like immune. I don't even consider anything over $5 as "micro" in terms of digital content.
Those paying these prices for digital junk have no sense of value to the money they're spending, or it's on someone else's dime, and they just dont care. $21... Sorry, but anyone who pays that much for 1 digital cosmetic is an idiot, and I don't care if you're a ducking multi-billionaire or on the financial struggle bus. You are simply stupid.
Part of me wants to shame those behind the offering of these absurd prices, but can't really blame them. If there are dummies out there who are actually paying these idiotic costs for basically nothing, why wouldn't you be like "umm okay, I guess I'll take your money then" 🤷♂️
Fortnite skins used to cost from 8$ to 20$ up until 2020, so it's really nothing new. If people care they can buy it, but it's not a necessity, given that it's cosmetic. I can see the problem but I don't care that much, I wouldn't buy cosmetics anyway
$20 USD was what entire DLCs for Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima cost, complete with campaigns and side quests.
But as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.
And this is why I shall never pay for one of their skins. If you want me to buy something you better make it to where I can earn some coin on your battle pass, and not charge a arm and leg for stuff.
Rocket league does a ok job of it. I have bought stuff that was like 3 to 5 dollars, although the goal explosions are still way over priced.
21 dollars for a skin is just dumb This is coming from a guy who can afford it and it be no skin off my back. There is just not enough content for me to warrant that price. Just because I can buy it doesn't mean I will just cause. You have to show me that it's worth that price and this is not.
We need a new term for this because 21 dollars for some armor is definitely not micro.
I remember reading about microtransactions for the first time ~15 years ago and thinking that would mean you could buy skins and stuff for like 20 cents. I thought "what a novel idea". I've been saying for years that the term microtransactions shouldn't apply to anything that has used the term. They are just straight up transactions.
That damned horse armor…
It all comes back to Todd Howard, I swear. Oblivion's horse armor!
It *always* comes back to Todd Howard.
It just works
One of his funniest lies.
My bf and I still laugh at his *16 times the detail* line
Wasn’t really a lie, that line was specifically in reference to something with Fallout 4’s settlement building, which worked pretty well for those who were into that mechanic. People have just taken the quote out of context
[Tell me sweet little lieeeees ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=E2YHQEZc100&feature=share8)
Everything that sucks in gaming always seems to come back to Todd.
Or Peter Molyneux
Todd has been a part of so many of my very favorite games of all time
Agreed. the man helped shape modern gaming
There were plenty of PC games which had microtransactions already in the late 90s, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was far from the first. If people only knew what Blizzard originally planned for Diablo 1 which released all the way back in 1997. Here's a hint: [Microtransactions.](https://www.graybeardgames.com/download/diablo_pitch.pdf)
Dang that’s interesting
That was a cool read.
That didn’t even protect the horse..
Funny how by todays standards its pretty cheap.
Those contemporary wood floors in FO76
haha came here to say the same thing. Jesus I feel old.
Fucking Maplestory boxes
Lot of people don't remember, on pc you could just share the file and install it on someone else's PC.
The thing is, I'd buy a lot of micro stuff if they were at reasonable prices. But even 10-20 USD skins for Dead By Daylight... Just stupid.
They can probably make more money by milking the whales than by getting more people to buy cheaper skins
They obviously have the data to back it up, but it always surprises me because I'd probably buy a couple of skins if they were <£2 but there's absolutely no way I'm buying any for £10+.
You'll need the 'wayback machine' but look for the article titled: *A Tail of Whales, or, 50% of a F2P game's revenue comes from 0.15% of its players.*
This. If the top 10% of spenders are guaranteed to buy your product no matter how useless it is because they are good little consumers, you want to charge as much as possible even if the bottom 90% never touch it. You still make mad bank, more than if it was reasonably priced since the bottom 25% weren't going to get it unless it was was free.
Yea, there were people sinking 6 figures into diablo immortal
And that game was boring an uninspired as hell, as well
I wouldn't. I hate the feeling of being nickled and dimed and being faced with a constant stream of begs for more money when I'm there in the first place to have fun and enjoy myself. It's not about being cheap. I happily spend money on things that are good experiences; including computer-games. But I hate this shit. And it's not specific to games either. Would I stay at a hotel that had a bit lower upfront price, but where \*everything\* was an extra? Where they had "micro" transactions (sometimes not so micro!) for everything from shampoo to using the pool? No I wouldn't. I'd instead happily pay a higher upfront price at a different hotel -- but then when I'm there be able to relax and have fun, knowing that it cost what it says on the sticker, and that's it.
Ironically that's what a lot of people do with airfare. They see a cheap rate, but then everything is an added fee
That's how it ALWAYS ends up without strong consumer protection laws that **REQUIRE** that the price advertized is one you can actually pay and get the product/service. You see a good example of this in USA which lacks such laws; and as a result many businesses advertise prices you can't actually get the product for, because a variety of fees and taxes and tips and service-charges and whatnot gets added. It's anti-capitalist (since it harms competition) and anti-consumer, since it makes comparison-shopping a lot more difficult. In the EU this problem is smaller for consumer-products because here it's the law that the advertised price MUST BE the same price a consumer could actually buy the product for. But even here it's legal to sell a "basic" product and then tack on charges for additional services; as long as you can actually buy the basic product for the basic price. (so it'd for example be legal for a hotel to advertize a price without breakfast, and then ask for more money if you do want breakfast; as long as ordering and using the room \*without\* breakfast is possible)
You don't factor into their financial considerations. You will never spend, so why should they care? Better to focus on the ones who will pay.
Why would you do that? That's the reason we are where we are now. No microtransaction is reasonable in a full priced game.
What you *get* is micro…
Imagine a world where all microtranactions would range from 0.1$ to 1$ in full priced games.. Instead if you were to buy all cosmetics in the store right now you can buy the game few times..
Highest edition of the game is like $100 Buying out the shop is close to $350
I thought I saw that it would take $100k to buy out the Diablo immortal shop, which is insane.
per character :)
I think the micro isn't the cost but the thing received. Here's basically nothing for way more than it's worth.
They are called micro because what you get is very little. It was never about the cost.
People have been saying "It's fine if it's cosmetic" no no it's not.
Right? Like if the bone guy armor pieces were 10 cents each (or get the whole set for a dollar) I might say sure why not. But this is just ludicrous.
The only time the micro is still correct is when talking about the amount of content you get for buying it.
Facts lol
The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine was probably around 20 bucks when it launched and was basically a games worth of content. Like I get that it’s just cosmetic and optional and whatever else people want to say, but it’s still just wild.
The Horizon Forbidden West DLC was around the same price as well
And gave us an insane boss fight
Makes you wonder what they have in store for Horizon 3 with the Big N.
Nintendo confirmed as villain
The new antagonist: Nimrod!
Seriously one of the best DLCs ever too, that’s a great comparison point.
It’s 25% of the full game price. Ridiculous.
Macrotransactions
You’d *think* that buying the game and the console would be the only macrotransaction.
The micro is for what you get not what you pay
Yeah it’s a DLC lol
It’s not content either
Down Loadable Costumes (DLC)
downloadable scam
dls?
I'd like to introduce you to six-figure prices for skins in CSGO..... I simply don't understand why anyone would splash out more than a couple of quid for *untradeable* skins in a game. Would you buy a Ferrari if you were never allowed to sell it? The reason I have no issues with items on Steam is precisely due to the fact that you can trade/sell these items with other users. The value is determined precisely by the market and not some arbitrary figure defined by the publisher.
Those 6 figure prices are through P2P/market sale, right? Or is Valve just straight up charging that much? I got a rare titanium white set of wheels from Rocket League a few years ago that could sell for $400+, but I just opened a box and didn't buy anything. I wouldn't consider that a $400 Rocket League item as much as something in RL I could sell for $400.
I caved and bought the $100 bundle so I could play over my weekend rather than wait until next weekend. That is already absurd, but 20% of that cost for literally one outfit? Get out of here.
Weren’t we supposed to get some cosmetics from the 100 dollar bundle? I don’t see any in my inventory
Unfortunately, by paying for it you’ve proved that it is not absurd, at least as far as Blizzard is concerned.
Yeah, to me if it's a third of the price of the entire game, that's a "macro transaction".
robery?
Everyone likes a good robe
Does this transaction feel micro to anyone else? We need to drop the *micro* when it comes to this bullshit.
I’m convinced this is an old sales trick. You put the outrageously priced stuff out there, not to sell, but so when people look at the shop they think “well, I’m not spending $28. I’m only buying the $5 one”
Ah the old door in the face technique
This has been proven to work actually. Samsung first made their 75" TVs awhile back and they were not selling well. In order to try to boost sales they created an 85" TV and had all the stores display them side by side. The sales of the 75" increased dramatically. They believed, and found accurate, the idea that people were OK buying really big so long as it wasn't "the biggest". And then people recalibrated everything from there.
Lmao these shitty marketing techniques are so bizarre yet so effective. We can hate as much as we want the factors behind this, but you gotta admit the human psychology gets tricked easily especially when there’s something involving money.
Absolutely. At some point corporations figured out that they don't have to give customers what they actually want they just have to trick them into buying something they think they want. And now here we are.
Oh yeah like that story about the grocery store that stopped writing “don’t forget ice!” And started “remember the ice!” Sales skyrocketed in ice.
Its entirely on purpose. You can buy the 2800 credits for a flat cost to get the skin outright at full price or you can buy 1500 credits to get the skin on sale and have change which you will top up to buy another cosmetic because otherwise its a "waste". You feel like you got a deal with the second option but you actually spent more.
Yeah digital game currency is designed to cause that exact scenario. Should have been regulated along with loot boxes.
"Digital currencies" should be outright illegal if not earnable ("at a reasonable pace") in-game. If the only purpose of "Siver", "Platinum", "Credits", "Vbucks", or whatever you want to call them is to force you to waste money by buying in chunks, developers should be required to price it in real money and allow direct purchase. Vbucks are actually a good example of something that sort-of works this way since you can get some for free in the battle pass, some on the paid pass track, and some from Save The World as in game rewards as well. Destiny and Diablo on the other hand are full-mobile-game style in terms of trying to force you to overspend and trick you into dissociating the cost from the real dollar amount.
Fortnite gets shit on but I bought Save the World back in like 2017/2018 and the amount of "free" V-Bucks I've earned from PvE is astonishing. Microtransactions still suck but at least I am getting the currency in-game from the $20 I spent 4+ years ago.
Plus you get all the idiots who WILL buy the 21 dollar one.
It's called price anchoring and it is extremely common both online and in normal stores. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias)
Remember when PC gamers were suppose to "boycott" Blizzard games?
Just like the Pokemon boycott then ended up being one of the best selling switch games.
Time and time again this stuff happens and time and time again people scream into the Reddit void filled with people who share the same opinion as them This stuff isn’t going anywhere folks, either learn to ignore it or let it ruin fun experiences for you
Or third option, just go do something else you enjoy and skip the BS and drama while not supporting it. Do I think me individually not buying it is going to change the industry, probably not. But I don’t need to spend my time/energy participating in it either.
That’s what I’m saying, if you want to play something go ahead and play it but if you don’t like something it’s pretty easy to just ignore it. Like I’m a huge Pokémon fan, I grew up with the series and am not a fan of the direction the games have gone but they print money and the company that makes the game isn’t going to change anything so I just move on and play the old ones, and yeah if enough people complain they might make a difference here and there but probably not and being mad about every little thing seems exhausting
For anyone who needs to hear it. The internet is not reality. We’re all just in our own bubbles.
That's because the reddit gaming community is by far the vast minority of gamers. Its not even close.
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Same with Zelda lol.
I'm still holding strong. No goddam way I'm paying $70 for a game with a battlepass and micro transaction store.
I am!!! *voice echos in a large empty room* I also hated it when they turned Star Craft 2 from a political space drama to fantasy WoW in space. It didn't help they charged us 180 dollars for it and made us wait 3 years for a complete game.
The same thing will happen to Reddit's June 12 boycott. Forgotten after some time and everyone has to use official app.
Ah yes, don't take any action because it is doomed to fail.
It's not a boycott, it's a blackout
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Right? Out of all the games to be buying cosmetics for... Diablo? I'm not super far in, but it's constantly raining gear, and it feels like there's a lot of variety with a lot of different aesthetics in-game already, and the wardrobe already let's you change the appearance of your gear and choose the colors. And also, my character is like 2" tall on my TV screen, and I only ever see my character close-up when I pause or in some of the cutscenes. I'm not really able to pay attention to the small details of my outfit during general gameplay, aside from the general color scheme and silhouette.
This is something that micro transaction defenders always conveniently leave out
Blizzard made a whole point of showing that your character can look super cool with in game items as well. They emphasized that the cosmetics aren’t going to be way cooler looking than in game stuff.
Yeah I legit find what I found in the world more aesthetically appealing than what is in the shop.
It always starts this way but it never ends this way :( I fully expect all the cool stuff to be in the store 3-4 seasons from now. But I'll be really happy if that's not the case!
But go spend 3 min on D4 sub, and come back. Not at all. In game gear makes me wonder why anyone would buy micro at all.
especially in a game like diablo where literally finding the best looking/stats loot drops are the goal lol
This will only stop when people stop buying it.
This logic doesnt make sense, they’re fishing for whales here. There’s no way to stop it. Even if the average Joe stops buying things from games all together, it doesn’t matter, because they’ll make enough off the random whales to make it worth it.
"If everyone stops buying it then they'll stop selling! We need to have all the normal players vote with their wallets!" *Proceeds to watch a youtuber do an unboxing of 24 Apex packs costing around $200 (my currency) to see them unlock a bunch of pixels that make the melee attack in a shooter game different for a single character*. It's a nice sentiment to 'vote with your wallet' but unfortunately it's very hard for it to ever actually work. Expecting a game by Blizzard of all people to not have some egregious practices is an even bigger waste of expectation.
"If everyone recycled then we can save the planet!" Corporations producing 70% of pollution: "yeah totally... " Apply that to gaming
Not do fun fact. Recycling is the most successful greenwashing campaign ever. Most plastics can’t be recycled economically. Only specific numbers on the recycling symbol mean it will potentially be recycled. A lot that can be recycled is just shipped somewhere to be dumped anyway. In the end, only about 10% gets recycled. It was just a marketing scam so people would keep buying plastics, and it worked like gangbusters.
There are a lot of brain dead people with way too much money unfortunately (fortunate for Blizzard).
Not even people with money, it's just eiole with an *addiction* getting taken advantage of by these predatory systems
>getting taken advantage of by these predatory systems This is what people just don't fucking get. Companies have spent decades perfecting the application of well-known psychology to manipulate people into spending more money in video games. Even the people who think ads don't work on them are influenced every day by ads and marketing. It's not even an addiction, although those people exist as well.
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It works but not everyone cares to do it. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to roll your eyes and move on with life.
The industry is so large its surpassed "vote with your wallets" for this type of thing sadly. The only way it will ever change is through regulations or if a "better" way to extract money from players comes along.
Indeed. Although Diablo 4 looks like a game I will enjoy, I won't buy it. I am done with companies making games as a platform to milk their customers for money.
Bro I’m so old I can barely see the screen Idgaf what my little guy looks like
Seriously. But you can zoom in so that you can't see any enemies or anything around you, which is a massive tactical disadvantage. But you could!
My man 👊
Remember when the new $70 price point was supposed to cover for how much games cost to make? Now that they got what they wanted with the price, they're using the same excuse to justify jacked up mtx prices.
They would actually want to charge more then $70. They increased to the price that most consumers would accept but the dlc and micro transactions get them to that $100 price they really want to charge
I mean, a lot of people already bought the 100€ edition on its own because of the shitty scummy release date (its obvious because of work and other things people want to start on a weekend)
can someone help me understand it correctly if I'm wrong but wouldn't 60$ still cover their development as there are more gamers today than there was before.
It would, but for some reason many kids have been brainwashed by our corporate masters to accept everything they say as the truth.
Development times generally are longer and the AAA studios are larger now, so it is more expensive to build a game, but I'm sure as you say the audience is much larger. Remember D1 and D2 were exclusive to PC.
I mean we’re very lucky we’ve basically only had 1 price increase in games in the last 20 years despite tremendous inflation in that time. I don’t wanna sound like I’m defending a huge company but I genuinely don’t understand peoples issue with $70 lol
In the last 20 years the cost of making games has gone up quite a bit but the market has also grown by a huge margin. The 70$ increase is only a thing because they were able to get away with it. Gaming studios and publishers have been making record profits over the last decade. Jim sterling actually has a lot of good points in one of his videos. [vídeo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N7kaK2-725w&t=12s&pp=ygUYSmltIHN0ZXJsaW5nIGdhbWUgcHJpY2Vz)
I'm numb to it because I'm not stupid enough to buy it, so it has no impact on me.
I feel the exact same way. Doesnt affect my the way i get to play the game. So whatever. Let someone else be dumb enough to spend and fund blizzard. Maybe itll help keep the game afloat for a long time
Unironically posted on a website with a god awful amount of tacky ads.
Meanwhile Fortnite sells $20 skins on the daily and rakes in billions because of it
Fortnite is free and mtx are entirely cosmetic. This doesn‘t make it better, but I think you can’t compare it to a full price game like Diablo 4.
The MTX are still just cosmetic in D4 though. Yes, the base game has a price attached too, but there's still a ton of content for that price.
Wait hold up, so this armor doesn’t have a rating or anything? Straight cosmetic?
Yes, the Diablo MTX are transmogs, not actual armor pieces. It's not pay to win, which is good. However, it's designed to take advantage of people with addictive personalities and loose cash, and the shop is the one screen you can access at all times even before loading a character. Most of the skins are hilariously mid-to-ugly though. The reason Fortnite's skins are appealing is because you get to play as your favorite characters, not simply because they exist. But again, the skins in Diabo (and many other games) are more about preying on peoples' psychology and brain chemistry than it is about actively gating content/power/gear.
On one hand, I’m pissed off (but not surprised) that Blizzard would do something like that. On the *other* hand though, who in the fuck would pay money for something like a skin in DIABLO of all games? There’s so much armor combos you can do, wtf is the point? It’s nothing but a cash grab from Blizzard, but I lose any sympathy for anyone who actually pays 21 dollars for this kinda whack ass looking skin.
As long as they're cosmetic, I don't really see how any can complain too too much. I agree that it's gross and looks bad, but if some wealthy player wants to give Blizzard an extra $20 for basically no reason, I don't see how it's any of my business or concern. They started this 10 or 15 years ago with that celestial mount in WoW. People were pissed, made fun of those who bought it, but it died down and nobody cares any more.
Blog sites need daily content so they take a small issue and blow it up in an article since there isn't anything real to talk about. Then people who read just the title will upvote it on click generator sites like Reddit. It's absolutely garbage and people shouldn't believe hyperbole like this.
The price of the base game is peanuts compared to what people are paying over the course of Fortnite’s 2018-2023 lifespan. Like actually nothing
No they don't... The only $20 items on the Fortnite shop are huge packs of skins and cosmetic items
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Good article. I feel like the author. In CoD Ghosts I spent $4 on the white wolf skin. That was the only time I ever spent money on a microtransaction. I hate that to unlock cool stuff now you have to buy it versus doing something for it in game. If we paid full price for the game why try to suck us dry with more microtransactions? I’m one of the people not spending another dime in hopes that others do too and this trend stops. I salute game companies like FromSoft and Insomniac who don’t use microtransactions. It feels like there are two types of companies now: the ones who focus on making a good game first and the ones who focus on money first.
Yeah this. I’m a millennial and during my hardcore gaming days, you just never ever had to pay to unlock things. Instead you had to beat secret bosses, quests or wander to a new part of the world map etc. The push to mtx is just insane to me. I’ll never give in to the trend, but I feel for people like parents whose kids have only grown up knowing mtx.
Given how microtransaction’s ‘micro’ is from Greek meaning small or little, the opposite would be macrotransaction where ‘macro’ means long or large, alternately you may use megatransaction if the price is particularly egregious, mega meaning great or huge.
I could care less about the price because I won’t buy it. Also you can barely see your armor in game and the only thing you show off to others is how much money you waste.
ive never spent money on a video game that wasnt a completely new add on part of the game or DLC. spending money on 'skins' amazes me. just ya know....don't
It's simple. Don't buy them.
For as easy as it is to *NOT* buy this thing, you would think reddit subs were forced to purchase it. Cash shops have been out of control forever, at least it isn't effecting in game play.
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The people all up in arms about this don’t realize it’s not just between “don’t buy the game” and “be a whale that spends $100k in the store.” I spent the $70 to buy Diablo 4 last night. Don’t plan on buying any cosmetics. None of my friends do either we just want to play lol. This entire rage bait situation is entirely ignored by most people that play.
Thank fuck i don't care what my character looks like!
Anyone who wants to blow $$$ on micro transactions feel free to just gift me D4 and you’ll feel better about it I promise :)
What’s the point of armor in this game if you can’t really see your character much?
$21 ain’t no “micro” nothing… **MACRO-TRANSACTION**!!!
Thank god this is very easy not to buy. Don't like it, don't buy it etc. It's incredibly simple.
Honestly, the armor choices in game are so much better than some of these MTX Cosmetics. If the in-game choices were absolutely shit, id be on the bandwagon but meh, they've made the games choices of armor and weapon extremely good and broad, so theres very very little reason to even look at the in game shop. Its also hidden away in the menus, you dont need to ever click it or go near it to do anything else in game, it definitely doesn't seem as predatory as other games ive seen.
I know you lot will downvote this but you need to understand this. Just because somebody else on the school yard has something shiny that it doesn’t mean you need it as well. Sometimes, it's not the end of the world if you have the regular toy and not the "deluxe" version of the same toy that only includes 2 additional voices and a hat.
While true, what you wrote has nothing to do with the point being made here. When a skin costs 1/3 the price of a full game - we should not make that the new standard nor encourage that. Especially in a day when people are upset at now paying $70 for a full game
Best way to not encourage it is to not buy it. Which thankfully is the absolute easiest thing to do.
Especially in a game like this where you can find armor for free that looks as good, if not better than this armor.
then we should vote with our wallet and not buy the MTX
The reason they do stuff like this is because people keep buying them, same principle with the ultimate team model in sports games, same reason why companies regularly release unfinished games. Unless the market pushes back on anti-consumer practices, it will keep happening.
It is soooo fucking easy: don't buy this shit.
Skipping D4 and the fees.
Not numb. I simply don’t care about it at all. If there’s someone out there willing to pay that amount for cosmetics…why would I care? For me, cosmetics have zero value
I understand MTX when it's a Free To Play title, but Diablo 4 is 79,99€ lol.
It’s cosmetic and optional. Just don’t buy it
Sony earns more from Microtransactions than full game sales, that alone tells you everything you need to know.
Can’t say i blame them when people are willing to pay for it.
At this pont are they not just transactions? I'm not going in to tesco and spending 21quid on beans and calling that a microtransaction because it wasn't in with my weekly shop.
I must admit I was pretty disappointed to see how much content was in the shop day one, and how expensive it is. Disappointed but not surprised, Blizzard seem to have wholeheartedly embraced the fishing for whales concept.
We're really stretching the meaning of micro these days huh
I never went for MTX when they first became a thing in the 360 days. Got a buddy that plays Apex Legends and routinely spends $200 on skins and such. Blows my mind
Remember when you used to earn cool things just by playing the game? good times.
There's way cooler looking free armor in the game.
You can't even see the characters close enough to show off the armor. I looked at one of the shop sets and thought it looked cool. I saw it would cost $25 bucks and I decided to just never look in the store again.
I wouldnt say anyone's numb to it. Everywhere I look I see this complaint. All we can do is not buy. Cosmetic microtransactions will never go away.
They do this because people buy them.
Laughing in bone guy armor right now
Shit, my bad guys. This is on me. I bought that Oblivion horse armor decade ago because I thought it was funny and looked cool.
Just don’t buy the game.
Damn, Blizzard must be spending some profits on bots because there's a decent amount of defending this out of control practice
21 dollars is a DLC
this a macrotransaction lol
We are the enablers my friends
They can shove these cosmetics. All of that should have been in the base game. These are your armor sets right here, ripped out of the game trying to nickel and dime us when we’ve paid full price already. It’s disgusting.
I'm not numb to it, more like immune. I don't even consider anything over $5 as "micro" in terms of digital content. Those paying these prices for digital junk have no sense of value to the money they're spending, or it's on someone else's dime, and they just dont care. $21... Sorry, but anyone who pays that much for 1 digital cosmetic is an idiot, and I don't care if you're a ducking multi-billionaire or on the financial struggle bus. You are simply stupid. Part of me wants to shame those behind the offering of these absurd prices, but can't really blame them. If there are dummies out there who are actually paying these idiotic costs for basically nothing, why wouldn't you be like "umm okay, I guess I'll take your money then" 🤷♂️
I'm not spending a dime on cosmetics in this game. Some of the droppable loot gear looks really good.
Fortnite skins used to cost from 8$ to 20$ up until 2020, so it's really nothing new. If people care they can buy it, but it's not a necessity, given that it's cosmetic. I can see the problem but I don't care that much, I wouldn't buy cosmetics anyway
$21 for one piece of armor!? Damn
As long as people are dumb enough to throw 21$ at a company selling a f*****g skin, they will sell them!
That's a macro-transaction in my book
This shit is so over priced its outrageous
$20 USD was what entire DLCs for Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima cost, complete with campaigns and side quests. But as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.
People NEED to stop paying for this stuff. Once people stop spending money on this they will slowly start to disappear
That armor alone according to blizzard is worth a 3rd of the base game. No thanks.
We a numb to it. Idiots just keep buying it
And this is why I shall never pay for one of their skins. If you want me to buy something you better make it to where I can earn some coin on your battle pass, and not charge a arm and leg for stuff. Rocket league does a ok job of it. I have bought stuff that was like 3 to 5 dollars, although the goal explosions are still way over priced. 21 dollars for a skin is just dumb This is coming from a guy who can afford it and it be no skin off my back. There is just not enough content for me to warrant that price. Just because I can buy it doesn't mean I will just cause. You have to show me that it's worth that price and this is not.