Activision Blizzard will sell cosmetic items in Diablo IV. Lead designer Joe Shely revealed that Blizzard plans to monetise some cosmetics during an interview with Twitch streamer Quintin Crawford.
For what itâs worth, I think cosmetic microtransactions in Diablo IV are an affront. Hopefully that didnât come through in the article and it reads like an impartial bystander wrote it.
Iâm still thinking through it, but I think I would prefer the game to be either completely free-to-play and monetised with microtransactions, or Blizzard must ask a subscription fee. This bread buttered on both sides nonsense has to end.
If they decide to implement these cosmetic microtransactions as a lootbox system, itâs a complete dealbreaker.
Thatâs some bullshit. Paid cosmetics in an ARPG?
yea i was hyped now i am losing the hype in this game
Path of Exile has been very successful as a free to play game with cosmetics and it is an ARPG
That because Path of Exile is Free to Play. I can almost guarantee that Diablo IV will launch at a premium price point.
So is the objection to the monetisation of cosmetics or that cosmetics will not work in an ARPG?
Itâs because Diablo IV will be a full priced game with paid for DLC (most likely) and then they want to add microtransactions on top of that. Diablo 3 tried the real money market thing and if memory serves that was a failure.
Path of exile is F2P so itâs fair for them to have microtransactions.
In general though, I think it sucks when an RPG locks cosmetics behind a paywall, but thatâs what we have to live with these days. Getting sweet loot is a big draw of games like these and having the coolest looking stuff cost real money is not cool.
Thatâs one of the big reasons I love Borderlands 3 so much. You pay for the game and there you go. You get a full, meaty campaign to enjoy in either solo or co-op with up to three other people. All of the cosmetic items are unlocked with Eridium which is a special currency you earn while just playing the game. Itâs almost a miracle that there are no microtransactions present considering the publisher is 2K.
In all honesty the more I hear, the less I will play this. Unless they go free to play, I will not spend another Rand with Blizzard. They are becoming worse than EA.
Paid cosmetics in a F2P title would make sense. It might even make sense in a subscription model. But if theyâre going to charge $60 and then sell you horse armour, thatâs where I draw the line.
As much as I love Destiny 2, itâs among the more egregious offenders.
You pay for the game and expansions (the base game is F2P now, but it wasnât F2P before the switch to Steam), you pay for a battle pass (basically a subscription), and then you can pay some more for cosmetics.
Is the future of âAAAâ gaming really double and triple dipping?
The design goes where the money is, these are huge businesses after all. Gaming has developed into a big enterprise and industry. It stands to reason that everything that can be leveraged to make more money will be used.
So the short answer is: yes, inevitably
I just donât see what players are getting for the âbig enterpriseâ that gaming has turned into anymore. There was a point at which we were really getting much higher quality from the significantly more investment studios were putting into games, but it feels like diminishing returns now.
I should caveat that: not all big-ticket releases are stripped of their souls in the quest for greater monetisation, but a lot are. Too many are.
Anyway⌠if this is the way of the future, then my money will unfortunately increasingly flow away from the franchises I grew up with and once loved.
Donât forget that gaming has turned into an addiction. The size of the industry, the amount of money generated by it is indicative of the amount of users willing to part with their money, whether they can afford it or not.
This video has some good points (as well as some senseless rants) on how game designers actively target the various hooks for addictions in video games.
What is most interesting to me in this video is the mention of this guy in this video:
What is my point? D4 is nothing but a symptom of the disease that has evolved for many years, most notably more virulent in the device gaming market.
Unfortunately, the same money that has made good games amazing is also driving the development of digital opioids.
This is the same BS that Bungie are pulling with Destiny 2 at the moment. Previously there was a weekly chance to get one of the âpremiumâ cosmetics, which they took away, replacing it with a âconsumer choiceâ system where you could get stuff with real money OR in-game (rare) currency, or level-up rewards.
Now the level up rewards have been split to one every 5 levels, and only give old cosmetics. 30% youâll be able to get via the in-game currency (which is insanely laborious to accrue), and the rest, the best ones, naturally, are locked behind premium currency.
Games like Destiny and Diablo are as much about the practicality of the gear, and the look. Putting the best cosmetics behind a pay-wall (without at the very least giving people an in-game way to get it for free) it just a scam.
The worst is that I am 100% the sucker to fall for this shit and it makes me angry (at myself, at the game, at the world). But I have stopped supporting these types of practices.
I donât think itâs that a big deal. The nature of games have changed, especially service type games like this, which will need continuous funding to keep servers online and updates incoming.
I havenât played Diablo III, but I frequently heard of events and seasons and I imagine these need to be paid for somehow. If this is through other people buying cosmetics, then so be it.
With Overwatch, I havenât spent a cent beyond the initial purchase price. In 3 years since, Iâve gotten new characters, maps, game modes, events, cosmetics and balance patches for free. Would they have managed this sustained support without the income from lootbox purchases?
I would like for Diablo 4 to allow cosmetics to be earned in-game, in addition to just buying them but it wouldnât bother me. I just wonât buy them.