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I admit to having some love in my heart for the Free-2-Play model when it's done correctly. The baseline of this is usually that the game be Free-2-play. In that...I didn't pay any money for it other than what I choose to pay for extra content. So, paying $60 for the game kind of breaks that trust, and that's pretty much what EA is doing with Dead Space 3.
Like it or not, the one element of Dead Space 3 most people have been coalescing around is the crafting system, which allows Isaac to build weapons using scrap he finds in the world. Or -you know- you can just buy it now. DS3's associate producer, Yara Khoury has confirmed to Eurogamer today that Dead Space 3 will be shipping with a microtransaction system, allowing you to spend real money on those upgrades.
“You can buy resources with real money, but scavenger bots can also give you the currency that you can use on the marketplace. So you don’t have to spend [real world] dollars.”
Let's be clear about two things. First off, people have a right to be upset about this. This is not optional DLC that EA is pushing here. They are selling a faster route to regular content that is part of the main game. True, you don't have to do it if you don't want to, but dangling the prospect of better weapons -earlier- in front of a gamer is a akin of dangling a prostitute made of smack in front of a crack addict. Why not just charge the gamer $5.99 to automatically beat the final boss? Hey “You don't have to pay for it if you don't want to.”
Playing Doom and you don't want to wait to find the BFG? $3.99 please and you can have it from the very beginning. “hey...you don't have to pay.”
I really love Metal Gear Solid but that Rex boss is suuuuuch a bother. EA Exec: “Hey if you give me $9.99 we'll take care of that silly fight for you”.
EA seems intent on ringing out every bit of cash from their franchises as they possibly can. And it seems that apparently your $60 entrance fee isn't going to be enough. You know what the crazy thing about this is? As much as people will be wringing their hands and tearing at their garments over this for the next week or so...it'll work. People WILL spend real money in DS3 beyond what they've already payed. It's just the nature of the beast. Companies like EA do this because it works...and they know it.
Possibly the biggest shame to this is the damage it does to legitimate F2P models. It denigrates a system that works...and works damn well. You all know how I feel about Planetside 2 (Spoiler Alert: I love it), and that's one game handling the F2P model in a fantastic way. Completely free, subscription if you want it (with added benefits), and extra content faster if you want to pay. No initial $60 fee. Just download and play.
But that won't happen here, because like I said...this will work. And you can be damned sure you'll be seeing more and more of it in your $60 games.
Welcome to the new normal.
Comments
11 years, 10 months ago
It's already bad enough when certain games don't even give you the entire game for $60. Now EA is just giving those companies an excuse to continue a terrible business practice.
11 years, 10 months ago
as long as they don't "push it" or "dangle it" so to speak but have it as a unobtrusive "option" and it is true that I can get the in game currency through normal means at a normal pace then I would tolerate this. But of course this is all subjective and I understand some people would hate this more then others. And I bet EA is just pushing the envelope to see how "badly" people would react so they could easily just remove it and leave the in game currency acquiring system if need be.
11 years, 10 months ago
Yeah. This whole "pay-to-be-lazy" mechanic is shamelessly terrible. I fear that there will actually be enough gamers out there who are willing enough to do it and make EA perpetuate this model.
11 years, 10 months ago
Well, that's horse shit. That being said, is there even a competitive multiplayer in DS3, like deathmatch? I always think of DS as a single player game and in micro transaction will not effect my single player experience in any way. Why would I want to spend real money to buy better weapon and make the game easier? In PC games I can just use console commands and give my self all weapons right from the start, free of charge. I don't do that because playing the game in God mode is a bit pointless and takes fun away.
11 years, 10 months ago
Didn't Dragon's Dogma do the exact same thing?
I'm not taking up for EA or anything but if someone doesn't want to play through Dead Space 2 or 3 times to get all of the upgrades, how does that effect you?
11 years, 10 months ago
Seems really lame to pay for weapons. Remember during the earlier generations when we do want to be lazy have all the weapons, we put in some obscure combination for free. God I miss cheat codes.
11 years, 10 months ago
My opinion of EA can't possibly go any lower, so I don't blame them for this. This sort of thing comes naturally to them.
11 years, 10 months ago
Didn’t the first two Dead Space games include an achievement for only using your Plasma Cutter only? I honestly didn’t care for the other guns until the new game+ came around. So my wallet will be kept safe knowing this issue shouldn’t affect me.
11 years, 10 months ago
well...........seeing as dead space is now just a gears of war clone,i could give a shit less.the problem isn't EA selling "cheats" its the fact people buy them. i have a good idea EA(looking at you too capcom).lets not spend 50 million to make a game in 2 years,lets spend 15 and take 4-5 years. there is a reason a lot of "hit" franchises have failed this gen of consoles,rushed to market bullshit.where are the games i can buy,put in my fancy video game player thing and they just work.i cant remember the last it i got a game and didnt download a patch.now the publishers want me to go through all this bullshit and then try to sell me "cheats".suck my dick.
11 years, 10 months ago
i dont think anyone should support this type of practice....a micro transaction in a full retail game is just fucking retarded. Especially in a game like dead space which is a mostly single player experience...so instead of making more content for the single player, they had a team work on micro transactions? its bad enough that we see day 1 dlc's, pre order bonuses from various places, on disc dlc's, etc....but this is just FUCKED