Dead Space 3 is dropping in less than a week and there is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a fantastic game. Unfortunately, Sony’s PlayStation Store update today revealed just how much more you can actually spend downloading additional content. The results are a little unsettling.
Don’t feel like working towards new weapons and upgrades in Dead Space 3? Well don’t worry because you won’t have to. You can purchase basic resource packs for one measly dollar or even get special item packs for only five bucks! Not bad considering you just spent over $60 on this game… oh wait, actually it is. A lot of people are pretty upset about this confirmed list of micro-transactions and frankly, so am I. Sure the option is kind of cool for lazy people, but not at these prices and not if you plan on charging people full price for the initial purchase.
Here is the confirmed micro-transaction list:
- Bot Capacity Upgrade $4.99
- Bot Personality Pack $4.99
- First Contact Pack Free
- Marauder Pack $4.99
- Sharpshooter Pack $4.99
- Tundra Recon Pack $4.99
- Witness the Truth Pack $4.99
- Bot Accelerator $4.99
- Epic Weapon & Resource Pack $2.99
- Online Pass $9.99
- Ultra Weapon & Resource Pack $1.99
- Resource Pack $0.99
That is a grand total of $50.89. You could spend over fifty dollars on additional content and we all know this is only the beginning. We can all plan on at least one campaign DLC in the near future. Thanks to peeps at Destructoid for the heads up.
What are your opinions on micro-transactions? Shout it out! We want to know.
That’s EA for you. They’ve been selling “shortcut” packs for a lot of their games for some time now, but I believe the genuine micro transactions started with the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Expect this trend to continue with everything published by EA.
Unfortunately I’d say we brought this on ourselves: we bought into freemium and micro-transaction based apps for our phones and tablets and it was only a matter of time before they used that business model to *supplement* their game profits.
If you want to see something terrifying, look up the EA Simpsons game “Tapped Out” and see how many donuts it costs to buy premium items, and subsequently how much cash it would cost for those donuts….
No doubt that EA is the driving force behind the micro transactions far more than any other company, at least on a consistent basis, but I may have to slightly disagree that the ME3 multiplayer started it, if I remember right (and that’s iffy at best) I seem to remember one of the first Need for Speed games on the 360 doing almost the exact same thing as Dead Space 3, selling not only pieces to add to cars but also entire packs too and that was when you could almost still excuse the practice and write it off as companies still trying to figure out just how much they could get away with before people cried fowl.
Maybe if they only charged $5 for a content pack and just a dollar for guns/cosmetic stuff. All this crap for $5 doesn’t scream “micro-transaction”… it just screams “transaction”. Oh well, we can’t expect it to stop since people will be buying these extras (content aside).
The sad fact is the only reason companies keep doing this, is because people are buying it. They are a business, why not rake in some extra, easy cash? People just need to stop supporting it.
The sad part is, I’m sure a ton of people are buying right into this and therefore, justifying EA’s mad quest to rob us blind. Like I’ve said before, if you want to use micro-transactions, don’t try and charge us full price for your game.
It’s truly unfortunate that this is major shift in the gaming business model lately. I get freemium, that has it’s own place, especially for people who want to try a game without sinking 60 bucks into it. EA has the tendency to try and milk every single penny they can from you.
Really disappointing, the direction so many game developers are heading in these days. I truly miss the days of fully fledged expansion packs ala Homeworld: Cataclysm.
I don’t mind paying for expansions to games if they are well-done. What drives me crazy is when developers purposely withhold extra content and release it two weeks later as DLC.
Agreed!
Yea that’s what I mean by really disappointing. Terrible practices. Like you though I’d gladly pay a complete expansion pack, “expansion” being the key word here.
Particularly when that content is actually on the disk you buy, but locked up.
Seriously, that grinds my gears. It’s such a money grab.