For Honor Will Cost You over $700 in Microtransactions

[Megalith]

Not that For Honor players are being forced by gunpoint to spend their money, but I guess this is worth bashing Ubisoft for since it would take a ridiculously long amount of time to unlock this content through regular gameplay. There’s also the old argument that this content should have been in the base game anyway. For Honor players who intend to get the full experience should expect to either cough up $700, or spend 2.5 years playing to unlock all of the game’s content.

…it costs around 91,500 steel (the in-game currency) to unlock each character and all of their customisations in the base game. For all 12, we’re looking at 1,098,000 steel, which equates to approximately 7.32 of the $100 steel packs. “So Ubisoft has valued their in-game unlocks within the base game at a $732 over-charge of the original $60-100 spent on the game.” If you’re thinking about not dropping any money on the steel packs because you’re happy to earn them through playing the game: “Casual players who play 1-2 hours 5-7 days a week will never reach this goal. Completing Orders/half-Contracts will get you roughly 1000 Steel, another roughly 200 for the matches you played. So 1200 a day is a good estimated gain for casual players. That’s 915 days. Roughly 2.51 years.”

 

[cortexodus]

Yea, it won't cost me anything since I won't be paying into it. I think everyone picks their poison with regard to these DLC factory type games. I've paid into TitanFall 2 and Overwatch, and I picked up the season pass to Fallout 4 when that happened, too. The extent to which these games are being monetized isn't so much a bad thing imo as it is just a bit depressing. It's clearly effective, people keep paying.

 

[Shmee]

I played the beta, saw the progression system and then skipped it. It is a fighting game, and all fighting games these days have toooooons of DLC, but Ubisoft went to the extreme. The game has so far sold a lot of copies, but I hope that no one buys their useless DLC.

 

[NickJames]

Can you still buy weapon packs that give you better gear using real money? Or is it just strictly character unlocks and cosmetics?

 

[Ur_Mom]

I like being able to unlock things in game and I'm fine with it being a bit more difficult. However, this is a bit extreme. I want OBTAINABLE unlocks.

 

[DPI]

Can you still buy weapon packs that give you better gear using real money? Or is it just strictly character unlocks and cosmetics?

The latter. And most people aren't going to be buying every cosmetic item for every character. Most players are going to focus on 3 characters or so. This "$700 for the full experience" story is thus a bit misleading, this has been making the rounds on gaming sites but it's a bit of a fake outrage bus.

 

[Merc1138]

Yea, it won't cost me anything since I won't be paying into it. I think everyone picks their poison with regard to these DLC factory type games. I've paid into TitanFall 2 and Overwatch, and I picked up the season pass to Fallout 4 when that happened, too. The extent to which these games are being monetized isn't so much a bad thing imo as it is just a bit depressing. It's clearly effective, people keep paying.

I don't mind when it's strictly cosmetic stuff that doesn't affect gameplay, which is what overwatch microtransactions are.

But when it turns into unlocking characters, weapons, etc. that do affect gameplay balance... fuck that.

 

[BloodyIron]

Somehow Ubisoft got worse

 

[nutzo]

Just another way to separate people from their money.

If they charged $800 for the game, sales would be very low due to the high price, but some people don't have a problem paying that much over a few months.

Some people spend thousands on a simple phone game over several months. It's crazy to think that some people will spend $20 or more for a little animated icon of a dragon/animal.

I don't do DLC. If there's not enough in the base game to keep me interested, then I don't buy it.
For phone games, they are just time wasters. There are some playable free games on Android, but if balance is too far towards the people spending money on DLC then I give up and pick a different time waster.

 

[NickJames]

Somehow Ubisoft got worse

Believe it or not, most games tend to be more profitable once you throw in microtransactions. The one guy buying $200 worth of hats made up for the 3 or 4 losses in sales.

 

[Darunion]

Just another way to separate people from their money.

If they charged $800 for the game, sales would be very low due to the high price, but some people don't have a problem paying that much over a few months.

Some people spend thousands on a simple phone game over several months. It's crazy to think that some people will spend $20 or more for a little animated icon of a dragon/animal.

I don't do DLC. If there's not enough in the base game to keep me interested, then I don't buy it.
For phone games, they are just time wasters. There are some playable free games on Android, but if balance is too far towards the people spending money on DLC then I give up and pick a different time waster.

I used to. I used to always buy the season passes. Now I do not, most times I finish the game and the extra dlc just doesnt add enough. Anymore now I try to wait for the all in one releases that come out with all dlc included.

 

[Dalexx]

I feel sorry for people who can't help themselves to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on trivial things. Sounds like they need a good financial advisor to help them spend thousands on their retirement savings or other things that will have long term rewards. People are obviously free to spend their money however they want, so I guess we can't blame the companies for taking full advantage of it.

 

[-PK-]

I can't believe people would consider paying more than $20; this game is entirely dependent on the popular streamer hype train and many of the players will soon move on to other games. It's like Dynasty Warriors, but missing 85% of the content.

 

[Master_shake_]

game fails and piracy to blame.
no wonder ubishit thinks piracy is so rampant.
this utter bullshit they come out with to compel people in to becoming limitless ATMs.
oops free to play.
point still stands.
customers are not ATM's
second edit:
this isn't a free to play?
wow, fucking wow.

 

[Merc1138]

I can't believe people would consider paying more than $20; this game is entirely dependent on the popular streamer hype train and many of the players will soon move on to other games. It's like Dynasty Warriors, but missing 85% of the content.

That's pretty much how I saw this game. Played it for a bit in one of the betas, looked like it would get old fast, saw that various streamers and youtubers were hyping the hell out of it to the point of it seeming a bit odd, game comes out and yeah it's basically a stripped down dynasty warriors. Sure at it's heart it is a fighting game, but there's just not much to it as it is, and then the microtransactions on top of it? Pass.

 

[nutzo]

I feel sorry for people who can't help themselves to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on trivial things. Sounds like they need a good financial advisor to help them spend thousands on their retirement savings or other things that will have long term rewards.

Don't worry, when they don't have any money for retirement, the government will just tax YOUR retirement savings and share it with them.

 

[lcpiper]

Not that For Honor players are being forced by gunpoint to spend their money, but I guess this is worth bashing Ubisoft for since it would take a ridiculously long amount of time to unlock this content through regular gameplay. There’s also the old argument that this content should have been in the base game anyway. For Honor players who intend to get the full experience should expect to either cough up $700, or spend 2.5 years playing to unlock all of the game’s content.

…it costs around 91,500 steel (the in-game currency) to unlock each character and all of their customisations in the base game. For all 12, we’re looking at 1,098,000 steel, which equates to approximately 7.32 of the $100 steel packs. “So Ubisoft has valued their in-game unlocks within the base game at a $732 over-charge of the original $60-100 spent on the game.” If you’re thinking about not dropping any money on the steel packs because you’re happy to earn them through playing the game: “Casual players who play 1-2 hours 5-7 days a week will never reach this goal. Completing Orders/half-Contracts will get you roughly 1000 Steel, another roughly 200 for the matches you played. So 1200 a day is a good estimated gain for casual players. That’s 915 days. Roughly 2.51 years.”

Too many people don't have the experience of having played games like Lineage II or even something more current like World of Tanks or Mechwarrior Online.

When it comes to grinding in a game, Lineage II probably has this beat in spades. A player could play an average of four hours a day for a month and not see a complete weapon drop from a mob. You might get some complete armor peices as drops, say a couple a week, but a complete weapon was rare indeed. Usually you just got crafting pieces, a shaft for a bow or a blade edge for a sword. The game's leveling system was such that a regular player like myself would start a new character and play for a month or longer to get from level 1 to level 20 and graduate from non-graded equipment to Grad D equipment. Then the player would grind for about three months to reach level 40 and C Grade equipment, To reach level 60 and B grade was a six month plus grind. A grade was a one year adventure. Death in Lineage II would set a player back a week of game time and if you were killed three or four times in some PvP it could mean a month's work farming mobs to get back to your former level. Today Lineage II has been accelerated greatly cause no one is going to start from scratch and grind like this when the player base that remains is all up at the top tiers of the game.

Just a conservative estimate for Mechwarrior Online, if a player wanted to purchase all content and pay the "early adopters" price, I would say that they would have spent at least $2,100 USD, At least. And that is if they didn't buy any of the "Golden Mechs"

This article doesn't faze me in the slightest.

$700+ for all content is chump change. The author needs to get out more.

 

[Shalafi]

Have no plans on buying the game, so it won't cost me anything.

 

[buttons]

Too many people don't have the experience of having played games like Lineage II or even something more current like World of Tanks or Mechwarrior Online.

When it comes to grinding in a game, Lineage II probably has this beat in spades. A player could play an average of four hours a day for a month and not see a complete weapon drop from a mob. You might get some complete armor peices as drops, say a couple a week, but a complete weapon was rare indeed. Usually you just got crafting pieces, a shaft for a bow or a blade edge for a sword. The game's leveling system was such that a regular player like myself would start a new character and play for a month or longer to get from level 1 to level 20 and graduate from non-graded equipment to Grad D equipment. Then the player would grind for about three months to reach level 40 and C Grade equipment, To reach level 60 and B grade was a six month plus grind. A grade was a one year adventure. Death in Lineage II would set a player back a week of game time and if you were killed three or four times in some PvP it could mean a month's work farming mobs to get back to your former level. Today Lineage II has been accelerated greatly cause no one is going to start from scratch and grind like this when the player base that remains is all up at the top tiers of the game.

Just a conservative estimate for Mechwarrior Online, if a player wanted to purchase all content and pay the "early adopters" price, I would say that they would have spent at least $2,100 USD, At least. And that is if they didn't buy any of the "Golden Mechs"

This article doesn't faze me in the slightest.

$700+ for all content is chump change. The author needs to get out more.

I haven played mechwarrior online for years and bought only one mech pack -- mostly because i wanted to support the game.

 

[westrock2000]

It's also possible in 2.5 years you might be able to buy this game and all DLC content in a Humble Bundle pack by paying above the average price of $14.61.

 

[ruffbytes]

I'm not interested in playing this kind of thing game myself, but if people want to play it, go right ahead.

I am a software developer and I like getting paid.

 

[vegeta535]

It is bullshit on Ubisoft part but can't blame them for taking advantage of people with no self control. If people stopped supporting this stuff then it would go away. They won't cause it is ingrained into kids this day and the norm to them. They never knew how it use to be.

 

[Kalabalana]

Milk the audience
If the milk is coming, then I guess you're doing it right
Personally I avoid stupid shit like this

 

[Spidey329]

If Ubisoft goes this direction with any other game, I'm going to just pretend those games either don't exist or the portion of the game that is micro-transactions doesn't exist.

To be honest, I'm surprised The Division didn't have a severe case of this (purchasable only content).

 

[Wolfkin]

There's a reason why Ubisoft is on my shitlist.

 

[JackNSally]

If Ubisoft goes this direction with any other game, I'm going to just pretend those games either don't exist or the portion of the game that is micro-transactions doesn't exist.

To be honest, I'm surprised The Division didn't have a severe case of this (purchasable only content).

Not yet. The content is a bit light but supposedly year 2 dlc stuff is free..but it is Ubisoft so.....

 

[Bigdady92]

Sounds like Waiting for the GOTY edition and get it for 19.99$

I"m fine with that.

 

[lcpiper]

I haven played mechwarrior online for years and bought only one mech pack -- mostly because i wanted to support the game.

Sure, but the author is talking about what it would cost to unlock all the game content with cash versus grinding it out.

And what I am saying is that there are many predecessors that are easily as bad as worse.

 

[ZeroBarrier]

I don't mind when it's strictly cosmetic stuff that doesn't affect gameplay, which is what overwatch microtransactions are.

But when it turns into unlocking characters, weapons, etc. that do affect gameplay balance... fuck that.

Plus there is almost no need to buy boxes in Overwatch. You gain a free box per level and currency can be gotten from the box or from any duplicates you acquire, not to mention each box actually gives you 4 different items at a time. Overwatch is one of the only games I've every played with microtransactions that primarily feels like just a way to reward the developers rather than trying to reward yourself as the player.