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A single cosmetic pack in Diablo IV will be $28

Phase

Member
The bad part is that this is being normalized in a full priced game. You're already buying the game, and they want you to buy battle passes, season-only items, cosmetics, etc. on top of your purchase you already made to BUY THE FULL GAME. This used to be a practice for f2p games, and now it's in full-priced ones. Defending this is idiotic.
 
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sendit

Member
GaaS games needs to continuously make money, like it or not this is the reality of the genre, how do you propose they do that without a cash shop?
Out of their kind hearts. /s

Path of Exile, Diablo’s red headed step child also has a cosmetic shop. Armor sets costing upwards of 50 dollars per set.

Street Fighter 6 also has a cosmetic shop. Likely, every GaaS game going forward will have some sort of MTX.
 
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sendit

Member
It won’t be just cosmetics at some point. Farming mind stones to unlock gemstones to get a special ladder item? 60h grind or buy mind stones with platinum from the store. It will alter the grind, and skewed to get money not generate fun.

This will happen. It “just being cosmetics” for now is a way to circumvent critics at review time.
Diablo has a pretty out spoken community. Do you think Blizzard wants to deal with this again?

 

Kacho

Gold Member
The bad part is that this is being normalized in a full priced game. You're already buying the game, and they want you to buy battle passes, season-only items, cosmetics, etc. on top of your purchase you already made to BUY THE FULL GAME. This used to be a practice for f2p games, and now it's in full-priced ones. Defending this is idiotic.
It's too late. People have been conditioned to accept this stuff.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
I'll probably offend people by saying this, but the idea of paying real money for pretend digital clothes sounds like just about the saddest thing I can think of. I sort of get MXT that offers you more of a gameplay experience, but to spend actual, real money just to make your little digital man dress a little differently is just...

Conan Obrien Ugh GIF by Team Coco
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I'll probably offend people by saying this, but the idea of paying real money for pretend digital clothes sounds like just about the saddest thing I can think of. I sort of get MXT that offers you more of a gameplay experience, but to spend actual, real money just to make your little digital man dress a little differently is just...

Conan Obrien Ugh GIF by Team Coco
What's the difference between paying $70 to pretend to be the little man and paying $3 to dress the little man differently?
 
And yet there are plenty of highly successful games and highly successful companies that do exactly that.

Do you want to have the best gaming experience possible or do you want the executives to make as much money as possible?

Hmm... Considering we are on a gaming forum that is supposed to be full of hobbyists I'm sure thats a tough question.



This is the best defence I've read yet. Well done.
Wonder how would they compete with Path of Exile in the mid-long run without the game being a GaaS.

Or how can they make the game not feel old and too repetitive after 6-12 months without it being a GaaS while the competence keeps updating and improving their games while adding new cosmetics so the whales give them money for it.

Tell me why the game being a GaaS means it's not the best gaming experience, because you have to pay for your character to wear the latest cool suit? X'D

Give me new and cool gameplay mechanics, new skill trees, new enemies, acts etc. That's the best gaming experience, and add new cosmetics each league meanwhile, i couldn't care less about this, i might even pay them if the game turns out to be great, not because i care a little bit about how my character looks, but to support the company if they are doing good, just like i've done in the past.
 

sendit

Member
I'll probably offend people by saying this, but the idea of paying real money to play pretend in video games sounds like just about the saddest thing I can think of. I sort of get video games that offers you more of a gameplay experience over the real world, but to spend actual, real money just to control a digital man is just...

Conan Obrien Ugh GIF by Team Coco
Fixed
 
I'll probably offend people by saying this, but the idea of paying real money for pretend digital clothes sounds like just about the saddest thing I can think of. I sort of get MXT that offers you more of a gameplay experience, but to spend actual, real money just to make your little digital man dress a little differently is just...

Conan Obrien Ugh GIF by Team Coco
You know what's worse? Paying real money to OnlyFans models who lives thousands of miles away. They will never have sex with you, always be fake with you and always leech your money. And, the person who does it is always going to be alone and live in denial.

The cosmetic actually stays on your character and adds an overall value to your account based on whatever collectibles you have. If you ever plan to sell a WoW account or something snd you have ton of bought stuff or even rare in game cosmetics your account will have some good value.

I am a huge collector in WoW but granted I've played the game since it came out. I bought out all the mounts in the WoW Shop at $25 each. But I have over 400 mounts total, most of them are ingame earned with prolly like 20 or 25 store mounts. They don't have many of them on the store. Never regretted it.
 
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bender

What time is it?
I'll probably offend people by saying this, but the idea of paying real money for pretend digital clothes sounds like just about the saddest thing I can think of. I sort of get MXT that offers you more of a gameplay experience, but to spend actual, real money just to make your little digital man dress a little differently is just...

Conan Obrien Ugh GIF by Team Coco

Costumes are fun when done right. I kept playing Overwatch far longer than I would have because of the seasonal events and the costumes that came with them. But for the most part, those could all be earned without paying money with the exception of the Overwatch League stuff that was introduced later in its' life and the charity costumes. Hard to imagine we've gone from a really fair system to $28 for a single costume from the same studio in such a short time frame.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
You know what's worse? Paying real money to OnlyFans models who lives thousands of miles away. They will never have sex with you, always be fake with you and always leech your money. And, the person who does it is always going to be alone and live in denial.

The cosmetic actually stays on your character and adds an overall value to your account based on whatever collectibles you have. If you ever plan to sell a WoW account or something snd you have ton of bought stuff or even rare in game cosmetics your account will have some good value.

Yeah... I wouldn't fucking do that, either :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Bry0

Member
Takes some of the pride out of your transmog when someone can just buy a cool looking set. “Where did you get that?? That looks awesome!”
-“Cash shop”
“Oh”

Lame
 
Takes some of the pride out of your transmog when someone can just buy a cool looking set. “Where did you get that?? That looks awesome!”
-“Cash shop”
“Oh”

Lame
While you may have a point. Most conversations like that won't ever happen in the actual game. Majority of the people are okay with Battle Passes and MTX.

But on a forum like NeoGaf where it's much more hardcore and more vocal then yes. You gotta realize we are a very small percentage of gamers here who are way more outspoken.

Never in my life has anyone told me in the game "imagine spending money on etc...your a loser" ever. Lol
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I think people caring is if it is just a cosmetic why can't you obtain it ingame via some questline one of the merchants gives you to make your outfits? Would be more engaging to unlock a outfit for beating some task/challenge instead of "here have $30".

Course you could just have a great value cosmetic pack that has a load of cosmetics for $30 and is strictly to support the devs. Which is what Deep Rock Galactic does. That might be more acceptable.
 

Skifi28

Member
You don't know if the item would have been made for free to unlock in game if revenue attached to it warranted it being made. This is a false equivalency that if the game didn't have GaaS model, the thing would have been free.
We' ve had cases where the DLC we were sold was already on the disc, but fair enough. There is no way to know for sure.

this one was created for the purpose of being bought.
Much like you can't possibly know that either. All we can know is it ended up being sold, we can't know what was originally intended.
 

darrylgorn

Member
The game or the cosmetics? We've got two parties up in here.

I don't know enough about this game to say (I really don't care) but as far as this thread and high priced add-ons goes, if you don't like the cost, then don't buy it.

If there's an alternative to get them to lower the price (other than blatant socialism), I'm all ears.
 

bender

What time is it?
Again the group not buying a game that you could spend hundreds of hours in all because of an optional cosmetic store were likely never buying this game anyhow and are just looking for reasons to complain

Incorrect. I'm considering cancelling my pre-order. I've put thousands of hours into D1, D2 and D3.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Incorrect. I'm considering cancelling my pre-order. I've put thousands of hours into D1, D2 and D3.
As have I. It was bad in my early 20's. Setting alarms at 3am for peak magic find hours of low server loads, etc.. I dread returning to that, nor do I have the time now to invest that much into a game like that again. Which is why I skipped 3 and more than likely will skip 4. Dungeon looters are a major time sink.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Guess I’ll have to pick and choose what I want instead of buying everything.

Wait that’s what I do in real life so no change needed.
 

bender

What time is it?
As have I. It was bad in my early 20's. Setting alarms at 3am for peak magic find hours of low server loads, etc.. I dread returning to that, nor do I have the time now to invest that much into a game like that again. Which is why I skipped 3 and more than likely will skip 4. Dungeon looters are a major time sink.

D3 is a really fun console co-op game. I also found it easier to walk away from than D1/D2 because of how streamlined it was.
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
I'll gladly pay if I am getting hundreds of hours of gameplay. Which I am sure I will be. Devs deserve it. I spend $ on cosmetics all the time when I see something cool in Fortnite.

No one is putting up a gun to your head. Not sure why people are upset. It doesn't change the gameplay in any way.

You probably have the money for it, good. But most people dont, me included, i cant really afford to spend $30 for some cosmetic skins in a game. I wouldnt have issues if it was F2P, but DIV is a $70-$90 title already.

$28 for a skin might be feasible if you live in CAD/UK/US but for anyone else outside of those countries, $30 is lot of money to spend on digital items.
 
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Zoanoid33

Member
Wasn't going to buy this anyway until it's $30 or under. Which seem about the right for a game with cosmetic microtransactions



The business model of direct microtransaction purchases has shifted in recent years. At one point devs aimed for a lot of people to spend a bit of money, now the focus seems to be to get fewer people to spend a lot of money.
You can see it everywhere, from this to Fortnite to Rocket League. If everyone is doing it you can bet they have the metricts to show it's the most profitable approach.

The new budget friendly option are Battle Passes which force you to play the game to unlock stuff, ensuring the user base keeps playing and stays active
It would be interesting to see those metrics. It seems risky to turn off a majority of your users to focus on a select few that will buy everything regardless.
Personally I would entertain a 5$ skin but never anything 10$+ and I know a ton of people that feel the same way.
 

Redefine07

Member
Wanted to pre-order this shit , but I will wait for reviews. I better keep my $$ for FF-16 (also I will wait for review)
 

bender

What time is it?
Tell me more.

You can respec on the fly so there are no long term commitments in that regard. You also don't dump points into attributes except for paragon points (bonus attributes after you hit the level cap but again can be respecced on the fly).
 
You probably have the money for it, good. But most people dont, me included, i cant really afford to spend $30 for some cosmetic skins in a game. I wouldnt have issues if it was F2P, but DIV is a $70-$90 title already.

$28 for a skin might be feasible if you live in CAD/UK/US but for anyone else outside of those countries, $30 is lot of money to spend on digital items.
I don't buy cosmetics every single day. If I do, I usually only buy 2-3 a month and that's rare. I've prolly spend $300 on Fortnite in a course of like 2 years and that is fucking nothing.
 
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sendit

Member
Guess I’ll have to pick and choose what I want instead of buying everything.

Wait that’s what I do in real life so no change needed.
You mean you aren't forced to buy everything the moment you open your web browser, phone, walk in to a store.......What a life that must be.
 

Fbh

Member
It would be interesting to see those metrics. It seems risky to turn off a majority of your users to focus on a select few that will buy everything regardless.
Personally I would entertain a 5$ skin but never anything 10$+ and I know a ton of people that feel the same way.

The game changer for the entire business model was the Battle Pass.
They don't want the average player buying individual skins, they want people on the battle pass. It's a double win for them because not only are they getting money but it also serves as a tool to keep players hooked and engaged which is vital for a GAAS to survive in the long run. And they can continuously release new "seasons" so it's basically an infinite carrot on a stick.

The truly genius move was when they started handing out premium currency through the battle pass. Because then you can entice people to buy $20 skins as they can pay for a part of it with premium currencty they got "for free" on the battle pass. Or at the most basic level people can just save up the premium currency to buy the next battle pass at a discount which ensures they keep playing.

Of course if you are the type of person willing to just pay almost $30 for a single skin they'll happily give you that option too. But it's something intended for whales rather than the average player.
 
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