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Forums - Gaming - The Crew's biggest microtransaction costs £39.99

daredevil.shark on 02 December 2014

Macrotransactions?

 

The Crew's biggest 'microtransaction' costs £39.99 

The Crew launches worldwide today, and seeing as we were let in a day early, I've written a detailed and balanced launch impressions piece for your perusal. However, now that the servers are live -- and holding up, at least for now -- we can also report on exactly how Ubisoft's new MMO driving game handles the dreaded spectre of microtransactions.

Like Assassin's Creed: Unity, The Crew contains a premium currency known as Crew Credits, which can be used to purchase cars that you haven't saved up enough money for by completing challenges, races and missions. You have the option to buy every vehicle with either your slowly-increasing pot of in-game currency or Crew Credits, the latter of which, of course, come at a real-world cost. You're able to buy them in five different packs, starting at 45,000 at £3.99 and ending with 600,000 for a whopping £39.99.

To put this in perspective, early-game cars can run you between 4500-65,000 Crew Credits.

Personally I hate to see microtransactions and premium currencies in full-priced games, as their inclusion is smoking gun proof that a game's economy is designed to delay, annoy or otherwise convince you to reach for the credit card. The fact that you can't ignore Crew Credits -- it's a dual currency, so the option is right there on the screen next to regular purchasing options and even represented on your player tag -- is also a real bugbear too. The sooner this fad dies out, the better, since you've already paid good money for the game and frankly shouldn't be constantly harangued to slap down a little (or a lot) extra.

We'll find out whether it's easy and affordable to play the game the way it should be intended as the days roll on - stay tuned for our launch day impressions later today and a full review at the end of the week.

 

 

Source: http://www.dealspwn.com/crews-biggest-microtransaction-costs-3999-187487



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vivster on 02 December 2014

Good. I heard good programmers are expensive.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Burek on 02 December 2014

This fad will not die out, as there will always be enough people paying for it. And since they are selling you about a 1MB worth of "air" for 39.99, it certainly costs Ubisoft or anybody else nithing to continue offering it.
People still have an option to play instead of pay, at least.



The Fury on 02 December 2014

DA:Is biggest is £37 I think. I paid that for the game. :P 

As long as they are not locking anything behind them and you can earn the stuff by just playing the game instead, no one should have an issue.



Hmm, pie.

RenCutypoison on 02 December 2014

Well, it's still optional.

For example in League of Legends there is about 3000-4000$ of total content to buy. Of course that's a "free" game so you might say that should not be compared, but substracting 50$ doesn't change much. And these price are still reasonable as it stands for 121 playable characters and ~400 skins.

Noone would buy all that, and anyone who does is either rich or retarded. Paying for content, though, is what players always did, and microtransactions in a full price game is fine for additional, optional content if the basic game without microtransactions as enough content to justify it's price, which is the 101 when buying a game.

One can't complain about a full price game lack of content, but complaining about the price of optional content can only be done if you buy these. And if it's overpriced, you should blame yourself for going full retard when using your wallet.



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kumagawa on 02 December 2014

Meanwhile in Star Citizen they are selling a ship for $2500 yes 1 ship that does not yet and may never exist in a game that may never be finished.



alrightiwill on 02 December 2014

I remember when stuff like this used be called cheat codes :(



Munkeh111 on 02 December 2014
kumagawa said:
Meanwhile in Star Citizen they are selling a ship for $2500 yes 1 ship that does not yet and may never exist in a game that may never be finished.

That's called crowdfunding. Even at $60m, it has a small budget compared to something like the Old Republic

But the key with both is that they are offering expensive items. It's up to you to choose them

The question comes when we actually play the game and see how well progression is balanced. In AC Unity for example, I've found that you get a decent amount of money and don't really need to buy in game currency. If you do side quests and explore, you can continually progress in terms of gear, without any need to jump ahead by buying in game currency

So yeah. As ever it comes down to balance



XanderXT on 02 December 2014

I hate Ubisoft now.



LemonSlice on 02 December 2014
RenCutypoison said:
Well, it's still optional.

For example in League of Legends there is about 3000-4000$ of total content to buy. Of course that's a "free" game so you might say that should not be compared, but substracting 50$ doesn't change much. And these price are still reasonable as it stands for 121 playable characters and ~400 skins.

Noone would buy all that, and anyone who does is either rich or retarded. Paying for content, though, is what players always did, and microtransactions in a full price game is fine for additional, optional content if the basic game without microtransactions as enough content to justify it's price, which is the 101 when buying a game.

One can't complain about a full price game lack of content, but complaining about the price of optional content can only be done if you buy these. And if it's overpriced, you should blame yourself for going full retard when using your wallet.

How about this: they slow down the rate you earn the currency in-game considerably in order to make you frustrated enough to buy it with real money. Is that okay?