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If You’re Explaining Microtransactions…You’re Doing it Wrong!

If You’re Explaining Microtransactions…You’re Doing it Wrong!

“We hold these transactions to be self-evident. Kind of”

My feelings on things like DLC and piecing-mealing content has been well documented on the site over the last year or so. Done right, I think it can be a valuable way of keeping a title fresh and extending its life. Done incorrectly, it can kill it off before there’s even a chance of getting a good run out of the starting gate. A recent example of a title almost shooting itself in the foot would be the episodic Resident Evil: Revelations 2 .

There have been a lot of rumors and misinformation regarding the upcoming entry in the Resident Evil series, many of which originated from within Capcom itself. After the old interwebs basically lost their minds due to rampant speculation regarding its proposed microtransacting system, a Capcom rep finally had to speak with media and clear the air. Here is their official statement/clarification:

“There are no microtransactions within the main campaign.” Begins the spokesmen.

“Players can use ‘life crystals’ when playing through Raid mode in Revelations 2 . The crystals essentially act as continues re-spawns in Raid mode when players die. Blue life crystals can be earned through playing daily missions and red life crystals can be bought. The two crystals act the same, but there’s an option to buy if players run out of blue earned crystals or don’t want to spend the time earning them. If players have both blue and red crystals, the game will prioritize the blue crystals over the red ones.

Again, these are only used in Raid mode and not in the main campaign.” They state.

Holy crap. Blue crystals! Red crystals! All I wanna’ do is enjoy the new release of one of my favorite franchises, not buy into some kind of weird minerals market. Next thing you know I’ll be receiving a pitch as to why I should withdraw all my loot from the bank and invest in gold and silver coins à la Mr. Glen Beck!

Now you’ll find the internet instantly breaks down into one of two categories whenever something like this rears its ugly head. One camp is firmly against any kind of DLC. They feel ALL content should be included on the disc, or at the very least, made available for free later. The other are those who refuse to pay for ANYTHING up front, only wanting to shell out cash for the specific items they so choose (these gamers are big into mobile). I suppose I can see the merits in both arguments. One wants to feel they’re not being cheated out of what’s owed to them, while the other wants more control over how they spend their money and on what.

If You’re Explaining Microtransactions…You’re Doing it Wrong!

I suppose I’m not intending to become an advocated for one side or the other, but rather to point a wagging finger back at Capcom. The moral of this story is, if you have to trout out your representative to “clear the air” in regards to bad PR before your game’s release…something has gone seriously awry! This is the dangers of dipping your toe into the world of microtransactions (vs. the traditional sales model we’re used to). It can seriously backfire. Here they were just trying to offer a nice shortcut to those unwilling to commit endless hours earning these bonuses outright, yet that still somehow blew up in their faces. What was intended as a positive quickly morphed into a negative.

Even if it turns out to be a well-reviewed, high scoring game, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is likely to suffer as a result of this misstep. An unfortunate reality of not having all your “Is” dotted and “Ts” crossed ahead of time.

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