Diablo 4 could end up having microtransactions

[Kralljin]

So who've won?

If you're looking for an argument about the definition of P2W, sorry, i'm all out of fucks to give.

[Elim Garak]

If you're looking for an argument about the definition of P2W, sorry, i'm all out of fucks to give.

So who've got the power of SNAP then?

[catalystical]

Asking full price for a game then chokeload it with MTX is not fine. And all of you saying "they have to maintain the servers": When they sell 30M copies of the game, the price of development AND keeping the servers up should be calculated in that selling price (also servers are penny cheap nowadays). The problem with companies like Blizzard and the rest is basically they dont want to think over financial quarters:
Quarter A: game sells 30M copies, it generates X million in profits.
Quarter B: game sells 5M copies, it generates X/5 million in profits.
Quarter C: games sells only a low amount since most people bought it who wanted: OH NO THE GAME IS LOSING MONEY FOR US LETS SHIT IT FULL WITH MTX AND P2W.
The small fact that the game is still in 200 times profit compared to the costs of making it and maintaining the servers doesnt matter to the developer because that was another financial quarter.

If the game is full buy to play, they should release smaller patches, like Dying Light did, or actual expansion pack(s) (Dying Light again) and selling them for sensible prices, and then BOOM you have a sustainable and moral system. But hey, the easy route is putting it full of shit because the """""development time"""" is a fraction compared to actual content and the sheep will eat the shit up anyways. Not the right route, but the easy one.

Or release smaller expansion packs and in a faster cadence. So instead of waiting for years for a $40 expansion like Reaper of Souls, maybe $15 like the Necromancer patch every year. RoS was $40 for an xpac 2-years in. Break that down and it's about $10 per 6ish months. So they can also try and give us new stuff every 3~6 months for a $5~$10 season pass. Fortnite's battle pass is $8 per season. Then let us have an option to buy stuff from past seasons that we missed out for something like $1~$2.

Yes these days it's about how fast new content can come out and keep the game fresh.

I will draw the line at lootboxes and RNG. Spending money on specific things is fine. There's no luck involved. You buy the thing you want and you move on. But when RNG is involved, it becomes gambling and that is predatory.

[This One Time At Bandcamp]

Can't help but think of the launch of D3 and how messed up the Auction House was.

I don't mind microtransactions for cosmetical items like mounts, pets and transmogs..Maybe even level boost and XP potions, since leveling usually isn't a big deal in these games later on.

It should NOT be tied to gear or any kind of power in the endgame tho.

[kranur]

Can't help but think of the launch of D3 and how messed up the Auction House was.

I don't mind microtransactions for cosmetical items like mounts, pets and transmogs..Maybe even level boost and XP potions, since leveling usually isn't a big deal in these games later on.

It should NOT be tied to gear or any kind of power in the endgame tho.

This is the problem these days, microtransactions seem to be accepted and embraced, even though the bring 0 value to the game, instead just fill in the pockets of the shareholders.
Games that cost a full price should NOT be allowed to charge extra for what shold be available for playing the game.
Thank you whales for turning games into a show of who has more money to throw away.

[Unholyground]

They said there will be cosmetics.
They didn't say "there will be no play power".

Same as Wyatt Cheng said that players couldn't purchase GEAR in Diablo Immortal.
Anything he said before launch is, as far as i know, still correct, but obviously implied that there wouldn't be any P2W, yet we all know by now that Diablo Immortal is P2W.

What they said about D4 Store is still very much true even if it goes P2W.

D4 won't be pay to win. I know people are mad about Immortal but it was always meant to be the way it is based on the NetEase connection.

[Kralljin]

D4 won't be pay to win. I know people are mad about Immortal but it was always meant to be the way it is based on the NetEase connection.

You're just deflecting.
You said that "it's confirmed", the only thing confirmed so far is that there will be cosmetics and additional content on the store.

They didn't say that there won't be any P2W elements on the store.
It's important to note that this isn't a confirmation that it will have P2W elements on the store, but those statements still gives Blizzard a backdoor to get out of it if they chose to implement them, just like it happened with Diablo Immortal.

[Osmeric]

Is it predatory? It's capitalist. The entire economy is predatory. Predation on consumers is literally what capitalism is.

To be fair, consumers have a predatory relationship with producers as well. When you say "no" to buying a product, it's another wound in that producer, and if their cash flow goes negative they suffocate financially in short order.

The F2P/P2W model will eventually saturate the market for such things. There will still be a set of consumers that reject this model, and they will still be worth pursuing.

[Endus]

This is the problem these days, microtransactions seem to be accepted and embraced, even though the bring 0 value to the game, instead just fill in the pockets of the shareholders.
Games that cost a full price should NOT be allowed to charge extra for what shold be available for playing the game.
Thank you whales for turning games into a show of who has more money to throw away.

There's no such thing as "full price", in the sense that you're meaning. A game's price only entitles you to the content the developers chose to make available at that price. Content locked behind MTX is clearly not included in that price, so claiming you're being denied something you paid for, that argument's just objectively false, and it's never had any merit. You're not "owed" anything by paying $60, or whatever, beyond what it said on the package.

And yeah; it pads shareholder wallets, and doesn't provide much additional benefit to the consumers. That's how for-profit capitalism works. I can get on board with those complaints, if you want to join me in calling for the ending of the entire capitalist model to introduce a new market-socialist global paradigm, but I think that's a wee bit of a bigger issue than the state of Diablo games.

[hecpercu]

And thats why i removed Bnet launcher from my devices, nothing good will ever come out Of this sinking company.

[Clone]

It's not a question of could, Blizzard already said it will during the D4 announcement.

[rebjorn79]

And where is the problem?^^ Modern games usually have some kind of microtransactions anyways.

The issue is not that there are some. Fine, we can expect that. We can deal with that.

But they don't have to ruin the gameplay experience at the same time.

I play WoW a lot. Sure, there are some MXs. Some pets, some cosmetics, some account services.

No problem - because it's not 'in your face' all the time. It doesn't really disturb the gameplay. Yes, I get that they have to make money. I've spent a lot of money on WoW over the years - for monthly subs, some account services and so on. No problem.

But with Diablo Immoral they went bananas with this model and THAT is unneccessary.

[kranur]

There's no such thing as "full price", in the sense that you're meaning. A game's price only entitles you to the content the developers chose to make available at that price. Content locked behind MTX is clearly not included in that price, so claiming you're being denied something you paid for, that argument's just objectively false, and it's never had any merit. You're not "owed" anything by paying $60, or whatever, beyond what it said on the package.

And yeah; it pads shareholder wallets, and doesn't provide much additional benefit to the consumers. That's how for-profit capitalism works. I can get on board with those complaints, if you want to join me in calling for the ending of the entire capitalist model to introduce a new market-socialist global paradigm, but I think that's a wee bit of a bigger issue than the state of Diablo games.

You know very well what I mean.
"Here's the game, here's the price!"
No ifs and buts and schemes added each month.
I didn't say being denied or whatever just that because some people are stupid enough to bite and give them money for free, we're now in thr absurd position of diablo immortal, which is a fun game but in order to reach full power, you have to spend hundreds of thousands or play for about a hundred years ... good model that is.

[Endus]

You know very well what I mean.
"Here's the game, here's the price!"
No ifs and buts and schemes added each month.

And if the game has any DLC or MTX or subscription fees, there is no "full price", or at least it's certainly not the initial price you pay to buy the base game. Doesn't matter if those existed at launch or were added later; it's still not included in that initial price offering, not unless the developers/publishers explicitly promised that as part of that initial price.

That's what's wrong about what you meant.

[Trenbolone]

And where is the problem?^^ Modern games usually have some kind of microtransactions anyways.

THIS is the problem.

I rarely touch any new games now. Almost every game has to have a dlc, pre order bonus, or microtransaxtions.
The last new game i playes was Assaasin:Origins. I saw this SP game sold for full price had microtransactions, time skips, progression boosts.
Duck that!
And people should not support this. I miss the times when you couls just play the game you bougth. There were cheat codes or an expansion. Now its just milking and milking. And the game suffers as it has to be inconvenient for the microtransactions to work.
Awful, awful culture has creeped to the gaming and it is very sad that people are taking that as a norm now.
Soon there will be commercials in place of loading screens.
If D4 has any kind of thic crap, im not gonna support it.
Nobody should. But seeing the success of immortal... we are in for a very different gaming experiences full of cresit card swiping. I guess gambling in the pubs aint so profitable nowadays, have to move elsewhere.. meh..

[jackofwind]

So glad I never touched any Diablo game. So sure I never will.

Why? Diablo 1 is an untouchably classic game and Diablo 2 is fucking fantastic.

[rebjorn79]

THIS is the problem ..

Yep, people GETTING USED TO IT is the problem. We shouldn't accept this.

I replied to the same comment two posts above ^

[MoanaLisa]

One is a MOBILE GAME, the other one is a core diablo experience focusing on gamers on xbox and PC. Literally their core audience. They are not even remotely the same. And to pretend that they are is laughable.

True until Blizzard made the <sarcasm> brilliant </sarcasm> move of adding a PC client to a mobile game creating the impression—along with several posts explaining where in lore history the game belonged—that implied that it too belonged in the Diablo PC game family.

No, they aren't the same game at all. But it's not true to call it just a mobile game.

To be clear about my own views they are very simple: The game is free. People should try it out and decide for themselves.

- - - Updated - - -

Yep, people GETTING USED TO IT is the problem. We shouldn't accept this.

You don't have to and clearly do not. You have no business telling anyone else what they should like, dislike or accept. It's laughable that ten years down the road of MTX in games and the rise of mobile games to be a bigger market than PC games that only now is it time to rage about something that will never be reversed. These games work for publishers because they are profitable and often make more money than their non-MTX counterparts. That's not a statement of support. It's a fact. That ship has left the harbor.

[Unholyground]

You're just deflecting.
You said that "it's confirmed", the only thing confirmed so far is that there will be cosmetics and additional content on the store.

They didn't say that there won't be any P2W elements on the store.
It's important to note that this isn't a confirmation that it will have P2W elements on the store, but those statements still gives Blizzard a backdoor to get out of it if they chose to implement them, just like it happened with Diablo Immortal.

Blizzard is Microsoft's I can bet you that, Bobby is no longer calling the shots, it is why D4 was in the Bathesda showcase.

[SinR]

I bet you people hate Path of Exile too.