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What you need to know
- When Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched for PC on Thursday night, a set of previously hidden microtransactions became available for purchase.
- Things you can buy for the single-player ARPG include fast travel points, rift crystals for hiring pawns and purchasing special items, appearance change and revive consumables, a special camping kit that weighs less than normal ones, and a few more .
- In response to the microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is coming under fire, with the game currently sitting at “Mostly Negative” on Steam.
As I write this, Capcom’s new ARPG Dragon’s Dogma 2 is now officially playable on PC via Steam, and the game is scheduled to be available on Xbox and PlayStation consoles in just a few hours. However, what was supposed to be an exciting and celebratory release of a sequel that fans have been waiting for over a decade has been marred by controversy.
When the game became available, so did a set of previously hidden microtransaction purchases. These include everything from the Rift crystals used to hire other players’ pawns to the Art of Metamorphosis tomes needed to change your character’s appearance, along with Wakestone revival items, Portcrystal fast travel points, single use to escape from prison cells, incenses to edit a pawn’s inclination (by the way, the inclination your pawn gets is random), monster decoys, and even special camping equipment that weighs less than normal equipment . All are visible in Dragon’s Dogma 2 DLC Page.
The price of these microtransactions ranges from $1 to $5, and while some seem to be purchased only in limited quantities, others appear to be purchasable infinitely. And when you consider that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a $70 single-player RPG, it’s no surprise that players are…not happy, to put it lightly. In Steamit’s already plummeted to a “Mostly Negative” rating, with only 34% of reviews positive.
“Then after pre-purchasing the Deluxe Edition, I went to install it today and saw an entire page dedicated to their Micro Transactions in the store.” wrote Super player. “How can you even have the nerve to make any kind of microtransactions in a SINGLE PLAYER game that’s already full price? It’s so wild to me.” ezz makes the same pointquite succinctly: “Great game held back by disgusting microtransactions.”
Indeed. Much of the Windows Central team (including this server) has had early access to Dragon’s Dogma 2 for quite some time now, and we’re in love with its incredible combat systems and rich fantasy world (read our Dragon’s Dogma 2 review for more information about that; we were not informed about the microtransactions beforehand). But I’d be lying if I said these microtransactions haven’t dampened some of our writers’ enthusiasm for the game, especially since some of them are particularly egregious.
Editor’s Note (Jez Corden): I just want to add here that Capcom didn’t hide these microtransactions from us before publishing my review, they were detailed in the review guide. Normally when I review games, I avoid reading the review guide, because I want to start with a blank slate, like I’m just playing as someone who just bought the game. In the past, I’ve received review guides that included developer explanations with PR language that I felt might be designed to try to influence my opinion of a game, and as such I’ve generally avoided them. In this case, the review guide in the initial email included descriptions of these microtransactions, which I had not shared with the team.
Of all of them, the two that frustrate me the most personally are the $2.99 Portcrystals and the $1.99 Ambivalent Rift Incenses. The former monetizes the ability to fast travel wherever you want in the game world (port crystals are extremely rare to find in the game), while the random nature of the latter essentially turns changing your pawn’s tilt into a slot machine where you can spend $2 to “re-roll”. “Oh, and I’m also pretty upset about the $2.99 Scout Camping Kit, since it weighs less than the kits you’ll find in the game and can be purchased infinitely from in-game vendors once unlocked.
Although the vast majority of what you can buy can can be found in the game, they are items that are extremely difficult to find, they cost a ton of rift crystals to buy (and hey, there are microtransactions to that, too), or are only available in limited quantities. For example, we’ve only been able to find two tomes of Art of Metamorphosis for sale in a single NPC’s shop despite having beaten the game, suggesting that there may be a limit to the number of times you can change your appearance to unless you’re prepared to dish out some cheddar cheese.
And again: this is not a free live service experience or anything like that. It’s a Single player game with full price of $70. And it’s incredible, which is why the shocking reveal of all these microtransactions is such a colossal bummer. Truly, this is one of the best open world RPGs I’ve ever experienced, but it’s now being overshadowed by greedy nickel and dim. And damn, that stinks.