In the “what went wrong” column was everything else. Had I chosen to spend money two and a half hours in, at the moment when I first unlocked the ability to purchase gear, I probably could have rushed through the game in 12 hours or less. I wasn’t exactly transformed into Mordor’s Talion by spending money, but I did not need to act assassinly unless I wanted to. Unless I was completely surrounded, tricky combat situations could be overcome by cheesing the smoke bomb and mowing down startled soldiers. Gearing up wasn’t exactly the same as using a God mode cheat, but I was able to complete the story without too many deaths. Decked out in fully upgraded 5-diamond gear, I finished the campaign straight through without the need to grind. In the “what went right” column I was able to charge through the single player campaign with relative ease. What I encountered was mostly frustration. Prompted in-game, I signed up for Initiates to unlock yellow chests. I installed the companion app, linked my uPlay account and started unlocking those blue chests. By the end of 10 hours I was rated at the 3 diamond gear level and was struggling through memory 6-3.Īt that point, I decided to role play as the ultimate form of Unity consumer. Then I would hunt down unopened chests and grind on side missions to earn enough Livres to buy new gear. I focused primarily on the story until missions got difficult. Going Full Ubisoftįor the first 10 hours of my time with Unity I played it as I would naturally. However, just because I think that Unity’s use of MTX and a companion app were inevitable, it does not mean I think they were particularly friendly to those players who bought this new Assassins Creed on launch day (especially those players who pre-ordered or bought it before the review embargo was lifted). Given that price tags are likely to remain anchored at $US60, more and more blockbuster games will turn to in-game purchases. When it takes 10 game studios working together to create Unity, experimenting with in-game purchases and companion apps as a way to generate additional revenue isn’t greed, it’s survival. Adjusted for inflation, a $US60 game costs the equivalent of $US51 in 2006. This current generation brings us even more beautiful games, even higher development and marketing costs and yet the $US60 price tag remains. The launch of the previous console generation brought us HD gaming, higher development and marketing costs, a $US60 price tag and downloadable $US2.50 horse armour. Player’s stated preferences on Twitter and in comments may be a hatred of all things microtransaction (MTX), but as it becomes clear to companies that they actually buy these items in meaningful quantities, in-game purchases will become as everyday as Day 1 DLC, Season Passes and purchasable cosmetic items. We’re at the point where there is public outcry over a business practice which will ultimately become common. From my insider perspective, it feels as though we have reached our Horse Armour moment with in-game purchases. Not only have I spent the past two and a half years working as a monetisation design consultant, but before that I spent four and a half years as a producer at EA, where I led development on companion games that unlocked exclusive items inside of Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. As a professional game developer, I’m no stranger to companion apps or in-game purchases. When Unity launched last week, piled on top of claims that this is a low point for the series was a frustration with the relevance of the extra hooks the game has to products and services outside the main game: the companion app, the Initiates program and the Helix credit microtransactions in the game. I have a balance of $US56 worth of Helix credits and have nothing meaningful to spend them on. Instead, I open up the eStore and without first looking into what I can buy with Helix credits, opt for the $US100 package, the biggest in-game purchase available from Ubisoft, a publisher that would presumably love for me to buy it.įive and a half hours later, when the credits roll (and roll and roll) on the story, I am decked out in 5-diamond Legendary gear. I could stop working on this memory, instead grinding on side missions and locating chests until I have enough Livres to buy more powerful gear.
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