You think the Diablo Portals are expensive? I hope you never play Path of Exile, they sell them INDIVIIDUALLY and they don't give you any currency with it.
D4 is on sale in uk for £35.99 yet they wanna sell you a portal skin for £29.99 and a mount skin for £69.99 insanity...stay away from this scam company
Hi, in Canada, your calculations are way off chart. The game costs 90$ for the regular version and 140$ for the premium edition. The portals are still only 30$.
@@verack1616 Past a certain level of scummy/immoral, it becomes hard to distinguish, and even harder to wanna bother making any such distinction... many triple-A publishers are *waaaay* past this threshold today.
I know this isn't really a fair comparison, but the Expedition just dropped as I'm watching this. No Man's Sky: You want to get around in style? You want a new, unique starship? Here, play a few hours of fun Expedition content and you'll get that and a bunch of other stuff. On all of your characters? Sure, account wide. For free. Diablo: You want to get around in style? You want a magic door? In BLUE?? Cough up $30 bucks please. Oh, you wanna use it on a different class? COUGH UP ANOTHER $30 PLEASE.
At a certain point, monetization like the portals 29.99 starts to mean that the players that aren't whales or aren't spending beyond their means - the players who just play the game and might spend something here or there - become glorified NPC's. Since they are devalued so heavily, they only exist to be set-dressing for the players the developers are actually making content for. They are making the big seasonal updates to keep the tertiary players there so that the 'spenders' continue to see the value of paying 30 dollars for what is essentially nothing, because if there is no one around to see that their portal is now green instead of blue, then what's the point? I'm definitely not saying that the on-the-ground developers think this way, and I'm not really even saying that the people in the positions to make these decisions are thinking that way (at least not conciously). I'm saying that its just the fundamental truth beneath all of the noise.
Thank goddess someone else said it - these overly aggressive and manipulative systems are not aimed at the average player. They are aimed at the whales and players with more money than sense. There will come a time where corporations drop us completely; they'll stop releasing anything for average players and start exclusively catering to the upper class.
i can understand microtransactions in free to play games because they have to make money for upkeep , wages , creating more added content . what isnt right is paying $15 a month plus being loaded with microtransactions. when a person pays to play, all content (transmogs, mounts , pets )should be earned through gameplay . paying subscribers shouldnt have to pay for the extras.
Ahhh yes infinite Microtransactions as far as the eye can see. Gotta love Modern Gaming , looking bright for 2024 and onward! (not) (except for indie devs, indie devs rocking recently)
Actually, yes, very much so. Indies have just been getting better and brighter. Sure 2023 was a tad weaker than 2022 but there is always gonna be fluctuations in gaming releases.
What annoys me about modern gaming is that AAA studios' only takeaway from the Enshroudeds, Helldivers 2s, and Palworlds is that the AA studio was dumb for losing all that money from not charging $70 and then have 3 $40 DLC packs on day 1. They don't even register that games like those sold extremely well because were they were first and foremost FUN, and also did NOT contain MTs up the ass, AND were reasonably priced.
Did you know that by today’s inflation games should be 120$+. Did you know that when mario64 released it was 70$? In fact you’re getting so much more value for almost any AAA game today than in the past. D4 is almost 1000x the amount of content for the same price as any NES, SNES, Sega genesis, N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox, GameCube game ever. So what are you complain about exactly?
AAA industry games feel more and more like they only tolerate the players presence under the assumption they can constantly get more money from them. Its not about entertaining a audience who paid their entry fee anymore, and its why, even if you don't touch the microtransaction, it all just makes the entire experience more unpleasant.
@@TomoEriGotobut what exactly is wrong with MTX? Do they prevent you from playing the game? Do they lock access to the game? Do they prevent completion if you don’t buy them?
@@BrothaMan831 In the more extreme cases, yes but they have made it so the answer to those questions is technically "no" and by "no" I mean "You have to grind/wait/play a looot more than someone that paid"
I’m one of those “why would you pay for things in an online game when you can’t own them@ people, so the explanation of legacy currency at the end just sounded so out of touch from actual gaming that I started laughing. This isn’t on you, it’s mostly “if explaining your currency takes longer than explaining the point of your game, you haven’t made a game, you’ve made a fake economy that happens to have a game stapled to it”.
The biggest problem with the new Overwatch 2 competitive currency is that it exists at all. It exists entirely to generate FOMO since you have to spend the currency before the end of the season or it gets converted to the old currency.
How people let themselves be exploited by these obvious scummy tactics, I'll never understand. Having money to spend shouldn't be an excuse to be braindead and easily exploited. People should really value themselves more.
**The end of the year** You don't have to earn 3k/season to get jade. Not having a way to earn gold weapon currency directly is idiotic, and the jade doesn't look like jade at all, but FoMO isn't much of an issue.
I have gotten sick and tired of all the monetization to the point where I practically have abandoned most of the AAA scene, It feels like a jump into a shop with a desperate salesman instead of a game, I booted up hearthstone a while ago only to be stuck in popup hell for like 10 min without being able to play the game, I just wanted to try a few rounds of battlegrounds, but no the developers just want to beg me to stay in the game with all incentives and then begs me to buy all kind of crap, I am having way more fun with palworld or enshrouded than I have had with any AAA for years, unless you count elden ring as AAA. The quality just isn't there, the majority of the AAA gaming scene has turned into a low budget, unpassionated, fast build up college project with a giant visual studio and marketing department, they make a few cool cutscenes and cool cosmetics in hope to sell them, but the game itself is just so bland and empty. I just want to play some cool games, I am not a money cow to be milked, seriously, respect that my wallet is my own instead of trying to sell me half-arsed, half-finished games where all the effort was put in into the cash shop.
They will do it as long they get a return. The only reason for them to stop the current monetization model is enough people stop buying their product - consumers need to change, not the company.
@@haruhirogrimgar6047yeah I’m sure the solution to your video game company making bad artistic and business decisions is to recreate the Bolshevik revolution. Reddit brain
yeah. always ask the poor masses to solve your problems. the rich and powerful don't have any responsibility for anything. i mean after all, they can't help themselves can they? its not like they have any reason to be smarter than anyone else
With several sexual misconduct scandals, known history of abusing emploees both proven by federal investigation, every single IP getting mishandled, and horribley greedy monetisation, how are people sticking trough with this company?
... it's a really shiny mount! And it comes with a lot of proprietary currency too, so you can also buy a couple matching class-locked skins! Ridiculous, I know. The sad thing is people buy them. I've seen quite a few crystalline horses and skins running around. So much for "nobody cares about cosmetics".
The portal bundle is even worse than you think since they are CLASS LOCKED and most players only play one or two classes, thus it really is $20 for one, maybe two portals, the rest just sit there doing nothing.
@@BrothaMan831I think it has to do with the difference in what the players were told that they were buying, and the product that they actually received. I think if the product was great, the tolerance for "micro" transactions would generally be higher. But because the product was inferior, people are salty about paying more money for extras.
@@S2pidMedia You are told exactly what they are, and how the animations look if you look at them in the add on section of the store. Including the animations etc. And you will clerarly see that you probably got better looking stuff in the battle pass.
Path of Exile (which gets no flak for it) costs $15-30USD per portal. I fully expect that's where they got the price average from (though it is free to play).
But they do monetize mechanics in Battlegrounds. You have to buy the premium pass each season to have access to 4 hero picks vs. 2, which is a significant impact on gameplay.
I used to love hearthstone back in the day. I tried to get back into the gwme recently and after I downloaded it I was assaulted with special offers, packages, store links, promotional, etc for like 5 minutes straight before I could even try to play the game. It was so infuriating I deleted the game again without even trying to play a match
Hearthstones actually a lot less pay to win than it used to be. With the guaranteed legendary within the first 10 packs of an expansion and then 40 after that, then you got the free tier on the tavern pass which offers some free packs each season. If you just play (and not even that consistently. Just enough to finish the pass) you should have some pretty good deck and enough gold to be able to afford the mini set when it releases and around about 20 packs for when the new season release.
@@tinyoctopus6317 before Ben brodd left you would have to spend thousands of you wanted to get a complete collection of cards. Now it's achievable by just playing the game. Ben Brode was just so funny and charismatic that people don't remember how much the game has improved since he left.
@@MrCevin22 The only content worth a penny in Hearthstone were the Solo Adventures. Heist and Tombs were peak imo. Nothing else in the shop was worth a cent, because nothing else in the shop was actual content.
@@madrox1989 They still make solo adventures. The difference now is they don't charge for them at all. The sunken city expansion and solo content released April 2022
fu Blizzard. fu. fu modern gaming. fu. to the actual creative people still in this industry, i applaud you for putting up with all you do, and continuing to be so damn dedicated. rest of the modern gaming business can f right off.
I am now beginning to suspect that the entire reason D4 has the MMO features of players in the world randomly showing up is to hive Whales an audiance to show off. The game has barebones social features, there is literally no benefit of having more players showing in game, hell they even had to limit inventory because they could not code the game properly for additionl players. So anyone playing D4 right now, unless they are a whale themselves, are just entertainment for the whales to show off stuff. They are giving you the shittiest game so that you can be exploited.
What irks me is that they fully run with it, really convincing people that 1000 crowns/platinum/gems, equals 10$, so people think getting these, means they're getting a discount/deal. People actually do the math in their heads when they see this! "1000 complimentary = 10$ discount! So I guess 60$ bundle is actually 50$ when you think about it!" No! It's not! That 10$ *doesn't exist!* I really hope people wake up to this shit. That if you weren't going to ever pay money for crowns/platinum/gems, then them "giving them to you for free (with this purchase)" means absolutely fuck all! If you really wanted something for 1000 crowns/platinum/gems, you would have bought it. Don't get tricked into forcing yourself to choose something you didn't want in the first place, "because it was such a good deal!"
Nevermind that most of the time that "free" premium currency won't be enough to purchase anything particularly impressive anyway. But hey look, if you just put in some more $$$ you could get that cool new cosmetic we just came out with, c'mon, you're already halfway there...
@@BlueItem1 Yeah that's the triple dip. What's crazy too is one of the first times I've seen this exact shit was on XBLA, Xbox 360, like 15 years ago, before DLC and MTX were "normalized." You either bought in 1000s, but everything was priced in multiples of 700, or the opposite. Such fucking gaaaaaaaarbage, man! XD
The monetisation slope doesn't even need to be slippery, because the game companies are _voluntarily _*_sprinting_*_ down it_ of their own accord. Sure, sometimes they try to take a shortcut by jumping off the slope altogether, to get to rock bottom faster, but that usually doesn't work out for them. In the short run.
@@Jeez001this was all in the works before Microsoft bought them. Was Diablo 4 good before Microsoft? Was over watch 2 good before Microsoft? Lol. They don’t just change overnight. Microsoft probably has no idea how to fix this nonsense.
All I can say about the OW update is that Widowmaker(and others, no doubt) can crit headshot when aiming between the health bar and player name(i.e not the head). So there's that.
Which apparently the stats are all positive about that change coz it’s fun But tbh it’s annoying to even dash and then get headshot even tho it ain’t on the head rather the side
We SERIOUSLY need to stop calling stuff from cash shops "micro transactions". If it costs more than $1 it is simply a transaction. There's nothing micro about a $20 skin...
The slippery slope argument is a fallacy in a vacuum. But in the games industry, the slippery slope is not a fallacy. It is practically an economic law. If they can start down a slope, they will ride that sled as far as they can take it.
"But nobody cares about cosmetics!" ....they say. Yep, that's why they keep selling cosmetics across so many games! A lot of people care about their character's looks. And in-game looks are intentionally unattractive, to bait people into buying cosmetics. It works so well, that the business is spreading and increasing.
I really don't like people criticizing the pricing of cosmetics that do not affect gameplay, it muddles the waters on actual game affecting micro people are expected to pay, unlike the cosmetics that are completely optional. Obviously there is nuance here, but in general, if we push back too much on pricing of cosmetics, the market grifters running publishers will find a different way to make that money, and that one won't be soo amicable. It is unreasonable to expect that those ghouls will stop milking people for their money because we tell them not to, they'll just find a worse way to do it. I'll take a game like CS:GO with an optional casino attached to it over mandatory overmonetization of a game like Destiny 2.
I myself bought the deluxe edition upgrade after I bought helldivers 2 initially. But so far I have gotten already over 1000 premium currency through the game and bought myself cosmetics with that. The amount of premium currency you get in the actual game is mind boggling. You get 150 for 2€ in the shop and the average I get per hour is around 50-60 if I am actually on the lookout for it. The highest I got in a single mission once was 80 and that mission took 30 minutes.
8:40 Mini Set is actually technically FREE as it can be purchased with 2000 of in-game gold (which is fairly easy to achieve by completing daily/weekly quests). IMO content creators make a big deal out of this..
I don't play PoE and don't intend to, just not my cup of tea. But I am looking forward to PoE2 to come out and completely crush D4's playerbase so these clowns in charge of both gameplay and monetization finally get off their lazy asses and improve the damn game.
yeah this bullshit is why i stopped playing Hearthstone years ago. Installed it the other day for a nostalgia-hit but after being met with 1,000 pop-ups upon opening, I chose to close the app and uninstall. Being smacked with "returning player bundles" and "limited time offers" and combos and sales and blahblahblahblahblah makes me sick. Fuck Blizzard to hell and back.
Being able to change the colour of your portals seems like the kind of feature that would be a nice part of a game... but they gotta charge $30 for it?
Stuff like this is why I closed my wallet to Blizzard a long time ago. If I want something from them, I just pirate it. Glad that I am not a part of the problem displayed here.
At this point why not just release a chat service, you have a 3D character and astore where you can buy clothes. People can login and show off their fancy clothes and talk to each other.
If I spend $30 for 5 portals that do the same damn thing and get $10 worth of a currency that can only be spent in Diablo 4, I'd say I still lost $30. Not to mention a few hundred brain cells minimum.
It’s not unethical. It’s whatever the market will bear. Personally they could charge $10k I wouldn’t care. Bought cosmetics are worthless. I also think blizzard missed the “value” here. Stick them in the game as rewards people can earn and you will get more players. But instead they have put money ahead of value. The actual cost irrelevant.
Problem is they have not made a good game in so long they think that's the best way to make money. They have no idea they would be destroying current profits if they just made a good game and sprinkled in some like cheap transactions. 5 million people buying a 2 dollar armor skin vs 100k whales buying a 30 dollar skin. Not to mention if the game is good at least a million people would buy multiple 2 dollar skins per individual for years to come. Don't kno why they cannot see it. It's a slow self inflicted death. Offer less and charge more to make up for lost customers until no customers remain or those that do are not enough to keep a billion dollar company going.
What a trash company. There's an endless amount of steam games that you can buy for 20-30 dollars, and they have the audacity to ask for some crappy portal graphics for that amount. F that company, with all due disrespect.
can you do a high level break down of the amount of work that would go into making cosmetics like this? I always think stuff like this is simple to do given my brief programming and development background but it would be interesting to hear form someone with experience
I'm glad I quit Hearthstone. I put it towards lego instead and now have a collection that doesn't expire and I can sell. Blizzard is one big con and I fell for it.
They forced everyone into a laggy shared world for the sole purpose of making people feel as though they need to buy cosmetics to show off to strangers they never wanted to interact with in the first place. Diablo 4 is bad, Blizzard is bad.
There are enough people who spend money that Blizzard doesn't care if a few people complain. And most the people who complain probably still spend the money! 😆
Still waiting for the day when a company's revenue projections go down after grossly monetizing their games. 20+ years now, and line still go up, so I just have to assume most gamers don't care. Every new generation of gamers is a new group who has no clue what games used to be like, and thinks monetization is normal and even "good"
Edit: hey, I'm just happy to see Fiat currency being used instead of dark pattern premium layers of currency. Card games are all pay to win... I don't understand how people are perfectly fine with it! As a kid it was a fun toy to fiddle with cuz I didn't understand how to actually play!
Look. If the game was actually good and the money would go towards development and one portal was like, I don't know 2 bucks or something, I would actually go and buy one or two cool looking ones. But the game isn't good, the money goes towards greedy corporate suits and the portals are 30 bucks in a bundle. So fuck no.
Oh I see it coming really soon. This is unsustainable and it's gonna be ugly. We're probably going to see a lot of companies either course correct or fail big time for one. A lot of these failed live service games will probably be shut down for good with no way of preservation whatsoever too. I also see that many of these companies will pivot to much smaller budget games (like how they used to do in the old days think AA level games) as the era of spending hundreds of millions on these games and not getting much of a ROI will have to end sometime soon as that's going to eventually sink these companies. As far as hardware goes, they're pushing all digital subscriptions on us and eventually it might get to the point where you might not even be able to buy nothing anymore and will forever have to pay a fee to access anything other than what live service games are around.
In defense of HS minisets, you can buy the normal one with ingame gold, and the golden one is just a skin. Agains't HS, a 70 dollars bundle when you are not buying cards but lootboxes (packs), is bullshit.
Does anyone remember the days before D4 was launching, and Blizz was calling D4 a premium game when discussing their monetization. Hmmmm... I guess premium game means upfront cost AND heavy monetization. Its forgivable in game like POE because that's expected with a F2P title. Games deserve to make money. Blizz wants a premium upfront cost with the monetization of a F2P title. I love ARPGs (I own Last Epoch and have played POE), I consider it a point of pride that I never bought D4.
So Blizzard`s rep is already down the drain (for a while) so they decide ``Ah lets screw our customers even more over with adding P2W and becoming literal cashgrabs. Real smar Blizz, you seem to amaze us every day, and every day is a new suprise in how they decide to add in more and more shitty content, bad player experiences, negative content or generally lack there of and so much more bad things for their games. They got literal gold in their hands with some of these franchises, but ofcourse if for the past 10 years you have only learned how to screw over your playerbase then ofcourse there is no remedy.
Not sure if anyone from blizzard notices this (or if they do, people like me are not enough) - I used to pay every HS expansion for the big bundle (I could afford it, still can), however I stoped paying because I was paying the price of a triple AA game every 3 months and I never managed to get a full set of cards before the next expansion, I was always a few epics short. I had no chance to get a full collection, getting the cosmetics was getting increasingly expensive, and then the company pushed even more payments (the progression battlepass, pay for battlegrounds, for that RPG game, it became way too much for what I was getting). I stoped paying and I am just fooling around with free stuff. I would have kept paying if the game gave me what the money was worth (a full game I can enjoy by playing, not by buying).
Will you people please stop talking about these companies like they still exist? Blizzard got sold and dissolved, most if not all of the senior management have already left, and those who still exist traded in their employee cards some time ago. MICROSOFT has been in charge for over the past six months. If MICROSOFT wanted to change any of the monetization MICROSOFT had ample opportunity to do so. MICROSOFT assumed all control and responsibility for all of their properties and MICROSOFT decided to keep the current monetizations. The only things that exist of Blizzard is some paperwork and a logo, MICROSOFT are the people in charge and therefore MICROSOFT is the only party that should be blamed. Blizzard is dead. Bobbie may have set up the monetization, but MICROSOFT decided that they liked how it was set up and DECIDED to keep using it.
The armor cores in Halo Infinite were originally a way to "slice and dice" cosmetics so that items would have a limited value. Now that item types are made to be compatible across all armor cores, these items have increased value and as a result, are being sold at an increased cost.
The only way to bring about any change for Blizzard games is to just stop playing them. Everyone who made old school Blizzard is gone, they're just going to keep increasing prices on all cosmetics infinitely.
No matter what anyone says about Blizzard being money grubbing scumbags, the bottom line is that they will stop only when people stop buying their crap. The only Blizz game I still play is WoW, and I have paid my sub with in game gold for 5+ years. I won't buy any games if I think it can't be fully enjoyed without in-game shop purchases, and that rules out everything else from Blizz for me, and the vast majority of other game offerings from large devs. Pretty much I play WoW until it gets boring, then look for the latest indy offering on steam. This strategy has led to the best gaming experiences of my life, and I don't miss any of the garbage titles I skip in the least. Consumers control what these big devs offer - it's silly to think they'll change anything as long as the cash keeps flowing in.
An "easy" solution to the legacy points vs comp point problem in OW2 would be the ability to convert the current comp points into legacy points but not the reserve. That way it will make people able to still grind for the gun skin they wanted in the next season without too much complaint, but also make make sure the people who wants the newest comp gun skin can grind for those. a win-win in my book
People are whining about portal microtransactions in Diablo 4? Have they not played Path of Exile? Portals run individually between 18 to 21USD. Funky Spell Effects? Between 12 to 15USD! And this is INDIVIDUALLY. You want new or the same effects for other spells? Buy them again. You want armour? Piecemeal will run you between 8-25 bucks PER PIECE, but if you buy the whole set, they're run 40 to 82USD. PER CHARACTER might I add. They have Characrer Effects, Finishers, stash tabs (A perennial favourite!) Pets and all sorts of other things. Now to be COMPLETELY fair to GGG, that is the ONLY way they monetize their game along with 'Supporter Packs', and they operate out of New Zealand where things cost more in general.
I would have bought Hearthstone cards if they wouldn't be so ridiculously expensive. I always had to choose between hearthstone cards and a new game. So, since they were always greedy, I never bought anything. It's their loss, not mine.
I paid 70 bucks. I played the server slam event and had fun, so I thought ok let this be the one game I buy full price that year. They didn't even give me the server slam reward, I met the req but support will gaslight you saying you didn't. No attempt to resolve anything. They just have 4 dudes rapidly pasting canned responses. I'm so annoyed with blizzard. Game is shit. Fuck this company, they don't just get to screw with people like this. Fuck battle passes.
I've watched alot of your videos, and I just have to ask. The background music you are using, Is it Mass Effect Galaxy Map? I keep getting the ME Itch...
In Hearthstone's defense, a golden card is actually intrinsically more valuable than a non-golden one - it's not just a cosmetic. If you disenchant your cards, a golden one yields 4x the amount of dust, which makes sense why golden bundles are priced at almost exactly 4x. I'm not saying this is a great system, but it certainly makes sense.
I said it would only get worse under Microsoft becaue they will be looking to recoup the money spent buying it and then some. They are billions in the deficit in the acquisition and will now want to make it back.
The “iTs JuST coSmeTiC” defense for videogames continually nickel and diming you doesn’t even make sense because if it’s really just cosmetic, why does the publisher feel the need to put price tags on that? Why do people agree these are somehow a fair transaction for videogames? It’s just mind numbing mantra from these assholes at this point who don’t wanna think about how they’re wasting money on bullshit.
I've spent a total of 20 bucks so far. 10 for the first battle pass, and 5 for the 2nd and 5 for the 3rd. I think it's a banger value for the new armor, weapons, and mount stuff.
As for the HS pre-order, all they need to do is make it so matchmaking only pairs pre-order owners with other pre-order owners (to remove any p2w issues).
Regarding 'everyone plays battlegrounds' comment about hearthstone - Reason for that is pretty simple: constructed got wrecked so much over the years by stupid ideas, catering to top players and power creep that they removed core gameplay style. Now it's either you play expensive combo or expensive rush, control which for many is the fun type does not exist. Style where you and your opponent make your moves and slowly solve puzzle after puzzle you both create for each other until one of you win - that has been completely removed beyond point where it can be restored. And battlegrounds scratches that itch. It's random in great way that still let's you solve the puzzle each round by creating warband and then pit you against someone who solved he's own puzzle. That's what card games are about. And hearthstone has forsaken it. So until they wreck everything down and start again they won't find solution.
It's funny, I love Diablo, but I won't buy Diablo 4 because of all the microtransactions. Yes I can just get it and play the game without spending extra money on cosmetics, but it's the principle of paying X amount of dollars on something and then having all the new fun stuff for a premium. It just feels so scummy so it makes me not even want to play the game.
I'm not strapped for cash.... I'm not anywhere near living "hand to mouth"... ...but the value proposition for anything (let alone something fleeting like a game) where the seller is intent of getting ALL of your money - is just a hard stop from the get-go. Which means - I left Blizzard after Diablo 2... and I have never felt like I made a bad choice. (I do kind of look down on people who still think Blizzard will ever release anything that doesn't end up being Diablo Immoral.
i still belive that comestics should be 5$ or lower due to they only make it once and adjust some color balance then you have 2 version of the same kind, is different if its stash expansion or even inventory expansion bag, its has game effects , this blizz prizes feels like they forcing it before the player count drops or they have like a goal to sell this much vs make the game good fun to play to get more players buy cheap multiple skins for each class , i guess they dont know how to make good games anymore or the upper management dont want good games
They're trying to make it so you pay for what used to be free-to-play style stuff while they nickel and dime you for everything else. You're being conditioned. You have paid for a free to play title.
Yo the portals aren't even interactive for other players. Loved Diablo 2 with my buddy and using each other's portals. Just make new ability animations Microsoft.
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sorry it turned this way... blizzard sucks now
There is a MTG set called Murder at Karlov Manor, on both MTG Arena and regular paper MTG. Funny how Blizzard is ripping their theme.
You think the Diablo Portals are expensive? I hope you never play Path of Exile, they sell them INDIVIIDUALLY and they don't give you any currency with it.
D4 is on sale in uk for £35.99
yet they wanna sell you a portal skin for £29.99 and a mount skin for £69.99
insanity...stay away from this scam company
Hi, in Canada, your calculations are way off chart. The game costs 90$ for the regular version and 140$ for the premium edition. The portals are still only 30$.
There’s nothing micro about these. They’re just transactions.
I read someone call it the age of MACROtransactions.
I think the 'micro-' is in reference to how little you get for your money now.
In less than 20 years, Blizzard went from the golden child of the industry, to being on the same level of EA.
Even EA has more morality than blizzard rn
I have been hearing this for about 6 years now, people still play their games and pay for microtransactions. Seems like it's working.....
@@verack1616
Past a certain level of scummy/immoral, it becomes hard to distinguish, and even harder to wanna bother making any such distinction... many triple-A publishers are *waaaay* past this threshold today.
@@anthonyblanton7074yup, if 20 year old Blizzard could have done this they would. Only took them 5 years to start.
EA make decent games like DS remake and Jedi series recently though. Games that don't sell you colour palette for 30$
I know this isn't really a fair comparison, but the Expedition just dropped as I'm watching this.
No Man's Sky: You want to get around in style? You want a new, unique starship? Here, play a few hours of fun Expedition content and you'll get that and a bunch of other stuff. On all of your characters? Sure, account wide. For free.
Diablo: You want to get around in style? You want a magic door? In BLUE?? Cough up $30 bucks please. Oh, you wanna use it on a different class? COUGH UP ANOTHER $30 PLEASE.
At a certain point, monetization like the portals 29.99 starts to mean that the players that aren't whales or aren't spending beyond their means - the players who just play the game and might spend something here or there - become glorified NPC's. Since they are devalued so heavily, they only exist to be set-dressing for the players the developers are actually making content for. They are making the big seasonal updates to keep the tertiary players there so that the 'spenders' continue to see the value of paying 30 dollars for what is essentially nothing, because if there is no one around to see that their portal is now green instead of blue, then what's the point? I'm definitely not saying that the on-the-ground developers think this way, and I'm not really even saying that the people in the positions to make these decisions are thinking that way (at least not conciously). I'm saying that its just the fundamental truth beneath all of the noise.
It should be mentioned that the Green Portal is for Necromancer Class only 🦄
Thank goddess someone else said it - these overly aggressive and manipulative systems are not aimed at the average player. They are aimed at the whales and players with more money than sense. There will come a time where corporations drop us completely; they'll stop releasing anything for average players and start exclusively catering to the upper class.
i can understand microtransactions in free to play games because they have to make money for upkeep , wages , creating more added content . what isnt right is paying $15 a month plus being loaded with microtransactions. when a person pays to play, all content (transmogs, mounts , pets )should be earned through gameplay . paying subscribers shouldnt have to pay for the extras.
Ahhh yes infinite Microtransactions as far as the eye can see.
Gotta love Modern Gaming , looking bright for 2024 and onward!
(not)
(except for indie devs, indie devs rocking recently)
I'd say you didn't need to add the "(not)", but some people today neither speak nor understand sarcasmian.
There are good games, they're just being made by smaller developers.
at this point they arent even micro, these are just full transactions 😂
@@SirFenV raw dawg, unhinged, unhooked, full on transactions lmao
Actually, yes, very much so. Indies have just been getting better and brighter. Sure 2023 was a tad weaker than 2022 but there is always gonna be fluctuations in gaming releases.
What annoys me about modern gaming is that AAA studios' only takeaway from the Enshroudeds, Helldivers 2s, and Palworlds is that the AA studio was dumb for losing all that money from not charging $70 and then have 3 $40 DLC packs on day 1. They don't even register that games like those sold extremely well because were they were first and foremost FUN, and also did NOT contain MTs up the ass, AND were reasonably priced.
Did you know that by today’s inflation games should be 120$+. Did you know that when mario64 released it was 70$? In fact you’re getting so much more value for almost any AAA game today than in the past. D4 is almost 1000x the amount of content for the same price as any NES, SNES, Sega genesis, N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox, GameCube game ever. So what are you complain about exactly?
AAA industry games feel more and more like they only tolerate the players presence under the assumption they can constantly get more money from them. Its not about entertaining a audience who paid their entry fee anymore, and its why, even if you don't touch the microtransaction, it all just makes the entire experience more unpleasant.
@@BrothaMan831Even if games costs $120, they’ll still be riddled with this MTX nonsense, is the issue.
@@TomoEriGotobut what exactly is wrong with MTX? Do they prevent you from playing the game? Do they lock access to the game? Do they prevent completion if you don’t buy them?
@@BrothaMan831 In the more extreme cases, yes
but they have made it so the answer to those questions is technically "no" and by "no" I mean "You have to grind/wait/play a looot more than someone that paid"
I’m one of those “why would you pay for things in an online game when you can’t own them@ people, so the explanation of legacy currency at the end just sounded so out of touch from actual gaming that I started laughing. This isn’t on you, it’s mostly “if explaining your currency takes longer than explaining the point of your game, you haven’t made a game, you’ve made a fake economy that happens to have a game stapled to it”.
Until this mentality is gone I will never give Blizzard another dollar. Thankfully we have companies like Larian
The biggest problem with the new Overwatch 2 competitive currency is that it exists at all. It exists entirely to generate FOMO since you have to spend the currency before the end of the season or it gets converted to the old currency.
How people let themselves be exploited by these obvious scummy tactics, I'll never understand. Having money to spend shouldn't be an excuse to be braindead and easily exploited. People should really value themselves more.
**The end of the year**
You don't have to earn 3k/season to get jade. Not having a way to earn gold weapon currency directly is idiotic, and the jade doesn't look like jade at all, but FoMO isn't much of an issue.
I have gotten sick and tired of all the monetization to the point where I practically have abandoned most of the AAA scene, It feels like a jump into a shop with a desperate salesman instead of a game, I booted up hearthstone a while ago only to be stuck in popup hell for like 10 min without being able to play the game, I just wanted to try a few rounds of battlegrounds, but no the developers just want to beg me to stay in the game with all incentives and then begs me to buy all kind of crap, I am having way more fun with palworld or enshrouded than I have had with any AAA for years, unless you count elden ring as AAA. The quality just isn't there, the majority of the AAA gaming scene has turned into a low budget, unpassionated, fast build up college project with a giant visual studio and marketing department, they make a few cool cutscenes and cool cosmetics in hope to sell them, but the game itself is just so bland and empty. I just want to play some cool games, I am not a money cow to be milked, seriously, respect that my wallet is my own instead of trying to sell me half-arsed, half-finished games where all the effort was put in into the cash shop.
Blizzard thinks a palette swap is worth more than RDR2 on steam sale
They will do it as long they get a return. The only reason for them to stop the current monetization model is enough people stop buying their product - consumers need to change, not the company.
"But all my friends are playing it and I don't want to feel left out!"
Or voters get together and push hardcore regulations.
The secret option.
@@haruhirogrimgar6047yeah I’m sure the solution to your video game company making bad artistic and business decisions is to recreate the Bolshevik revolution.
Reddit brain
yeah. always ask the poor masses to solve your problems. the rich and powerful don't have any responsibility for anything. i mean after all, they can't help themselves can they? its not like they have any reason to be smarter than anyone else
"But people could lose their jobs if I don't dish out 100s of dollars on skins! Hey... got any more of them skins?"
With several sexual misconduct scandals, known history of abusing emploees both proven by federal investigation, every single IP getting mishandled, and horribley greedy monetisation, how are people sticking trough with this company?
Blizzard is also charging $65 for a mount in D4.
... it's a really shiny mount! And it comes with a lot of proprietary currency too, so you can also buy a couple matching class-locked skins!
Ridiculous, I know. The sad thing is people buy them. I've seen quite a few crystalline horses and skins running around. So much for "nobody cares about cosmetics".
65 bucks in real life can get you so many things. At least 3 good meals
Yeah, whoever buys that digital garbage is a fool
The portal bundle is even worse than you think since they are CLASS LOCKED and most players only play one or two classes, thus it really is $20 for one, maybe two portals, the rest just sit there doing nothing.
But what’s the issue? Nobody had to buy them. You can still play the game in its entirety without ever looking at them so why do you give a fuck?
@@BrothaMan831I think it has to do with the difference in what the players were told that they were buying, and the product that they actually received.
I think if the product was great, the tolerance for "micro" transactions would generally be higher. But because the product was inferior, people are salty about paying more money for extras.
@@S2pidMedia You are told exactly what they are, and how the animations look if you look at them in the add on section of the store. Including the animations etc. And you will clerarly see that you probably got better looking stuff in the battle pass.
Path of Exile (which gets no flak for it) costs $15-30USD per portal.
I fully expect that's where they got the price average from (though it is free to play).
@@S2pidMedia but you don’t have to pay money for the extras, it’s just that, extra.
But they do monetize mechanics in Battlegrounds. You have to buy the premium pass each season to have access to 4 hero picks vs. 2, which is a significant impact on gameplay.
holy shit bro the portal thing is even worse because you cant even use all of the portals on every class THEY ARE CLASS LOCKED!!!! HOLY ACTUAL FUCK
I used to love hearthstone back in the day. I tried to get back into the gwme recently and after I downloaded it I was assaulted with special offers, packages, store links, promotional, etc for like 5 minutes straight before I could even try to play the game. It was so infuriating I deleted the game again without even trying to play a match
Hearthstones actually a lot less pay to win than it used to be. With the guaranteed legendary within the first 10 packs of an expansion and then 40 after that, then you got the free tier on the tavern pass which offers some free packs each season. If you just play (and not even that consistently. Just enough to finish the pass) you should have some pretty good deck and enough gold to be able to afford the mini set when it releases and around about 20 packs for when the new season release.
After Ben Brode left, Hearthstone started taking a nosedive. Same thing with Overwatch and Kaplan.
@@tinyoctopus6317 before Ben brodd left you would have to spend thousands of you wanted to get a complete collection of cards. Now it's achievable by just playing the game. Ben Brode was just so funny and charismatic that people don't remember how much the game has improved since he left.
@@MrCevin22 The only content worth a penny in Hearthstone were the Solo Adventures. Heist and Tombs were peak imo. Nothing else in the shop was worth a cent, because nothing else in the shop was actual content.
@@madrox1989 They still make solo adventures. The difference now is they don't charge for them at all. The sunken city expansion and solo content released April 2022
fu Blizzard. fu. fu modern gaming. fu. to the actual creative people still in this industry, i applaud you for putting up with all you do, and continuing to be so damn dedicated. rest of the modern gaming business can f right off.
Huge FU to people that keep buying this stuff
I am now beginning to suspect that the entire reason D4 has the MMO features of players in the world randomly showing up is to hive Whales an audiance to show off. The game has barebones social features, there is literally no benefit of having more players showing in game, hell they even had to limit inventory because they could not code the game properly for additionl players.
So anyone playing D4 right now, unless they are a whale themselves, are just entertainment for the whales to show off stuff. They are giving you the shittiest game so that you can be exploited.
What irks me is that they fully run with it, really convincing people that 1000 crowns/platinum/gems, equals 10$, so people think getting these, means they're getting a discount/deal. People actually do the math in their heads when they see this! "1000 complimentary = 10$ discount! So I guess 60$ bundle is actually 50$ when you think about it!" No! It's not! That 10$ *doesn't exist!*
I really hope people wake up to this shit. That if you weren't going to ever pay money for crowns/platinum/gems, then them "giving them to you for free (with this purchase)" means absolutely fuck all! If you really wanted something for 1000 crowns/platinum/gems, you would have bought it. Don't get tricked into forcing yourself to choose something you didn't want in the first place, "because it was such a good deal!"
Your comment has 800% the value of a normal comment!
Take my Money!
Nevermind that most of the time that "free" premium currency won't be enough to purchase anything particularly impressive anyway. But hey look, if you just put in some more $$$ you could get that cool new cosmetic we just came out with, c'mon, you're already halfway there...
@@BlueItem1 Yeah that's the triple dip. What's crazy too is one of the first times I've seen this exact shit was on XBLA, Xbox 360, like 15 years ago, before DLC and MTX were "normalized." You either bought in 1000s, but everything was priced in multiples of 700, or the opposite. Such fucking gaaaaaaaarbage, man! XD
$30 FOR BLUE!!!?!?! ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR MINDS!?!?!?!
It has lightning sparks!
The monetisation slope doesn't even need to be slippery, because the game companies are _voluntarily _*_sprinting_*_ down it_ of their own accord. Sure, sometimes they try to take a shortcut by jumping off the slope altogether, to get to rock bottom faster, but that usually doesn't work out for them. In the short run.
Now if only they can make a good game...
Three words… Blizzard is Greedy
You mean Microsoft is Greedy
@@Jeez001this was all in the works before Microsoft bought them. Was Diablo 4 good before Microsoft? Was over watch 2 good before Microsoft? Lol. They don’t just change overnight. Microsoft probably has no idea how to fix this nonsense.
@@KironX1 Fire the president! Oh wait, they just did that.
There's no fixing Blizzard. Goblins be goblins, running off with our treasure. :C
All I can say about the OW update is that Widowmaker(and others, no doubt) can crit headshot when aiming between the health bar and player name(i.e not the head). So there's that.
Which apparently the stats are all positive about that change coz it’s fun
But tbh it’s annoying to even dash and then get headshot even tho it ain’t on the head rather the side
@@nex5691 Still kinda mixed about it...Playing support doesn't feel that good rn, unless you're just playing them as a DPS.
We SERIOUSLY need to stop calling stuff from cash shops "micro transactions". If it costs more than $1 it is simply a transaction. There's nothing micro about a $20 skin...
The slippery slope argument is a fallacy in a vacuum. But in the games industry, the slippery slope is not a fallacy. It is practically an economic law. If they can start down a slope, they will ride that sled as far as they can take it.
And remember, you don't have to buy a turd just because it's shiny, since a shiny turd is still a turd.
Shiny is still shiny. I will always catch a shiny lamball even if I'll never use them
True, got suckered in to buy diablo 4 at launch. Worst purchase decision.
@@oopomopooyou may be a goblin.
"But nobody cares about cosmetics!" ....they say. Yep, that's why they keep selling cosmetics across so many games!
A lot of people care about their character's looks. And in-game looks are intentionally unattractive, to bait people into buying cosmetics. It works so well, that the business is spreading and increasing.
I really don't like people criticizing the pricing of cosmetics that do not affect gameplay, it muddles the waters on actual game affecting micro people are expected to pay, unlike the cosmetics that are completely optional.
Obviously there is nuance here, but in general, if we push back too much on pricing of cosmetics, the market grifters running publishers will find a different way to make that money, and that one won't be soo amicable.
It is unreasonable to expect that those ghouls will stop milking people for their money because we tell them not to, they'll just find a worse way to do it.
I'll take a game like CS:GO with an optional casino attached to it over mandatory overmonetization of a game like Destiny 2.
I long for the days when we could unlock things from doing challenging things in games instead of just pulling out our wallets.
I myself bought the deluxe edition upgrade after I bought helldivers 2 initially. But so far I have gotten already over 1000 premium currency through the game and bought myself cosmetics with that. The amount of premium currency you get in the actual game is mind boggling. You get 150 for 2€ in the shop and the average I get per hour is around 50-60 if I am actually on the lookout for it. The highest I got in a single mission once was 80 and that mission took 30 minutes.
8:40 Mini Set is actually technically FREE as it can be purchased with 2000 of in-game gold (which is fairly easy to achieve by completing daily/weekly quests). IMO content creators make a big deal out of this..
5:44 Change "Evil" for "Blizzard". That's what we need.
That's certainly a whole lot of microtransactions... I'll continue happily ignoring most modern AAA stuff.
I don't play PoE and don't intend to, just not my cup of tea. But I am looking forward to PoE2 to come out and completely crush D4's playerbase so these clowns in charge of both gameplay and monetization finally get off their lazy asses and improve the damn game.
yeah this bullshit is why i stopped playing Hearthstone years ago.
Installed it the other day for a nostalgia-hit but after being met with 1,000 pop-ups upon opening, I chose to close the app and uninstall.
Being smacked with "returning player bundles" and "limited time offers" and combos and sales and blahblahblahblahblah makes me sick. Fuck Blizzard to hell and back.
Being able to change the colour of your portals seems like the kind of feature that would be a nice part of a game... but they gotta charge $30 for it?
Stuff like this is why I closed my wallet to Blizzard a long time ago. If I want something from them, I just pirate it. Glad that I am not a part of the problem displayed here.
At this point why not just release a chat service, you have a 3D character and astore where you can buy clothes.
People can login and show off their fancy clothes and talk to each other.
Thats already done and its called 'Second Life' Its been out for 20 years~ ^^
Metaverse....
If I spend $30 for 5 portals that do the same damn thing and get $10 worth of a currency that can only be spent in Diablo 4, I'd say I still lost $30. Not to mention a few hundred brain cells minimum.
lol we spend money on somethign usefull like Duriel mats
It’s not unethical. It’s whatever the market will bear. Personally they could charge $10k I wouldn’t care. Bought cosmetics are worthless. I also think blizzard missed the “value” here. Stick them in the game as rewards people can earn and you will get more players. But instead they have put money ahead of value. The actual cost irrelevant.
Problem is they have not made a good game in so long they think that's the best way to make money. They have no idea they would be destroying current profits if they just made a good game and sprinkled in some like cheap transactions. 5 million people buying a 2 dollar armor skin vs 100k whales buying a 30 dollar skin. Not to mention if the game is good at least a million people would buy multiple 2 dollar skins per individual for years to come. Don't kno why they cannot see it. It's a slow self inflicted death. Offer less and charge more to make up for lost customers until no customers remain or those that do are not enough to keep a billion dollar company going.
Blizzard is a great example of the Theseus ship paradox
What a trash company. There's an endless amount of steam games that you can buy for 20-30 dollars, and they have the audacity to ask for some crappy portal graphics for that amount. F that company, with all due disrespect.
When we're talking about micro-transactions that cost real money for portal skins, nothing is "just a thing in a video game" anymore
can you do a high level break down of the amount of work that would go into making cosmetics like this? I always think stuff like this is simple to do given my brief programming and development background but it would be interesting to hear form someone with experience
I'm glad I quit Hearthstone. I put it towards lego instead and now have a collection that doesn't expire and I can sell. Blizzard is one big con and I fell for it.
They forced everyone into a laggy shared world for the sole purpose of making people feel as though they need to buy cosmetics to show off to strangers they never wanted to interact with in the first place. Diablo 4 is bad, Blizzard is bad.
There are enough people who spend money that Blizzard doesn't care if a few people complain. And most the people who complain probably still spend the money! 😆
Blizzard players became the batteries powering the matrix.
Still waiting for the day when a company's revenue projections go down after grossly monetizing their games. 20+ years now, and line still go up, so I just have to assume most gamers don't care. Every new generation of gamers is a new group who has no clue what games used to be like, and thinks monetization is normal and even "good"
Edit: hey, I'm just happy to see Fiat currency being used instead of dark pattern premium layers of currency.
Card games are all pay to win... I don't understand how people are perfectly fine with it! As a kid it was a fun toy to fiddle with cuz I didn't understand how to actually play!
Look. If the game was actually good and the money would go towards development and one portal was like, I don't know 2 bucks or something, I would actually go and buy one or two cool looking ones. But the game isn't good, the money goes towards greedy corporate suits and the portals are 30 bucks in a bundle. So fuck no.
Another two years they'll be a gaming crash, and it'll be because of AAA greed and scumbaggery.
Oh I see it coming really soon. This is unsustainable and it's gonna be ugly. We're probably going to see a lot of companies either course correct or fail big time for one. A lot of these failed live service games will probably be shut down for good with no way of preservation whatsoever too. I also see that many of these companies will pivot to much smaller budget games (like how they used to do in the old days think AA level games) as the era of spending hundreds of millions on these games and not getting much of a ROI will have to end sometime soon as that's going to eventually sink these companies. As far as hardware goes, they're pushing all digital subscriptions on us and eventually it might get to the point where you might not even be able to buy nothing anymore and will forever have to pay a fee to access anything other than what live service games are around.
See you I.n two years when the most profitable media company’s are still taking in billions and you just pretend you never said anything.
@@SpottedHares is defending billionaire's and their scumbaggery profitable for you?
I sure hope so!
In defense of HS minisets, you can buy the normal one with ingame gold, and the golden one is just a skin.
Agains't HS, a 70 dollars bundle when you are not buying cards but lootboxes (packs), is bullshit.
Does anyone remember the days before D4 was launching, and Blizz was calling D4 a premium game when discussing their monetization. Hmmmm... I guess premium game means upfront cost AND heavy monetization.
Its forgivable in game like POE because that's expected with a F2P title. Games deserve to make money.
Blizz wants a premium upfront cost with the monetization of a F2P title.
I love ARPGs (I own Last Epoch and have played POE), I consider it a point of pride that I never bought D4.
Try Grim Dawn, too!
People complaining about a battlepass you can grind for free in Helldivers 2 need to look at this. The term p2w has become way too diluted recently.
Instead of throwing this into a microtransaction pit of doom, here, have some of my hard earned currency for the job well done!
So Blizzard`s rep is already down the drain (for a while) so they decide ``Ah lets screw our customers even more over with adding P2W and becoming literal cashgrabs.
Real smar Blizz, you seem to amaze us every day, and every day is a new suprise in how they decide to add in more and more shitty content, bad player experiences, negative content or generally lack there of and so much more bad things for their games.
They got literal gold in their hands with some of these franchises, but ofcourse if for the past 10 years you have only learned how to screw over your playerbase then ofcourse there is no remedy.
Not sure if anyone from blizzard notices this (or if they do, people like me are not enough) - I used to pay every HS expansion for the big bundle (I could afford it, still can), however I stoped paying because I was paying the price of a triple AA game every 3 months and I never managed to get a full set of cards before the next expansion, I was always a few epics short. I had no chance to get a full collection, getting the cosmetics was getting increasingly expensive, and then the company pushed even more payments (the progression battlepass, pay for battlegrounds, for that RPG game, it became way too much for what I was getting). I stoped paying and I am just fooling around with free stuff. I would have kept paying if the game gave me what the money was worth (a full game I can enjoy by playing, not by buying).
Will you people please stop talking about these companies like they still exist? Blizzard got sold and dissolved, most if not all of the senior management have already left, and those who still exist traded in their employee cards some time ago. MICROSOFT has been in charge for over the past six months. If MICROSOFT wanted to change any of the monetization MICROSOFT had ample opportunity to do so. MICROSOFT assumed all control and responsibility for all of their properties and MICROSOFT decided to keep the current monetizations. The only things that exist of Blizzard is some paperwork and a logo, MICROSOFT are the people in charge and therefore MICROSOFT is the only party that should be blamed. Blizzard is dead. Bobbie may have set up the monetization, but MICROSOFT decided that they liked how it was set up and DECIDED to keep using it.
The armor cores in Halo Infinite were originally a way to "slice and dice" cosmetics so that items would have a limited value. Now that item types are made to be compatible across all armor cores, these items have increased value and as a result, are being sold at an increased cost.
The only way to bring about any change for Blizzard games is to just stop playing them. Everyone who made old school Blizzard is gone, they're just going to keep increasing prices on all cosmetics infinitely.
No matter what anyone says about Blizzard being money grubbing scumbags, the bottom line is that they will stop only when people stop buying their crap. The only Blizz game I still play is WoW, and I have paid my sub with in game gold for 5+ years. I won't buy any games if I think it can't be fully enjoyed without in-game shop purchases, and that rules out everything else from Blizz for me, and the vast majority of other game offerings from large devs. Pretty much I play WoW until it gets boring, then look for the latest indy offering on steam. This strategy has led to the best gaming experiences of my life, and I don't miss any of the garbage titles I skip in the least. Consumers control what these big devs offer - it's silly to think they'll change anything as long as the cash keeps flowing in.
Gold earned via play? Didn't know that was an option. But I've been done with Blizzard since cata
people stop buying their crap? never
An "easy" solution to the legacy points vs comp point problem in OW2 would be the ability to convert the current comp points into legacy points but not the reserve. That way it will make people able to still grind for the gun skin they wanted in the next season without too much complaint, but also make make sure the people who wants the newest comp gun skin can grind for those. a win-win in my book
People are whining about portal microtransactions in Diablo 4? Have they not played Path of Exile? Portals run individually between 18 to 21USD. Funky Spell Effects? Between 12 to 15USD! And this is INDIVIDUALLY. You want new or the same effects for other spells? Buy them again. You want armour? Piecemeal will run you between 8-25 bucks PER PIECE, but if you buy the whole set, they're run 40 to 82USD. PER CHARACTER might I add. They have Characrer Effects, Finishers, stash tabs (A perennial favourite!) Pets and all sorts of other things. Now to be COMPLETELY fair to GGG, that is the ONLY way they monetize their game along with 'Supporter Packs', and they operate out of New Zealand where things cost more in general.
Thanks for info on POE's "mxts".Can't afford that, sadly.
I have been seeing a ton of videos about Blizzard’s mtx pricing, but why is nobody talking about the insane prices of Valorant’s weapon skins?
Why must it be Valorant specifically and not MTX in general?
Blizzard has been out of touch for a long time, with Microsoft owning them we already knew where it was going end up.
The tombstones are already in in class specific bundles. You get them along with an emote with most of the class specific back pieces.
People seem to think Blizzard still exist just call them activision at this point
I would have bought Hearthstone cards if they wouldn't be so ridiculously expensive. I always had to choose between hearthstone cards and a new game. So, since they were always greedy, I never bought anything. It's their loss, not mine.
Wait, wait, wait... 16:28 don't tell me just because companies can invent currencies it's legal for them to do currency depreciation....
Nothing beats a 65 dollar horse bro thats insane fk live service games
I paid 70 bucks. I played the server slam event and had fun, so I thought ok let this be the one game I buy full price that year. They didn't even give me the server slam reward, I met the req but support will gaslight you saying you didn't. No attempt to resolve anything. They just have 4 dudes rapidly pasting canned responses. I'm so annoyed with blizzard. Game is shit. Fuck this company, they don't just get to screw with people like this. Fuck battle passes.
Awesome up-to-date content!
I've watched alot of your videos, and I just have to ask. The background music you are using, Is it Mass Effect Galaxy Map? I keep getting the ME Itch...
In Hearthstone's defense, a golden card is actually intrinsically more valuable than a non-golden one - it's not just a cosmetic. If you disenchant your cards, a golden one yields 4x the amount of dust, which makes sense why golden bundles are priced at almost exactly 4x. I'm not saying this is a great system, but it certainly makes sense.
I said it would only get worse under Microsoft becaue they will be looking to recoup the money spent buying it and then some. They are billions in the deficit in the acquisition and will now want to make it back.
This nickel and diming effect has left me utterly jaded over the past decade. If I get even a whiff of it, I hard turn and find something else.
its nice to see people who dismiss cosmetic concerns having a "they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me" moment.
Microsoft was supposed to fix them. 🙄 I was laughing at the cope then, I'm sort of heartbroken for them now.
The “iTs JuST coSmeTiC” defense for videogames continually nickel and diming you doesn’t even make sense because if it’s really just cosmetic, why does the publisher feel the need to put price tags on that? Why do people agree these are somehow a fair transaction for videogames? It’s just mind numbing mantra from these assholes at this point who don’t wanna think about how they’re wasting money on bullshit.
I've spent a total of 20 bucks so far. 10 for the first battle pass, and 5 for the 2nd and 5 for the 3rd. I think it's a banger value for the new armor, weapons, and mount stuff.
As for the HS pre-order, all they need to do is make it so matchmaking only pairs pre-order owners with other pre-order owners (to remove any p2w issues).
Regarding 'everyone plays battlegrounds' comment about hearthstone - Reason for that is pretty simple: constructed got wrecked so much over the years by stupid ideas, catering to top players and power creep that they removed core gameplay style. Now it's either you play expensive combo or expensive rush, control which for many is the fun type does not exist. Style where you and your opponent make your moves and slowly solve puzzle after puzzle you both create for each other until one of you win - that has been completely removed beyond point where it can be restored. And battlegrounds scratches that itch. It's random in great way that still let's you solve the puzzle each round by creating warband and then pit you against someone who solved he's own puzzle. That's what card games are about. And hearthstone has forsaken it. So until they wreck everything down and start again they won't find solution.
It's funny, I love Diablo, but I won't buy Diablo 4 because of all the microtransactions. Yes I can just get it and play the game without spending extra money on cosmetics, but it's the principle of paying X amount of dollars on something and then having all the new fun stuff for a premium. It just feels so scummy so it makes me not even want to play the game.
I'm not strapped for cash.... I'm not anywhere near living "hand to mouth"...
...but the value proposition for anything (let alone something fleeting like a game) where the seller is intent of getting ALL of your money - is just a hard stop from the get-go. Which means - I left Blizzard after Diablo 2... and I have never felt like I made a bad choice. (I do kind of look down on people who still think Blizzard will ever release anything that doesn't end up being Diablo Immoral.
i still belive that comestics should be 5$ or lower due to they only make it once and adjust some color balance then you have 2 version of the same kind, is different if its stash expansion or even inventory expansion bag, its has game effects , this blizz prizes feels like they forcing it before the player count drops or they have like a goal to sell this much vs make the game good fun to play to get more players buy cheap multiple skins for each class , i guess they dont know how to make good games anymore or the upper management dont want good games
They're trying to make it so you pay for what used to be free-to-play style stuff while they nickel and dime you for everything else. You're being conditioned. You have paid for a free to play title.
The dumpster fire has now expanded to become the entire landfill.
All this money and they still can't be bothered to go back and fix Warcraft 3 Reforged
I feel vindicated, having called that D4 is just going to be DImmortal 2.0
I would respect Blizzard more if they simply begged players for money instead.
I can't believe anybody still plays Blizzard games.
Concerning Hearthstone, I don't see how you can call a game P2W if nobody plays it anymore.
PoE (Path of Exile) portals cost as much but they look so much better than *that*...
Yo the portals aren't even interactive for other players. Loved Diablo 2 with my buddy and using each other's portals. Just make new ability animations Microsoft.