What you need to know
- As Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched on PC Thursday evening, a previously hidden suite of microtransactions became available for purchase.
- Things you can buy for the single player ARPG include fast travel points, Rift Crystals for hiring Pawns and buying special items, appearance change and revival consumables, a special camping kit that weighs less than normal ones, and a few others.
- In response to the microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is being review bombed, 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 through Steam, with the game slated to go live on Xbox and PlayStation consoles in just a few hours. What was supposed to be an exciting and celebratory launch of a sequel that fans have been waiting for for over a decade, though, has been marred by controversy.
When the game became available, a previously hidden suite of microtransaction purchases did as well. These include everything from the Rift Crystals used to hire other players’ Pawns to Art of Metamorphosis tomes required for changing your character’s appearance, along with Wakestone revival items, Portcrystal fast travel points, one-use keys to escape prison cells, incenses for editing a Pawn’s inclination (the inclination your Pawn gets is randomized, by the way), monster lures, and even special camping equipment that weighs less than normal gear. They’re all visible on Dragon’s Dogma 2’s DLC page.
The price of these microtransactions ranges from $1-5, and while some appear to only be purchasable in limited quantities, it looks like others can be bought infinitely. And when you consider that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a $70 single player RPG, it’s not surprising that players are…not happy, to put it lightly. On Steam, it’s already plummeted down 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 a whole page dedicated to it’s Micro Transactions in the store,” wrote player Superius. “How do you even have the nerve to put any kind of micro transactions in an already fully priced SINGLE PLAYER game. It’s so wild to me.” Ezz makes the same point, rather succinctly: “Great game held down by scummy microtransactions.”
Indeed. Much of the Windows Central team (yours truly included) 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 on that; we weren’t made aware of 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 a handful 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 I published my review, they were detailed in the review guide. Typically when I review games, I avoid reading the review guide, because I want to go in with a blank slate as if I was playing purely as someone who had just purchased 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 influence my opinion of a game, and as such, I’ve typically avoided them. In this case, the review guide in the initial email did include descriptions of these microtransactions, which I hadn’t shared with the team.
Of the lot, 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 — Portcrystals are extremely rare to find in gameplay — while the latter’s random nature…
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