Selling their souls, one step at a time.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Ah, microtransactions. What a horribly oily staple of the video game industry. And yet,
00:07as much as the practice of nickel and diming players who have just shelled out full price
00:11for your title is a stinky one, it's unfortunately a trope that is very unlikely to leave the
00:15conversation anytime soon. After all, with every big publisher under the sun trying to
00:19sell you skins and buffs that in bygone days would have just been unlocked as a reward
00:23for your perseverance, why wouldn't you too just jump on the bandwagon? It's certainly
00:27not the right thing, but it's apparently the done thing. Thanks to greed and avarice,
00:32the games that we're looking at today failed at hoovering up change from their fanbases
00:36and instead made consumers speak with their wallets and peace out entirely. So let's take
00:40a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 8 Video Games Ruined By Microtransactions.
00:458. Chocobo GP
00:48Long story short, I am old enough to have had a copy of Chocobo GP for the PlayStation
00:531 and remember having a great time just sliding around as everyone's favourite Final Fantasy
00:57transport of choice. However, when it came to the recently released Chocobo GP on the
01:01Switch, damn did the devs throw me and the rest of the fanbase under the bus as this
01:05is quite possibly the smelliest example of FOMO-based microtransactions that I've witnessed
01:10in a while. This is all down to the fact that classic FF mainstays like Cloud and Squall
01:15can be unlocked in this game, but only through buying this game's version of a battle pass
01:19and completing all of the activities in an allotted time before the characters go away
01:23forever. So the pressure is then placed squarely on the player to grind this game for all it's
01:29worth to get the premium currency needed for the unlocks. However, the game also just so
01:34happens to offer the option to buy some in-game currency to cut out the grind required, as
01:39after all, wouldn't it be a shame if you didn't have every waking hour of the day
01:42to play this game in order to get these well-known characters? Sure would be far easier to buy
01:47them outright, huh? And you know what the worst thing about all of this is? Is that
01:51these microtransactions weren't actually included in the review copies that were sent
01:55out to outlets, and only added in on day one, meaning that people had no idea that this
02:00was going to be as riddled as it was. Boo. Square Enix, stop. Your greed is definitely
02:05showing here, and it's knocking over bloody tables.
02:087. Modern Warfare Remastered
02:10To say that the world over was considerably hyped about the announcement of a Modern Warfare
02:15Remaster would be a massive understatement, as forums were sent into meltdown over the
02:19chance to play one of the highest rated COD games ever with a brand new coat of paint
02:24and a slew of new improvements. And for a while, this seemed to be the perfect remaster,
02:29one handled with true love and care by the devs, until the cracks started to show. First
02:35came the insulting slap in the face that this remaster would only be bundled with Infinite
02:39Warfare Special Editions, effectively ransoming your nostalgia through the lens of FOMO.
02:44And then came the microtransactions, which, lest we not forget, were added in after reviews
02:49came out, so the public was sold 10 out of 10 reviews for a product that most definitely
02:53would have been reviewed lower, had these been in at the start. Plus, on top of this,
02:57the remaster didn't come with all of the maps that the original had, and were then
03:00sold to players as separate packs down the line, meaning that we had a rather curious
03:05case of a remaster that was a pre-order bonus until it wasn't, free of microtransactions
03:09until it wasn't, with its own DLC version of the original's DLC.
03:14Confused? So was this game, which, aside from all of this grubbiness, is still stonkingly
03:19good when it came to its revitalised single player, but the rest of it? Boo.
03:226. Evolve
03:24Oh, Evolve, what could have been, eh? Seriously, when I played this title at a closed-door
03:29event ahead of its release, I had an absolute blast, and you know what? Why wouldn't I?
03:34The combat was tight, the asymmetrical multiplayer was a refreshing idea, and of course, I was
03:38playing as the monster, so I ripped and teared enough to make the Doomslayer sweat. However,
03:45when taken out of this isolated bubble, the game was an absolute mess.
03:49What was truly Maya-like was the game's approach to microtransactions, as it quickly
03:53became clear that 2K was going to make back its damn money, through viciously tearing
03:58out content from the game, and then selling it back to you at a premium price. To charge
04:02over $20 for a single monster was a joke, to deem weapon skins worthy of their $5 price
04:08tag each was simply tragic, and it cut the legs out of what was an otherwise pretty solid
04:13monster hunt experience. With season passes and other content coming out alongside, it
04:18wasn't long before the game was so bloated with microtransactions and DLC, that the game
04:22balance was then thrown out the window by players using DLC characters and monsters
04:26that had infinitely better skills, thus turning Evolve into a franchise evolutionary dead
04:32end.
04:335. Star Trek Trexels
04:35Long before EA's Dungeon Keeper abomination was stinking up the joint in Final Fantasy,
04:39or the Bravest showed how little respect Square Enix had for its fans and their disposable
04:43income, a little title for iOS called Star Trek Trexels was making a name for itself
04:48for all the wrong reasons. Now, on paper, the game sounds like an absolute blast. Build
04:53your own crew, manage your own ship, tackle adventures, and solve mysteries, all under
04:57the banner of the classic Star Trek IP. However, things fell off the rails pretty quickly as
05:03soon as you hit the second map area. I say this because it's here that the game reveals
05:07what it truly is. The paywall microtransactions arrive in relentless fashion. You are forced
05:13to wait to do everything and anything, from improving sections of your ship, mining resources,
05:18attempting missions, and buying upgrades. This game basically just put up its hand and
05:22said, nah, you're not progressing until you cough up the dough. And these weren't
05:26small wait times either, they could be hours, or even days, days, to simply wait to do one
05:31action. Awful.
05:334. Guitar Hero Live
05:35So, imagine that you've finally achieved the childhood dream of becoming a full-blown
05:40rock megastar. You've got a slew of platinum records under your belt, a monstrous crew
05:45who travel with you to make your wildest set designs a reality, and a packing sellout shows
05:49on every tour date. Now, just imagine that you've walked out on stage to a rapturous
05:54cry from your fans, who are all at fever pitch to simply have your shadow cast upon them.
05:59You approach the mic, clear your throat, and inhale to launch into your first number when
06:04suddenly you realise something terrible, you've forgotten your bloody wallet. Desperately,
06:08you search for a coin to put into this now gigantic slot that is opening up in front
06:12of you, but there are no pockets on this skin-tight leotard. Sighing with a resigned defeat, you
06:17mumble into the mic, anyway, so here's Wonderwall, and fade away into nothingness.
06:23This my friend, was the nightmare that was Guitar Hero Live, a game that had the absolute
06:27gall to charge you real money for tokens so that you could actually choose what songs
06:32you wanted to play, rather than the playlist that the game would force you through. That's
06:36right, a Guitar Hero game that made you use resources to choose what songs you played.
06:41What fresh hell is this?
06:443. Dead or Alive 6
06:46Now while some video game developers are content to try and del-boy us out of a few quid here
06:51and there, with content that arguably should have just been unlockables, Dead or Alive
06:556 turned themselves into a trotter's independent traders or tit of epic proportions by quite
06:59literally turning everything into a bloody microtransaction. As mind-boggling as it is
07:05to believe, Dead or Alive 6, at the time of writing, has a whopping 461 pieces of DLC
07:11on Steam. Seriously, I think the individual flagstones that make up some of the stages
07:16are up for purchase here. Not that I can check, because who has the goddamn time, patience,
07:20or indeed money to go through all of that dross.
07:23However, one thing in particular that does stick out like a very sore middle finger is
07:27the cheeky charge forced on players looking to change the colour of their character's
07:31hair, namely because this DLC isn't actually a full unlock for the colour, and will charge
07:35you again if you try to change hairstyles down the line. Talk about throwing shade,
07:40right? And for those of you at home with the calculators out, this is a £55 game with
07:44– let me just check the results here – £1,800 of DLC. Whatever you think of the actual game
07:51itself, this DLC swamp is an utter embarrassment.
07:552. Marvel's Avengers
07:57You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. While
08:02these words, ironically, come from Marvel's biggest competitor DC in the form of Christopher
08:06Nolan's The Dark Knight, it truly fits the state that Marvel's Avengers video game
08:10found itself in, because this is a title that truly lost sight of the light.
08:15A video game comprising of the mightiest heroes in all of comics should have been a home run
08:19for Square Enix and its developers, Crystal Dynamics. However, things turned very cape
08:24caught in a turbine for the project when critics started Hulk-smashing the game apart
08:28for its lacklustre story and weak, repetitive gameplay. In response to this, Square Enix
08:33hit the oh-god-we-need-to-make-back-our-money-however-we-can button, and ordered not just a slew of cosmetic
08:39items to be added to the game as microtransactions, but also snuck in consumable power-ups that
08:44shattered a promise that was made by the devs to the paying public.
08:47In the press lead-in to the game's launch, Crystal Dynamics promised that the video game
08:51would not be paid to win, and that all microtransactions would be cosmetic. However,
08:55thanks to studio pressure, consumable buff items were placed into the game,
08:59changing the tone dramatically. When fans also noticed that patches and updates increased the
09:04grind, and thus pushed players towards buying these consumables, the writing was on the wall.
09:09In a truly pig-headed move, no official statement was released to address the outcry for months,
09:14a clear indication that the devs and the studio were just burying their heads in the sand
09:18in order to get as much cash as possible before reluctantly rebalancing the game in 2021.
09:241. NBA 2K13 Onwards
09:27This is less an example of a single video game being ruined by microtransactions,
09:31and more an entire franchise becoming riddled with a parasitic desire for your pocket change.
09:36Things started off way back where with NBA 2K13, where it introduced the game's premium currency,
09:42VC, and immediately got off on the wrong foot by placing a larger emphasis on cutting out the
09:47arduous grind of leveling up your single player character through just buying these to make your
09:51way to the top. And this leads us to the more recent titles that are legitimately asking that
09:55you shell out an additional $60 just to max out one of your players through VC microtransactions,
10:02all the while only drawing out attempts to unlock these abilities without paying,
10:05to the point where it makes shelling out seem like a good idea. Not only that,
10:10but you were even asked to use VC to make trades or even manage your bloody team.
10:14That is ridiculous. It is a truly stinky model, and one that 2K doesn't seem to be
10:19shying away from any time soon. And there we go, my friends,
10:22those were 8 video games that were ruined by microtransactions. I hope that you enjoyed that,
10:26and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below.
10:30But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope you're treating yourself with love and respect,
10:34because you deserve all of the best things in life, alright? And don't let anything or anyone
10:37else tell you otherwise, okay? You're a massive ledge, and I want you to go out there and smash
10:41it today. Consider that to be a little microtransaction, a positivity, that you didn't
10:46even have to pay for, free of charge, my friend. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
10:50never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.