Warner Bros. has tried to placate indignant slot online Mortal Kombat 1 gamers with two ‘free’ Fatalities following an outcry attributable to the choice to introduce a $10 USD Fatality animation to the sport’s already closely criticised premium retailer.
Regardless of being offered as a full-price title costing £59.99/$69.99 USD, the most recent entry in developer NetherRealm’s long-running preventing sequence encompasses a rotational in-game store promoting store-exclusive cosmetics – together with costumes and kit – solely obtainable to buy with real-world cash (in distinction, Mortal Kombat 11 additionally enabled gamers to purchase cosmetics, however these may largely even be earned by finishing actions in-game).
Whereas Mortal Kombat 1’s premium retailer has already drawn loads of ire from gamers, issues got here to a head final month when Warner Bros. and developer NetherRealm started promoting a store-exclusive Halloween Fatality animation for $10. To place that in some type of perspective, $20 would get you many DLC characters in Mortal Kombat 11.
The backlash was swift and loud, and Warner Bros. has now responded to complaints (thanks IGN), telling gamers, “We recognize your suggestions.” After all, ‘recognize’ and ‘take heed to’ aren’t the identical factor, and Warner Bros.’ resolution is not to make changes to its retailer pricing, however quite to reward anybody that was keen to spend $10 on the controversial Halloween Fatality within the first place by given them two ‘free’ cosmetics – the Thanksgiving Fatality and Winter Fatality – that can seem in an upcoming premium Seasonal Bundle, itself prone to value $30.
These type of aggressive monetisation ways are solely prone to turn out to be extra prevalent in Warner Bros. titles, in fact; we already know Rocksteady’s upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will characteristic a (extensively lambasted) cosmetics-focused battle go, and Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav this week outlined plans to rework the corporate’s greatest gaming franchises from conventional console and PC releases into “all the time on” dwell service video games.
