Pirates versus space marines, who would win? At least on Twitch we recently got an answerDiablo 4 “microtransaction” reaches new dimensions – mount costs almost as much as the game

A mount and a bit of color are currently causing discontent in the Diablo 4 community. Blizzard seems to have completely lost contact with its players

After several Pay2Win, microtransaction and DLC scandals in Diablo, nothing should really upset us so quickly, or so we thought. Now, however, Blizzard has gone one better with two new store bundles in Diablo 4, angering the community once again

Almost as expensive as the actual game

The words Diablo and microtransaction probably belong together for the majority of players as much as currywurst and fries or The Day Before and bankruptcy.

The release of the highly controversial mobile game Diablo Immortal, for example, was accompanied by massive criticism of Pay2Win mechanics, which called into question Blizzard’s entire approach to the Diablo franchise.

Diablo 4 was also not spared from overpriced microtransactions and questionable offers in the in-game store. However, while Diablo Immortal was free to play, users had to fork out around €70 for Diablo 4 at release.

The new Vitreous Scourge mount can be purchased in a bundle with 7,000 Platinum for $64.99.DiabloIV Diablo https://t. co/xqnxzIWvTC pic.twitter.com/DrWXob4ybv

– Wowhead (@Wowhead) February 13, 2024

Even those €70 appear in a completely new light when we look at two of the latest action role-playing game store bundles that are currently driving the community up the wall

One of them is called “Glass Scourge” and costs a mere €65, which is only about €5 less than the actual game.

In addition to about 7,000 platinum, a trophy and a banner the package includes a mount skin with matching armor. Apart from the extremely high price, the problem is that we can’t get the skin for the mount separately, but are forced to buy the 7,000 platinum as well, which many players don’t even want.

(For a mount skin, five portals and 8,000 platinum, Blizzard demands a hefty €100 from us.)

Bucket of paint for 30 €

The second bundle doesn’t fare any better with the players either. For a measly €30 we can buy the “Dark Paths” package, which contains 1,000 platinum as well as five alternative colors for your portal.

Yep, that’s it, you get new color for your portal, well, if that’s not worth 30 €, I don’t know what is. Unsurprisingly, Blizzard’s offer is being torn to shreds on Reddit.

$20 FOR DIFFERENT COLOR PORTALS? LMFAO BLIZZ!
byU/MWATKI20 inDIABLO4

 

The real scandal becomes even bigger when you consider that the portal colors are also bound to the individual classes.

While you get five new colors for your portals, druid, necromancer, hunter, barbarian and wizard can only use one of these colors each.

While the wizard only gets the blue portal, for example, the druid gets a yellow one. The necromancer, barbarian and hunter can only summon a purple, red or turquoise portal respectively.

It seems as if Blizzard has lost all connection to its players and now sees them merely as a wallet on two legs, otherwise this pricing can hardly be justified.

en.

Ubisoft’s new pirate game Skull and Bones went into open beta on February 8 and aroused great expectations, not least due to CEO Yves Guillemot’s comments. On Twitch, however, a completely different game dominated the release and gave Ubisoft’s new hopeful a full broadside right at the start.

Started strong, slowed down a lot

After Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during a meeting that Skull and Bones was not just a game, but an AAAA game, the expectations for the pirate game were probably so high that it could only shipwreck

It’s a very big game and we think people will really see how comprehensive and complete this game is. It’s really a full-fledged triple… quadruple-A game that will be compelling in the long run. -Yves Guillemot

On February 8, the time had finally come and a ten-year odyssey was over for the time being. After a number of postponed dates, the open beta of Skull and Bones was launched and even managed to reach a peak of over 88,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch

Big English-speaking streamers like 

ShroudLIRIK

Helldivers 2

It was the same co-op shooter that really spoiled Skull and Bones’ first caper on Twitch. Although it was barely advertised in contrast to Ubisoft’s free-for-all adventure, it not only recorded more viewers on Twitch (peak: 154,000), but also a significantly higher number of hours watched.

Moderate response

Skull and Bones is not only receiving a moderate response on Twitch, many users on (

Reddit

You can create a character, but it looks like they only steer the ship.

I’m shocked that there are competing pirate games out there like Sea of Thieves that actually involve character combat, boarding, etc. and Ubisoft makes this garbage…for crying out loud, they could have just taken Black Flag, copied and pasted it.

Even Black Desert, a non-pirate game, is a better pirate game, you can fight at sea, on ships and everything.

As already seen in the Closed Beta in mid-December it turns out that the expectations for the game were much higher than what Ubisoft delivers here. Grandiloquent statements such as those made by CEO Yves Guillemot only add fuel to the fire and understandably cause mockery and derision on social media

It is doubtful whether Skull and Bones can recover from this bumpy start; after all, the game is nearing completion and the developers are unlikely to have much time left to tinker with the core elements of the game.

Ubisoft’s desired concept of a live service game, which is to be supplied with content and generate revenue for years to come, could therefore be more than just in danger.

The post “AAAA game” Skull and Bones gets scuttled by Steam surprise hit appeared first on Global Esport News.