I've been all over the Microtransaction coverage train for a good long time now, and you want to know something? It's because I'm a cheapskate. I'm the kind of ass who doesn't want to pay out a penny more than I'm due to and I'll wring my pocket change to make it dance for me. As such I find the very existence of a practice that is designed to fleece my pockets absolutely abhorrent to the highest degree. Often time I find myself wondering if many of the modern triple A titles are even worthy of their £60 price tag, (Especially when they have the name 'Ubisoft' on the cover) but to then be asked to lay down even more cash for minuscule nothing content? Why, if I were a 19th century Victorian woman I would just faint at the prospect.
Therefore, it only makes sense that someone like me would be physiologically incompatible for a game like 'Dead or Alive 6'; and yet I've known about their shenanigans for a long while now. I may not be the best fighting game player in the world, in fact I wouldn't even go so far as to call myself decent, or even serviceable, but I respect the medium greatly. It's part of the reason why I ensure I have at least one fighting title in my roster of active games at all times, which naturally means that I keep an eye on what all these games have to offer to see what my next fighting game will be. In doing my research I've happened upon the Dead or Alive franchise, and then just happened to scroll down to the list of DLC. (That clears up my curiosity bug pretty darn fast.) For those who've never had the pleasure to make the pilgrimage themselves, allow me to save you a Steam trip: Dead or Alive 5 features £973.92 in downloadable content. (You can do the conversion rates for yourself.)
Now the excuses are obvious, "Those are mostly just cosmetic outfits, you won't use those anyway." and "Your forgetting that the core game itself is free to play." Which is true. But putting that aside for a moment, is the ability to play a free-to-play version of a DOA game really worth nearly £1000 in downloadable content? Personally I would say no. If you're wondering where all that content comes from, the basic DOA package comes with only some game modes, a limited map selection, no story mode and four fighters to choose from; everything else costs money. That is fair up to a point, but I feel like the point was crossed quite a while before the first 100, but maybe that's just me; self proclaimed cheap-skate that I am. Whatever the fuss, we can all rest assured that Team Ninja learnt their lesson and that this wouldn't be repeated for their latest game, right?
Dead or Alive 6 launched with a similar 'free-to-play' model that tried to hook players with a sliver of the game before roping them in for the full thing because every game is a mobile game nowadays. however, you can rest easy with the fact that they didn't bombard fans with £973 worth of DLC in a desperate attempt to make a buck, no. Instead Team Ninja drowned fans with £1,633.63 worth of content, and this game hasn't even run it's full life cycle yet so there is bound to be more. (I'm not going to lie, I didn't expect it to be that high when I just checked. I am actually surprised.) So Team Ninja haven't learnt from their mistakes and continue to be a wart upon the arse of the AAA fighting-game industry. But they're probably use to the 'pariah' status by now considering how the main selling point of their games is basically just 'boob physics'. (Yes I know there's a decent fighting game under all that, I'm just being hyperbolic for effect.)
Now all of this is neither here nor there to the general public. This is just the cost of doing business with Team Ninja. (Or at least with the DOA branch of Team Ninja.) However, the other day Polygon decided to take a dive into the sludgepit that is this game's store and found themselves making a rather curious discovery about the way the team has recently started selling it's cosmetics. Having realised that the heavy price tag puts some people off, they instead decided to start selling outfits individually (On consoles that is, this was always the case of PC) and offering even steeper discounts on limited offer purchases. As such, players can now pay £1 in order to change their characters hair colour, each and every time that they want to. (Looks like 2K is finally starting to rub off on the industry.)
Now I know what you're thinking; "£1 for a change in hair colour? That's a great deal!" Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to change Marie Rose's hair; it's perfect as is. In fact, I don't know why anyone would want to buy any new outfits, the basic ones are fine and you can get mods for any others. In fact, I don't know what the point is of buying any new fighters, the basic rooster of 4 girls is completely serviceable. In fact, I don't know why anyone plays this game in the first place. They'd be just as well served sticking their heads into a cement mixer. Maybe someone can come along and explain to me in simple words the allure of a Microtransaction hellhole like this, before I lose every last ounce of hope in humanity.
Now I can see the defenders already, hard at work shilling for a corporate entity that isn't even paying them. "If you don't want the outfits, then don't buy them!" It's a sad state of affairs when this is the best that people can come with, people who genuinely seem oblivious to the fact that there was an age when fighting games allowed people to unlock new outfits, characters and skins. (What a concept!) Years and years of being treated like piggy banks has brained washed the core fan base to entirely forget what a 'gameplay loop' is and that is the reason why games like these will always keep doing what they do and never change, the fans don't want them to under the false delusion that if things became more consumer friendly they would be missing out on content. (I wish I was exaggerating that last point but that is exactly what some Fifa fans said in the wake of the 'gambling controversy')
Oh look at that, I just compared Fifa Ultimate Team and Dead or Alive 6. Does that mean I think they are as bad as each other? No, FUT is much more devious and direct with it's attempts to hook players into a cycle of spending, but that isn't through lack of trying I can assure you. If Team Ninja thought they could get away with a lootbox system in DOA they would add it in a heartbeat, anything to push that 'total DLC cost' number a little bit higher. I think it's safe to say that DOA sickens me, and not for the same reason that it sickens a lot of other decent-minded folk. It's the product of a creatively bankrupt mindset that I personally feel has no place in the industry, and yet it's a mindset we see being adopted more and more in the gaming world every day. What can I really say to wrap this up except; be careful what you spend your money on, folks.
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