Visceral Games says it "would never make a game you have to pay to win," but it's still including microtransactions as part of Dead Space 3's weapon crafting system. The reason? The attitudes of mobile gamers.
"There's a lot of players out there, especially players coming from mobile games, who are accustomed to microtransactions," John Calhoun told CVG. "They're like, 'I need this now, I want this now.' They need instant gratification. So we included that option in order to attract those players, so that if they're 5000 Tungsten short of this upgrade, they can have it."
Loyal fans of the series might be put off by Visceral's thinking, but this could be a smart way to merge both crowds. The microtransactions are completely optional, says Calhoun, and you can also purchase the packs with in-game resources.
"There are action game fans, and survival horror game fans, who are 19 and 20, and they've only played games on their smartphones, and microtransactions are to them a standard part of gaming," he said. "It's a different generation. So if we're going to bring those people into our world, let's speak their language, but let's not alienate our fans at the same time."
Follow @wita on Twitter.
