Ubisoft’s intriguing open world racer The Crew has always sounded ambitious, but we never expected its lofty aims to expand to its monetisation model as well. While the cross-country excursion – which will see you competing across a condensed interpretation of the United States – will release as a full-priced product for the PlayStation 4, it seems that developer Ivory Tower has been paying a little too much attention to the free-to-play space. Indeed, everything that you do in this game will have a price.
VideoGamer.com reports that the next-gen exclusive is currently riddled with microtransactions, which will allow you to pay real money for performance enhancing upgrades, vehicles, and – potentially – even fast travel. Don’t freak out just yet, though, as the studio ensures that you’ll be able to access everything in the game without punching out your credit card number – it’ll just take you a little longer to do so. Great.
“Everything in the game has got this dual currency approach,” creative director Julian Gerighty told the publication during a press tour. “We're not going to stop you from progressing [if you don't spend money], but it'll take more time.” Now, in the studio’s defence, it’s not clear how much time the developer’s referring to here. For example, Gran Turismo 6 also included microtransactions, but general gameplay allowed you to earn more than enough in-game credits to purchase the bits and bobs that you wanted in Polyphony Digital’s sequel.
It’s also worth pointing out that the title will be balanced. If you’ve only reached level 30 in the game, for instance, you won’t be able to equip a shiny level 50 exhaust part that you’ve just splashed real cash on. This should level the playing field a little, meaning that you won’t necessarily have a disadvantage against big spenders. Nevertheless, the release’s online focus will require you to have an Internet connection at all times, otherwise you’ll be booted back to the main menu.
At least the game itself sounds entertaining, combining role-playing elements with the scale of an MMO. The company needs to be clear about its implementation of microtransactions, though, because they’re allegedly attached to almost every action in this escapade at the moment. If they’re an ignorable extra, then we guess that we can just about cope with their inclusion – but if the grind becomes so big that it pushes you towards real money purchases, then we’re afraid that we may have to put our foot down.
[source videogamer.com, via videogamer.com, videogamer.com]
Comments 8
Been seriously looking forward to this but this news has put a real dampener on it.
If you are going to go the route of micro transactions for everything then they should just go ghe whole hog and make it f2p, otherwise make it full price with NO micro transactions.
@Chris1975
Got to agree. This was going to be a pre-order for me. But i'm certainly holding off on ordering or buying at all until I know more details. The always online requirement isn't a seller for me either. Full retail price + microtransactions really doesn't scream value for money in the run up to release.
Anything that requires me to have an internet connection to play is a no-no.
I don't want to have a useless game 4 years from now.
Annoying, but it's the way things are going.
fine by me.
I imagine it'll be somewhat like the NBA 2k series. I have 2k13, and to upgrade 'my player' you can either spend a ridiculously long time playing the game and slowly inch your way up, or drop $20 on a points pack and have an awesome character in a day. Problem is, it takes a ridiculously long amount of time.
Personally I found the leveling system in 2k to be too slow, as I really didn't play that often.
I hope Ubisoft balances better, allowing for reasonable upgrades from just playing. I ended up actually buying points packs for 2k13 because i couldn't handle how many hours I would've had to sink in to get the smallest improvement in my player. It ended up turning me off from the game. I'm really excited for the Crew. Don't be greedy Ubisoft!
@Heiki Exactly.
This kind of greed will kill gaming.. someone should tell these douche bag devs that this is not android. If this is the future of gaming I will find a new hobby. Typical Ubisoft btw -_-
Here we go...
I'm going to wait for this one, and see how far they take these "micro-viruses" infecting ever game now. So if the tires wear out after 50k miles, will we have to pay to 50 cents to replace them?
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