I love Battleborn. I won’t deny that it feels like it’s just not doing well in the popularity polls. It is my firmly-held belief it should not have dropped ANYWHERE NEAR OVERWATCH. Not because they’re the same, but because it’s a Blizzard game, and it will make waves as well as money. Nobody really seems to care that Blizzard’s title has Microtransactions. There was no sneakiness involved in Blizzards Microtransactions. It’s a chest that you can spend real money on that has a variety of cosmetic items. It was THERE. Months before the release we knew there would be chests you could purchase; but pretty much all Blizzard games have them, and it’s no shock or surprise. Come on, they have enough of my money. How much more could they want?
. . . Stop laughing. STOP IT DAMNIT. It’s not funny! Anyway. . .
Amid all the flurry and talk of E3, Gearbox, a company I love, snuck in Microtransactions for Battleborn. What is the purpose? To buy skins to show off your character and feel a little unique. You can’t buy the actual skins, you buy Platinum, the in-game currency. You can earn the currency, but I have a feeling it will take for-damn-ever. There’s also whispers that it might include stuff like bank slots, loadouts, or exp boosts, which is decidedly NOT cosmetic. The level cap is 100 right now as far as I’m aware, and I’m nowhere near that. Would I spend real money to boost my exp for this game? Probably not. I have precious little of it as is, and I’m not likely to spend it in that fashion. Skins? Eh, probably. But if I can earn them otherwise, I probably will. Let’s not look at how much I’ve spent on League, please. Or Smite.
That’s my beef with it though; it doesn’t feel honest. It comes pretty much out of nowhere. I was on Battleborn the other day and didn’t even realize this was a thing until it was pointed out to me! Either I’m very unobservant [which is possible] or it was slid under the table at the last minute when everyone was distracted by Sony winning E3, which they absolutely did. Yes, you can spend in-game currency to get new characters too. You can farm them. It’s not hard. But Overwatch talked about in a video where new characters/maps will be patched in, and not with a cost it appears. I have the Season Pass for Battleborn so that won’t be an issue for me, but everyone else having to spend 47k or whatever it is in currency for Alani? Whew. Again, I LOVE this game, the storytelling is so rich and entertaining. I just wish they would have aimed for a different release date. Maybe another month or so down the line and it would have blown up as it rightfully should have.
