The Dragon's Dogma 2 Microtransactions Dilemma
Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting flack for its microtransactions, but all of the DLC items are available in-game so what's the big deal?
Not many of us, save Ms. Cleo of course who only some of us geriatric folks would remember, are clairvoyant enough to be able to see into the future. Certainly, many games analysts' jobs would be a damn sight easier if they had such miraculous ability - if only because the late-night phone-in show money would be so much more profitable. I know I barely have the foresight to check the date on the carton before pouring the milk into a cup of coffee, so I can appreciate that something as complex as reading the fickle beast that is the gaming market could be a challenge. That being said, much like knowing that if it's February in Halifax I should wear a jacket lest I want to freeze to death, there are probably some pretty straightforward calls to be made when forecasting the response to a studio's decisions regarding their game.
Enter Capcom, who has admittedly been hitting a lot of home runs for the last few years having released Resident Evil 2 Remake, Monster Hunter Rise, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and Street Fighter 6 since 2019 just to name a few. In fact, for a second time, Capcom took first place in Metacritic's game publisher ranking - this time for 2023 - placing them above even the likes of Nintendo. Now Capcom has released the much-awaited Dragon's Dogma 2 - a sequel to what would likely be called a cult classic released way back in May of 2012. By all accounts, it was hoped that with the popularity of the Dark Souls games and their derivatives, Dragon's Dogma 2 would be able to break out of the obscure and into the limelight. Something that it most certainly seems to have accomplished, sporting an all-time peak of nearly 230,000 players in the opening days - making it Capcom's biggest single-player launch ever.
This all sounds really positive, so you'd think that the sentiment around the game would be equally so but that's not entirely the case. Dragon's Dogma 2 may be a great game - especially given its unique aspects - but it's saddled with some all-to-familiar Capcom tropes. Gutted by horrific performance regardless of what platform you're playing it on or how powerful the supercomputer you definitely should have bought instead of food is, the first sin committed is the state of the game at launch. This performance is further worsened by everyone's favourite anti-piracy software - Denuvo. Suffering from success also means players not exposed to the original Dragon's Dogma are finding out how obscure it can be now having purchased the sequel (like a single save file for example). These things alone are usually enough to get some strongly written letters plastered online by players in 280 characters or less, but there's a fourth horseman of the bad will apocalypse - microtransactions.
Jeffrey Rousseau
It's no small feat to outdo Nintendo at the Metacritic game.
Microtransactions are a hell of a thing. On one hand, developers have watched the mobile market normalize them as a primary form of monetization in a segment much larger than that of the perhaps now archaically considered "primary" gaming market that includes home consoles and PCs. On the other hand that same would-be primary gaming market, having not been so directly exposed to this monetization scheme, has broadly resisted the trend with only certain genres getting the pass such as sports titles like NBA 2K, and multiplayer games like Fortnite. Developers have then been tasked with trying to figure out two things: will people care that their game has microtransactions, and if they do and it's unpopular will those still buying them offset those screaming into the void of the internet?
Generally speaking, it would appear that most gamers are ok with microtransactions so long as they don't break a few unwritten rules. First, if it's a multiplayer game then they can't tilt the scales in favour of those who are willing or able to burn the cash to get ahead. Second, don't just shoehorn microtransactions into the game to the point some mechanics exist solely to support them unless there is a reasonable method in which non-paying players can obtain the items in-game. Finally, don't blast a single-player-only game with a bunch of them - ever. That last one, unfortunately, Capcom chose to ignore - and I don't think it would have taken a Ms. Cleo to see what would happen next.
For whatever reason, Capcom decided that Dragon's Dogma 2 desperately needed to have a list of some 21 items available to purchase as microtransactions for their single-player-only game. Everything from camping gear to the in-game currency Rift Crystals are up for purchase and while it's true that you can obtain all of these items just by playing the game, that hasn't stopped people from getting pretty opinionated about it online - dogmatic even, if you will. What's the big deal, you might ask? If you can obtain all of these items by simply playing the game then while it is a single-player experience it's not the worst thing in the world, surely. I would tend to agree that it's definitely not the cataclysmic event that some are framing it to be, but the backlash does mean there's likely some sort of lesson to be learned. I think it's fair to say that no matter how successful a game may be, no developer wants to be the main character on social media for a few days unless it's because Keanu Reeves gave you his seal of approval during some obscure interview.
I think that in this instance the primary takeaway is that - especially if you're going to brave breaking one of the unwritten rules in some way - communication with potential players is a must. Dragon's Dogma 2 microtransactions have been called beginner bait and are likened to Destiny 2's infamous Starter Pack - the catastrophic failure that was squarely targeting new players with useless items promising to "supercharge" their start. The comparison is being made because, given all of these items are easily available in-game, these microtransactions are quite obviously targeting those without prior knowledge of this. The number of people that would buy these items knowing they're all in-game would be incredibly few, and one has to wonder even in the best-case scenario how much these sales would move the needle on a game already poised to be one of Capcom's top-selling games ever.
Coincidentally, there is a sidebar to this communication thing. Reportedly, at least as of the time of this writing, Capcom included this information about the microtransactions in the review guide for those who received review copies. Interestingly, a great number of reviews never mentioned any of this, further fueling the fire by re-animating the discourse corpse "Are reviewers getting paid off to give good reviews?" That's another well-worn topic entirely, but I mention it as it's clearly not the kind of discourse a developer wants their game to be caught up in if they can avoid it - which if their claim of providing this information to reviewers is true, is proof they were making some sort of effort.
What else can be learned from all of this? Well, I think that Dragon's Dogma 2 highlights a particularly important point when it comes to microtransactions: if your game is really good, isn't a broken mess, and provides paying players the best experience, odds are you're going to have a lot more wiggle room to squeeze in some microtransactions - even if they are nonsensical. The problem for Capcom is that while Dragon's Dogma 2 is a good game, it's a janky mess, and because of Denuvo, those sailing the seven seas are likely getting the best experience - not the paying players. As such, these completely unnecessary, poorly communicated, and arguably predatory microtransactions that may have been otherwise forgiven, have instead become salt in the wound.
Will any of this dramatically impact Dragon's Dogma 2's sales? It's too early to tell, but I think it's safe to say that the odds of those microtransactions having sold enough to offset the backlash are not great, and Capcom's goodwill, alongside its game's reputation, took a completely avoidable hit. Much like ruining a perfectly good coffee with expired milk - it might not be the end of them, but their day would have been far better if they'd just had the foresight to check the damn expiry date on the carton first.