Microtransactions are viewed by many as a scourge upon gaming, and they’ve somehow weaseled their way into one of 2023’s very best releases.
Few people would expect to see microtransactions in a game like Resident Evil 4 Remake, but Capcom sneakily added the option to pay real cash for in-game upgrades with a recent DLC update. It’s a minor microtransaction crime, to be fair, but that isn’t stopping fans from reacting in outrage. Responses online already paint a picture of the move’s broad unpopularity, as gamers blast the addition as “awful” and a “disgusting surprise.”
Snuck in alongside the free Mercenaries mode DLC, Capcom added in 11 fresh pieces of paid DLC titled “Exclusive Upgrade Tickets.” Similar to the tickets players can trade for in later stages of the game — using in-game currency, rather than real-world bucks — these tickets, which cost $2.99 a pop, unlock exclusive upgrades for any of the game’s weapons. Typically, in order to secure a weapon’s exclusive upgrade, players would need to spend pesetas on each of the gun’s upgrades — to ammo capacity, power, and such — before the exclusive option even becomes available. At that point, once each of the gun’s areas is completely maxed out, players have the option to drop even more money — in the tens of thousands range, at a minimum — to secure the final, exclusive perk.
With the microtransaction addition, players can side-step the typical peseta hoarding and instead just drop a few bucks to upgrade their weapon(s) of choice. They can unlock the exclusive upgrade without adding any of the other upgrades to their weapon, and additionally lean on the upgrade “across all of your saved data,” according to the DLC description.
Players can drop $2.99 on a single ticket or grab them up in packs of three or five, according to Video Game Chronicle. While this appears to be the only microtransaction element of the highly-reviewed game, it’s still broadly unpopular among fans, who are blasting the decision by Capcom online. Most people seem largely baffled by the move, as just a bit of extra effort — and treasure hunting — in-game will allow for the exact same payoff. Why even add in microtransactions in the first place?
Complaints aren’t likely to change Capcom’s mind, and at least the microtransactions aren’t rampant, but still. A game like Resident Evil 4 is more than capable of standing all on its own, but Capcom’s addition of a hugely-unpopular modern gaming practice certainly leaves a sour taste. And, despite their status as unnecessary, unexpected, and entirely unwanted, it seems microtransactions in Resident Evil 4 are here to stay.