Dragon’s Dogma 2 Slated for Adding Sinister PS5 Microtransactions at Launch

March 22, 2024

Image: Push Square

Dragon’s Dogma 2, by all accounts a sensational RPG, is getting obliterated for adding microtransactions on launch day. These, we must stress, were unavailable to purchase during the review period but were mentioned in a media guide; they’ve since been made available for sale on the release’s launch day. Already it’s prompted a cavalcade of negativity on Steam, where the otherwise critically acclaimed escapade carries a ‘Mostly Negative’ review rating.

The microtransactions are plentiful. Ranging in price from £0.79/$0.99 to £2.49/$2.99, the optional purchases include Rift Crystals, a kind of in-game currency used to hire Pawns and purchase items, and Portcrystals, which can be leveraged to create fast travel points. All of these resources can be obtained in-game, but in some cases they’re rare and limited, which suggests there’s something quite sinister at play here. Why explore when you can just whip out your credit card?

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This isn’t the first time Capcom has tried something like this, and we daresay it won’t be the last. Obviously, the cost of making games is increasing, and you don’t need to invest in any of these items to enjoy the outing. But it all seems a bit counter-productive flogging items which are otherwise a limited commodity in-game.

We suspect the publisher may have flown too close to the sun here, because the backlash is already looking like it’s going to be vicious to say the least.

[source windowscentral.com]

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

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1
AK4tywill
3h ago

This is nasty. Polyphony Digital/Playstation did this with Gran Turismo 7 after receiving rave reviews at launch and went on to get slated on it’s Metacritic user score after the fact. The community clearly doesn’t take kindly to this practice and rightly so.

Like with GT7, the timing of these additions seems implicitly manipulative and oriented around circumventing negative reception with the critics. I can see his having a bad reputational impact for what has by all other accounts been a massive success. What a shame.

2
C25CLOUD
3h ago

No one is forcing u buy it like it been say u get this all in game idk why people are so worried about what others do with their own money.

3
ShadowofSparta
3h ago

Absolute joke, completely undercutting the vision of the developers.

4
Mintie
2h ago

As usual not a single one of them is necessary to get the full experience. They are there to fleece the impatient.

5
Czar_Khastik
2h ago

I don’t play games without microtransactions because if something is cheap it’s no good. Great move by Capcom, I’ll be getting the most expensive version of this game now.

6
jt887
2h ago

I expect a slew of stories about ‘Steam review bombing’ and contrarian posts where some players defend these MTX as ‘let people spend their money on what they want…it’s all earnable in-game…they are optional’ etc. A tale as old as time.

According to an Editor’s Note over on Windows Central the microtransactions were made aware in the review guide, so if we’re being charitable I presume most reviewers go in blind so these notes from the publisher don’t colour their opinions?

Either way, a ‘re-review’ precedent has been set and some publications — looking at that 10/10 over at Pure Xbox — need to edit their scores accordingly. It’s already contestable that they didn’t factor the atrocious performance of the game into their final evaluation.

7
ShadowofSparta
2h ago

@C25CLOUD Because you and your money don’t exist in a vacuum. When these are successful it prompts more publishers to do it, and as those make money it starts to get forced into the game design. Look at Assassins Creed Odyssey and it’s prolonged progression. It doesn’t appear to be quite case here, just Capcom being opportunistic , but I’m tired of this argument that people can spend money how they want when we’ve seen examples of games following trends and being rekt. Look at Suicide Squad even.

8
DennisReynolds
2h ago

Being blown way out of proportion as the items can be got in game fairly easily. In fact buying the MTX just goes against what the game intends and as the game gives you this stuff naturally its just wasting money. Yes it sucks that its there but its no different then past MTX Capcom games in that they’re easily ignored.

9
Ainu20
2h ago

@C25CLOUD It’s not just that, when microtransactions have an actual effect on gameplay and especially when it applies to limited resources, it becomes problematic.

There will always be the feeling that the game is designed to artificially make certain things slower, grindier or more inconvenient to encourage people to buy the microtransactions. That feeling might be totally unjustified (the resources in question were also scarce in the first game), but the damage is done.

10
thefourfoldroot1
2h ago

I think any right thinking person would agree that only adding this after the reviews come in is manipulative and immoral. The purpose is to prevent people from making informed decisions and to gain a higher review score than might otherwise be the case. These type of things are planned in advance. Scummy behavior.

11
DennisReynolds
2h ago

@jt887 Fun fact poor performance and MTX don’t actually affect everyone the same. Its too early for me to think of scores but the performance while rough i can overlook and the MTX i can easily ignore as the game is fantastic. Sorry dude but not everyone judges games the same and some people can not care and easily overlook issues others can’t.

12
nomither6
2h ago

microtransactions can be either good or bad.

13
Shepherd_Tallon
2h ago

The only thing I’m surprised about is how blatant they were this time.

Everyone has been talking about “capgod” for the last few years. Every time I see it I think that people really do have short memories and I wonder why nobody remembers the launch or post launch DLC that came with the original Dragon’s Dogma. It was so messy and lots of folks were pretty mad about it at the time.
Everyone forgot about it by the time the Dark Arisen version came out on PS4 packaged with all content.

Nobody seemed to care when RE2 and RE3 remakes did it either.
It was the exact same, they just waited a few weeks after launch so it didn’t seem as blatant.

Launch day DLC = Negative reaction from core community
One month later DLC = Meh reaction from core community

I love Capcom, but they play us so well.
Sometimes.

EDIT: Game is still great though. You don’t need the items in the DLC bundle either. By the time you reach endgame you’ll have plenty of all.

14
dark_knightmare2
2h ago

Nah don’t make try to semi justify this pushsquare it’s ridiculous a single player rpg has micro transactions. It would be just as crazy if FF 7 Rebirth,HFW or Witcher 3 did it or I don’t think any of them would get a pass would they?

15
StonyKL
2h ago

This has the potential to stop me getting the game. I loved GT7 but trying to get all the cars in the game became too much of a slog and were obviously designed to only be realistically achievable with micro transactions. I’ve slowly learnt that ‘can be got in the game’ means ‘spend your entire life in the game you may get it’.
That being said it may not affect DD2 in the slightest, but without spending 100 hours in the game how would I know? On my experience with micro transaction games its a massive turn off.

16
jt887
2h ago

@DennisReynolds

Sure. When you’re DennisReynolds playing at home, I couldn’t care less if you’re playing at 10fps @ 480p whilst maxing out three credit cards on Horse Armour.

But professional reviewers should be taking everything into account when appraising a product. Cannot keep using the reviewer subjectivity argument to let poor industry practices and bad technical optimisation off the hook.

17
Gaia093
2h ago

Reminds of RE4’s upgrade tickets and the like. Crappy microtransactions that are there expressly to rip off people who would rather waste money than actually play the game.

Capcom execs are garbage for enforcing this and buyers are garbage for showing them it works. Good ol’ vicious cycle.

18
Sergo
2h ago

One thing is to say there will be such in a game which you are going to publish, but this is whole other level … deleted from wishlist and 100% not buying it. ( BTW due to PS store rules, since you downloaded and played you can not ask for refund … this for me is total deceiving marketing which is punished by law. )

19
nitram2k11
2h ago

Hardly sinister, these items were hard to come by in the first game.

Just.
Don’t.
Buy.
Them.

Simples!

20
FinneasGH
2h ago

I’d say they were limiting fast travel on purpose to deliberately sell more MS crystals but the first game had this rubbish limited fast travel system as well. Rather than update the system they’ve just monetised it?

21
LiamCroft
2h ago

@thefourfoldroot1 A file listing the microtransactions and their prices was included with the review code sent out to us and other outlets. All reviews were published with the knowledge these were going live on launch day.

22
Littlejack
2h ago

Hideaki Itsuno, director of Dragons Dogma 2, on fast travel:

“Travel is boring? That’s not true. It’s only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun.”

Indeed! I don’t know about anyone else but personally I find it super fun to spend money on things that would normally be free.

Between this and Like a Dragon charging for new game plus I reckon it won’t be long before some bright spark gets the notion to make us pay a microtransaction to press flipping start..

23
jt887
2h ago

@LiamCroft

Thanks for the clarification.

Begs the question: why did barely a single review anywhere mention it? Do they not believe it to be of interest to players considering buying the game at full price?

One save slot, £1.99 to edit your hairstyle, £2.49 to fast travel — something the game’s director said wasn’t needed — in an Action RPG?

24
thefourfoldroot1
2h ago

@LiamCroft
Oh, well that wasn’t mentioned here so I presumed it was like some of the other recent examples where it was hidden from the start. Did the review mention that this was incoming? If not I guess it’s not the publishers fault that people where blindsided by it.

25
jt887
2h ago

@Littlejack

Remember when the Gollum game paywalled voice acting?

26
Pat_trick
2h ago

I pre-ordered this game and this makes me 100% sure that I won’t do it again if it’s a Capcom game.
The worst part is that the reviewers including here at Push Square knew about it and didn’t think it was important to mention.
Thanks for helping us make an informed decision.

27
Specky
2h ago

LMAO and I’ll still won’t return it.
I’ll never buy an Ubisoft game anymore though. They have never released a game as good as DD2 in a whole decade and they never will probably. Ubisoft has just become very good at screwing you and these pathetic nerds don’t know how, so they’ll still buy them.

Capcom doesn’t even come close to that kind of track record, so benefit of the doubt. I’ll remember this for my next Capcom purchase though. Its shady for sure

28
Korgon
2h ago

I think the bigger issue is that they hid them from reviews more than the actual microtransactions themselves. It’s just shady is all. Do keep in mind however Itsuno’s last game, DMC5, had microtransactions too but I found no reason to use them in the game unless you just had to unlock every skill in hour one. You can unlock most of them after a single playthrough which is like 10 or so hours.

Anyway point being I wouldn’t let this stop any would be buyers from getting the game. It’s shady how they didn’t mention it before launch for sure but I’m also sure it isn’t going to really affect the game either.

29
DennisReynolds
2h ago

@jt887 10fps/480p? Talk about making up rubbish. I won’t be spending anything on the MTX as all the stuff MTX gets you can be got in game by you know playing it.

Reviews are opinions based on how someone views something and its amazing in 2024 people still don’t understand that. The reviewer for PureXbox think its a 10/10 so they gave it a 10, they judge it on their own standards not on the standards of someone who just recently made an account.

30
ApostateMage
2h ago

If anything, that’s another hour trying to perfect my created character and pawn.

31
UltimateOtaku91
2h ago

I will still be getting the game today, these are the type of Microtransactions that don’t bother me, they are there to make the game easier for people who find certain things hard or tedious.

32
DennisReynolds
2h ago

DMC5, Monster World/Rise, Street Fighter 6 and all the recent RE games all have MTX and somehow people still act shocked when a new Capcom game has them. Thankfully like with those games the MTX can easily ignored in DD2 as everything they get you can again be got in game by playing.

33
naruball
2h ago

“But but CapGod?”

Also, agreed with everyone else. Just ignore them. Problem solved

34
naruball
2h ago

@jt887 that’s… not exactly what happened, though. It’s not like it didn’t have any voice acting unless you paid for it. It was only for the Elves and they explained that they had to hire extra actors for that. So, it’s optional. They could have simply used voice actors to speak in English. They chose to offer an additional option.

35
naruball
2h ago

@Shepherd_Tallon just saw your comment and realized we said the same thing again, haha (the first part anyway)

36
get2sammyb
2h ago

Just to note, I made an edit to the article as Capcom did disclose the microtransactions in a media guide prior to release which I was unaware of. We obviously couldn’t purchase them prior to launch day, however.

Apologies about that!

37
Shepherd_Tallon
2h ago

@naruball You were far more concise than me though and made the same point! I used to be good at words, I swear!

38
jt887
2h ago

@DennisReynolds

Well, sure. Reviews are subjective when solely considering artistic and creative merit. I don’t contest that. However, quantifiable factors like technical performance and the pricing of the product shouldn’t just be brushed aside as opinion when assessed in a professional context.

What’s the age of my account got to do with anything? Play the ball, not the man.

39
Robocod
2h ago

Capcom: Our beloved “Pawns” had a stop work meeting & decided unanimously that with the increased risks of Monsters,higher costs of potions,& teleporting that the summoning prices we initially had during reviews was far too low!

But alas not,fair Traveller! We offerthese Rift Crystal shark cards to accommodate the Pawn’s new pay rate!
We sincerely apologise for any negative impact you might’ve experienced since launch,but our dear Pawns need this rift summon increase,so we’re sure you’ll understand why we’ve patched this in day one!🙄😂

40
munkholt
2h ago

I suppose the reviews talking about the game being somewhat slow and tedious for the first several hours (before getting /really/ good, to be fair) makes a lot a lot of sense now.

41
DennisReynolds
1h ago

@jt887 If the performance and MTX didn’t bother PX then it didn’t bother them.

42
CaptD
1h ago

Next up is a patch which adds dialogue to your pawns, “Sir (or Madam) should buy a multipass at the Inn”.
(Repeated every five minutes, per pawn).

And then every so often, possibly midfight, all the pawns get together and chant “Multipass!”.

43
KillerIsD34D
1h ago

This industry is fascinating. The worst jokes that could be made about it a few years ago ($70 games with microtransactions, mandatory online connection, F2P mechanics in full-price games,…) are now becoming a reality. And these publishers will soon be crying that their games aren’t selling as well…

44
Mossbergs
1h ago

How do I refund on playstation? This is an awful practice and I want to let them know this player doesn’t buy it.

45
Martijn87
1h ago

Capcom going fully circle back to the PS3 days. Too bad they were going so strong.

46
BIG3
1h ago

Guess Ill just stick with Helldivers until Stellar Blade comes out.

47
Cloud39472
56m ago

@dark_knightmare2 For real though, there’s some very clear bias on this site sometimes. If Rebirth did something similar, they’d be all over it I imagine.

48
Glens0n
52m ago

Lets also not forget that “uncapped framerate” for capcom is 20 fps in combat and 60 fps in the menu…

49
dark_knightmare2
46m ago

@Cloud39472 I love this site but there is bias that sometimes comes through I agree

50
Artois2
40m ago

@Cloud39472 there is massive bias , if this was bg3 people would be claiming that they should be charging more and we should be thankful.

51
Martijn87
30m ago

@Cloud39472 it seems that every PS5 exclusive needs to be torn down, just to make a point that the PS5 isn’t a good console and meets expectations.

52
MomsSpaghetti
21m ago

Removed – trolling/baiting

53
Logonogo
19m ago

@DennisReynolds keep fighting the good fight brother. the same ones that whine and cry about this stuff either buy the game like normal or were never going to in the first place. if they knew anything about capcom they’d know this was coming and that it’s easily ignored/does not even slightly affect the core product

54
dskatter
18m ago

I suspect some of the same people who were BLATANTLY OFFENDED at Atlus coming out with their expansion pass are looking at the DD2 microtransactions and are somehow saying “oh, this is fine, people enjoy this sort of thing and you don’t HAVE to get any of it…”

Interesting…guess some developers are more easily forgiven if you like their games. Whodathunkit?

55
DennisReynolds
27s ago

@Logonogo I mean yeah look i don’t like it and i wish it wasn’t there but at the same time i knew full well it was coming as Capcom do this as standard.

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