Dead Space 3’s microtransactions have caused much discussion of late, but until now we didn’t know exactly how much they’d cost – you’ll probably want to sit down for this…Â We also didn’t know there’d be an online pass (there is, it’s $9.99) but that’s par for the course now anyway.
So, it looks like there’s a few in there – and tellingly, although EA were keen to demonstrate that scavenger bots could be used to pick up more resources, those bots can be boosted with, yes, real cash. For $4.99 you can add capacity to the scavenger (presumably to get more resources) and there’s also a $4.99 Personality Pack for it.
There’s also a Bot Accelerator. Again, another $4.99.
Other things to look out for? There’s a Maruader Pack ($4.99), a Sharpshooter Pack ($4.99), a Tundra Recon Pack ($4.99) and a Witness the Truth Pack ($4.99). That’s a fair few packs, and transactions that perhaps stretch the definition of ‘micro’.
There’s also two weapon and resource packs – an Epic one for $2.99 and an Ultra one for $1.99. The repeated resource packs, which you will be able to buy multiple of (to our understanding) in order to boost your in-game currency amounts are a dollar each.
The “First Contact Pack” is free.
Here’s the full list:
- Bot Capacity Upgrade – $4.99
- Bot Personality Pack – $4.99
- Bot Accelerator – $4.99
- First Contact Pack – Free
- Marauder Pack – $4.99
- Sharpshooter Pack – $4.99
- Tundra Recon Pack – $4.99
- Witness the Truth Pack – $4.99
- Epic Weapon & Resource Pack – $2.99
- Online Pass – $9.99
- Ultra Weapon & Resource Pack – $1.99
- Resource Pack – $0.99
Presumably more localised pricing will look very much the same. So, yeah, that’s Dead Space 3 – a full priced game – launching with over $40 of DLC and the still ugly notion of repeated resource transactions at a dollar each.
Yes, they’re optional, but the way the bot packs are worded suggests that if you want to get the most out your scavenger (the way to pick up resources for your in-game weaponry and so on) you’ll need to spend a bit of cash. We’ll be able to confirm all this when we get our hands on it.
List via Destructoid.
hol
Ah well, that’s EA all over really, Tiger Woods 12 had a huge amount of extras available. Can’t fault them for trying it on but I’ll not be coughing up.
An-dz
Welcome to the Future of gaming :(
leeroye
Typical EA. I nearly picked up TW13 Masters edition the other day, it was £20 and clearly stated on the front cover it comes with “20 Additional” courses. I later found out that there are only 5 additional courses so was glad i didnt pick it up. How they can get away with this sort of false advertising is beyond me!
XisTG
I fail to see the “micro” part of this.
JohnnyBoy
I didn’t enjoy the first two enough to be suckered into buying this one.
shields_t
I’ll be honest, I’m at a loss to see why people are getting their knickers in a twist, both previous ds games had similar packs available from launch on the psn and some of these are available as dlc in the special editions of the game. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t want them, just don’t buy them! It doesn’t offend me in the slightest if I see stuff on offer to buy in the game, I’ll quite happily just ignore said items and carry in playing as I would have done.