http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/14/assassins-creed-unity-will-have-microtransactions

It really angers me that after I pay 60$ for a AAA game I have to dish out extra money. First Uplay and now this.

For stuff that's already in the game and can be gotten without paying. Yeah it sucks but these clickbaity article titles are way worse than anything Ubisoft is doing.

Welcome to the world of video games in 2014.

Well it's not like it's locked completely behind a paywall. If you want it faster then that is an option to unlock it. I believe this happened in Black Flag where you can buy these packs to unlock all the maps for all the collectibles in the game, so I don't see how this is an unexpected news.

Also you have a choice not to buy the game. Just saying.

I feel like people that buy that stuff have a lack of self control or patience.

Bit of an over reaction there, pardner. Not sure if you actually read that article, but it's pretty clear that you won't have to dish out extra money at all if you don't want to.

...early reports claim that gear can be unlocked in exchange for money, allowing players to obtain items faster than they would through regular play.

Pontibrand also mentioned that this was "pretty much" the extent of the in-game purchase options, reassuring players that they won't be in the game if they don't suit the overall experience.

This has been done in a bunch of AAA games before. They're catering to the "whales" who keep many mobile games afloat. Folks with more money than time who want to just pay for the stuff in a game upfront rather than playing for it.

Unless in AC:U you open tailor shops and armorers who can only make a profit for you for a set time until their "energy" runs out so you can refill it early with your Animus Bucks™ ($99.99 Best Offer!), this is really nothing at all to worry about.

I'll abstain from espousing an ill-informed opinion and wait to see how the actual game is balanced.

You can't trust Ubisoft not to fuck up the progression of the game. They have too much to gain from doing so and Ubisoft is not a corporation you can trust.

Well, I imagine there will be a lot of kneejerky rage across ye olde interwebs, but I don't see the problem yet. As long as your experience remains unhampered if you choose to not to purchase these microtransactions and they're reasonably priced for those that do wish to purchase them, they can do whatever the fuck they want as far as I'm concerned. Shit, if I had a job with long ass hours, a family, and god knows what else to deal with and I still wanted to keep up with all the latest video games and whatnot, I would probably beg for more companies to do this.

No shit.

I remember a simpler time, when these functions would be fulfilled by cheat codes. Oh well, nothing new here.

Eh, I don't really have a problem with games having microtransactions to unlock stuff early. If nothing is locked behind a paywall, then this is literally nothing but a positive.

Oh, good. Good. Sorta.

If it is just, "Hey you can pay for stuff faster but the normal unlock rate is perfectly fine and on par with the previous games," then that's fine. It's still a little bothersome to see in game prompts to buy stuff with real money (I'm just assuming it'll be there in the in game item shops or whatever), but so long as the game itself was tuned for no microtransactions, I won't complain. Much.

It is a bit lame, but I do sort of understand why people would pay for such content. A good deal of gamers are over the age of 20 and have very hectic lives but still wish to play and get the 'full' experience of it. In a sense they are asking you to pay for cheat codes per game title instead of just buying a game shark one time and adding the cheat codes yourself. Personally I don't care for such mini transactions but as long as they don't shove them down my throat so to speak I'm ok with it.

I won't like it if they still have an option in game to buy stuff. Like if I go to a blacksmith and I see that I can either buy a sword for 400 francs or 10 ubibucks. That would be pretty disappointing mostly because I'm being reminded that micro transactions exist while I'm trying to enjoy myself.

At this point nobody should be surprised. This has been happening for sometime now.

@corruptedevil said:

What's clickbaity about "Assassin's Creed Unity Will Have Microtransactions"? It's entirely accurate, and not written provocatively.

It doesn't look like anything's locked behind a paywall. Pretty easy to ignore as long as the game isn't balanced in favor of making microtransactions almost essential for progression.

Oh man, people that don't care about their money get an option to skip content but I have to actually PLAY THE GAME to unlock their stuff if I don't want to keep throwing away money? Where's my option? I want to skip playing the game to unlock stuff too but I don't want to pay anything for it. Where's my option?

You're getting swindled if you use these microtransactions. You're cheating yourself out of content and you're paying Ubisoft to do it. These kinds of microtransactions aren't for busy people, they're for suckers.

"Game Industry in normal behaviour shocker."

As long as I can ignore that stuff and play/beat the game under normal circumstances without paying extra money then I don't care. It's easy to hate on companies for doing stuff like this, but at the end of the day it's either do stupid shit like this or charge more for the base game. That's almost definitely the ultimatum they have in their heads concerning this stuff.

That's Ubisoft for you.

Well then I guess don't buy it. Don't buy anything.

Nothing is new under the sun:

"The new Hint Line is a "900" number. There is a $0.75 charge for the 1st minute and a $0.50 charge for every additional minute. This fee INCLUDES all charges.

The phone number is 1-900-370-KLUE."

I'm fairly sure they did this for ACIV as well? I'm not sure why people are thinking this is a new thing.

You are fairly right, except no, they haven't.

Isn't the Crew doing something similar? Seem to remember them mentioning several forms of currency in the Unfinished, wonder if Far Cry 4 will do that too as a company wide policy, that's when I'd worry.

These aren't the microtransactions you were looking for.

Er.. worth getting mad about I mean.

The last couple of AC games had microtransactions in the multiplayer.

@ghostiet said:

They had the "time saver" stuff you could buy, and I feel like the multiplayer had similar options. It sounds like thats pretty much the same thing as what they're planning this time around.

Why is it that microtransactions now all of a sudden immediately means the entire game is bad and that no one should buy it? It's not like they're saying you get all the story sequences except for the one in the middle that's very important that you have to pay for. It's just some gear. Who cares? I don't want to buy AC for different reasons (burned out), but to grab the pitchforks over some stupid gear purchases seems silly.

Its called DLC, and selling it has been common in nearly every game since 2007. You don't have to pay a nickle if you don't want to. So, unless you are Snow "F-ing" White and just woke up up in a crystal coffin, you should not be shocked.

AC has had microtransactions for years, heh.

Assassin's Creed 4 also had micro transactions.

It was optional then, it is optional now.

That's the real danger and the thing that Forza 5 ran into. If it feels like they deliberately balanced the unlock rate poorly so people would spend money to speed up a really slow unlock rate, that is really bad news.

EA put out a ton of time saver packs for games last-gen too, most notably Burnout Paradise

and it didn't fuck up that game.

Equipment didn't mean shit in AC4, as far as I recall, either, outside of upgrading your boat.

This is just the usual time saver stuff that has been around for years, Skate 2 had that shit. If I recall correctly Black Flag had it too where you could unlock all the ship customization stuff for a price.