There are few things that gamers hate more than microtransactions. Most of us can handle them for aesthetic elements if other people want to buy ’em, but as soon as it becomes a “pay to win” setup, things aren’t cool. Assassin’s Creed Unity lets you buy your upgrades, and the prices aren’t quite so micro.
Assassin’s Creed Unity has a new system for the franchise. Instead of unlocking elements by progressing through the game, getting more money or resources, you can spend your real-world cash on “Helix Credits” which can be spent to unlock some customizations, weapons or boosts. However, these credits don’t come cheap. Polygon managed to grab this screenshot, showing 1 400 Helix Credits being sold for $20, while a whopping $100 will net you 20k Helix Credits.
That’s a lot of upgrades – just check out this image showing the cost of upgrading the Sword of Eden. It seems to cost 10 000 earned upgrade points, compared to 180 purchased Helix Credits.
In theory, this shouldn’t matter too much – it should just be a way for lazy players to unlock better equipment without needing to play the game as thoroughly as usual. However, I’m honestly outraged. This means that the over powered awesome player I might meet in co-op play might actually just have bought his way to that point. It could have nothing to do with skill or dedication, but simply the cash and willingness to spend it. Sure, it’s co-op and I won’t be going against that player in the mission, but it still just feels unfair to me.
Microtransactions are slowly making their way into every game. It’s horrifying, but true. I wouldn’t mind players being able to buy their way through the game is they are too lazy to play it, if it didn’t impact other players due to online interactions. The mere fact that I know people will actually make these purchases proves that Ubisoft probably knows what they’re doing here, but it still makes me sad to see it. Here’s hoping that all those rich players who choose to buy these upgrades help fund Ubisoft’s ability to have playable female characters in the future. Right?
Last Updated: November 12, 2014
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:03
FILTH
Ceyber, Hans
November 12, 2014 at 10:14
MERDE.
Gaming is becoming too much like real life. This game is literally the rich get richer and the
poor get poorer, unless the poor work the skins off their backs… profits above all else!
Makes me sad ‘cos it means my cynical shrewdness has to pervade my favorite hobby. Not cool.
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:16
Pezzo di merda
I hear you brudda!
Jonah Cash
November 12, 2014 at 10:06
A small part of me thought I would buy the game in the future when it was on special…. Yeah that part just died….
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:11
I don’t like it either, every year more and more it feels as if I am losing touch with gaming.I am struggling to change with the times.
Jonah Cash
November 12, 2014 at 10:18
I hear you, I don’t mind the always online, that is just inevitable!! Ryanza and OVG can piss about it as much as they want but 80% of the games in 5 years time will be always online…
But pay to win is the last straw for me, that is not going to work for me!! Imagine Destiny had pay to win and the Iron Banner opened up and you got shot in the face from 100m with a shot gun and you died instantly??? That would make me angry enough to break the disc…
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:19
*shotgun
But yeah dude, I would lose my poef if that happened to me
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:24
Always online is inevitable, but look how many people struggled(like me) and are still struggling to play Destiny. Bungie doesn’t really care, it’s now your responsibility to fix your internet because their product requires certain ports to be open and the NAT type to be a certain level. Local servers? Good luck with that. Still struggling to play? Good luck getting a refund.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:30
Hmmm …. I sorta guessed it would happen that way. WoW has been out how long and we still have no ZA servers. Rest of my games are all PC and can all run on local dedicated servers yay.
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:34
I once saw I player ask if Planetside 2 might host a server in South Africa at some point on the forums and he got lambasted by people from Brazil,Russia and most of Asia because even they don’t have servers. If you don’t live in the US,Europe or Australia(yeah I know, they get a server???) then you will never get the most out of Planetside 2.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:35
I am a cup half full type of person. Raiding with a 196ms latency has made my reaction times a lot quicker.
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:38
Aye, hence why I stopped playing as much
Jonah Cash
November 13, 2014 at 06:51
Yeah I know, luckily my Fifa addiction that started in 2010 helped me sort out all the ports and learn about routers very quickly!! Oh and I bought a new router just to be able to change settings on the thing!!
Ryanza
November 12, 2014 at 10:31
In 5 years time Ryanza will be content playing Witcher 2, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and whatever else CD Project RED. I doubt in 5 years time that CD Projekt RED will be the only non DRM publishers.
Ryanza doesn’t need the burden of always online DRM.
Don’t Support DRM.
Guild
November 12, 2014 at 10:40
I would pretty much stop playing if games started implementing this crap. I got no problems buying DLC but micro transactions in game to make you better than others is bullshit
RustedFaith
November 13, 2014 at 10:38
Nah dont worry its not you its just Ubisoft that is greedy. There are allot of other games to look forward to.
I called it though that unity will be a crap game with microtransactions from the start.
Heres a few titles of the top of my head that will be good.
Pillars of Eternity
Shroud of the Avatar
Elite Dangerous
Witcher 3
Star Citizen
Homeworld HD
New project by the guy that did Planescape Torment
Evolve
and the list goes on.
Just dont support this half baked AAA studios any more. Its simple not to get fucked over these days. If you own a PC and any game are made for console and ported to PC just dont buy it.
FC4 you have to buy a DLC to play mp.
ToshZA
November 12, 2014 at 11:16
Yep.
SomeSubjectiveSomeObjective
November 12, 2014 at 20:06
It’s a disgrace.
However, if you play on PC you can hack this and get unlimited money, at least for now. The whole thing is a farce. I won’t do it. My unopened Unity is going back.
Jonah Cash
November 13, 2014 at 06:42
It’s sad that it had to come to this, but it seems that Ubisoft is getting to big for their own shoes!! The masses need to trim some of their weight by not buying their games for a while!!
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:08
Looking at how popular the use of female avatars is (among men O_o) Ubisoft could sell breast implants for $20 a boob and get away with it.
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:14
LOL
William Francis
November 12, 2014 at 10:43
Comment of the week. Done and dusted
OVG
November 12, 2014 at 10:48
Comment of the week has to be the Update Box and Wait Station. 😛
Lardus-Resident Perve
November 12, 2014 at 10:51
Only $20? Going for A-cups?
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 11:00
Bwahahaha!
HvR
November 12, 2014 at 11:12
Expanding on Hammersteyn’s brilliant marketing idea and popular culture fascination with butts, female avatars come with saggy granny ass. Then as an optional extra:
Miley Cyrus flat ass: $10
Female Sheppard perky butt: $20
Nicky Minaj that-one-huuuuge-ass: $100 per cheek, anacondas sold seperately
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 11:47
ROFL 😀
Skyblue
November 12, 2014 at 11:40
LOL!
Just Stop It.
November 12, 2014 at 10:10
Stop buying Ubisoft games. Just don’t buy any of that shit. Stop giving them your money. Just stop it. It’s getting silly now.
UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy
November 12, 2014 at 10:11
You know I actually went to go look at UPlay properly and that is one SHIT program. WOW!
It does close to nothing anyway and when I want to buy a game it redirects me to Steam?! WTF!
So shit… No thx
Rags
November 12, 2014 at 10:12
And then they add intentional grind. WTF. Back in my day you just opened the console and typed ‘give all’ and you can have your fun blowing up grunts with a BFG and Quad damage. I won’t support this nonsense.
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:14
You can go as high as $99???? That’s more than what the games costs If you didn’t buy the season pass as well
Admiral Chief Wang
November 12, 2014 at 10:15
impulse 101
RustedFaith
November 13, 2014 at 10:42
haha loved the Warcraft cheat for gold “show me the money”
Then we found out how to edit the hex codes to cheat in the games.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:23
Give all? Back in my day it was IDDQD and IDKFA!
We had to work for our guns son!
Matthew Holliday
November 12, 2014 at 10:30
replacing cheats with microtransactions does seem unethical.
I can still type “aspirine” “preciousprotection” “gettherefast” “gettherereallyfast” and “gettherereallyfast”, really fast from the old GTA games.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:31
I played GTA V by watching all the lets plays. Did not even have to buy the game yay.
Just kidding.
Matthew Holliday
November 12, 2014 at 10:36
i hate lets plays almost as much as i hate “watch the first 90 minutes of that game i know you REALLY want and spoil the opening for you”
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:39
Idd yet they keep getting 50billion views for a lets play with reactions. Case in point pewdiepie.
Matthew Holliday
November 12, 2014 at 10:45
i still maintain that pewdiepie is a casual and pulls all the casual gamers that dont care all that much about the games.
i dont see the point in watching someone else play a single player game, when you can have the exact same experience, albeit better, by actually playing the game. and i dont want to watch someone spoiling a game for me.
multiplayer is another matter though.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:51
Well … I agree except for anything made by Quantic Dream. I mean seriously. They may as well have just released a “we did the 5 choices for you Cinematic experience minus all the QTE” Edition of Beyond:Two souls. 😛
OVG
November 12, 2014 at 10:13
That 1st world country called America are fine. Nothing to see here.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:20
Bioware: “Hey guys how much should we price our Dragon Age Battle packs?”
EA Marketing dept: “Let us wait and see how bad Ubisoft screws its customer. Then price our stuff slightly better. It will net us massive amounts of cash and makes us look good standing next to Ubisoft”
......
November 12, 2014 at 10:22
http://treasure.diylol.com/uploads/post/image/441833/resized_history-channel-alien-guy-meme-generator-dude-microtransactions-69ac2a.jpg
Xcalibersa
November 12, 2014 at 10:24
Just stop buying these crap.
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:25
The market has shifted, people supporting microtransactions out number those that opposes it by a huge margin, or else publishers wouldn’t be bothering with it.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:27
Blame the iPad/iPhone and the new and wonderfull term “whale”
Edit: And also blame the Canadian Devil.
Xcalibersa
November 12, 2014 at 10:35
That was a good episode.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:37
This season so far was spectacular …. ya ya ya I am lorde.
Also I recently purchased and played the game. Well worth it.
Xcalibersa
November 12, 2014 at 10:35
Then what can we do but complain. Idiots are in greater number.
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:36
Yes, yes they are.
Matthew Holliday
November 12, 2014 at 10:28
these craps*
RinceThis
November 12, 2014 at 10:34
No, no, no. http://media1.giphy.com/media/14kWsgozAwOtoc/giphy.gif
Hammersteyn
November 12, 2014 at 10:35
XD
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/3909280/angry-joe-no-o.gif
RinceThis
November 12, 2014 at 10:37
And yet it will sell millions of copies.
Guild
November 12, 2014 at 10:39
I hope not. Looking at reviews I wouldn’t get it. I think it’s time they shut the series down for awhile. And buying your way to the top is bullshit.
RinceThis
November 12, 2014 at 10:40
I really hope not too man.
RinceThis
November 12, 2014 at 10:40
Ass Fiction, bending you over in Unity.
Kromas, Guardian of Cenarius
November 12, 2014 at 10:41
Sounds more like those Japanese naughty cartoons than a game. 😛
Viking Of Divinity
November 12, 2014 at 10:54
As If I needed another reason to avoid AC Unity.
Quo Vadis?
November 12, 2014 at 10:58
I made this comment awhile ago on a different thread regarding DLC, but it also applies to this. The developer eventually claws back at least two to three times the game’s purchase price due to the fact that people would rather buy XP than fight for it, or buy upgrades rather than slog for it.
Nikola
November 12, 2014 at 13:14
Meh doesn’t really matter as long as their is an option for you to do it through the game I don’t mind, the people who buy into these micro-transactions just lose out on the experience of the game and lot’s of gameplay so their loss:))
Alien Emperor Trevor
November 12, 2014 at 13:48
Heh, they’re selling you the game at full price then acting like it’s F2P – with all the associated microtransactions that go with that.
JustAnotherGamer
November 12, 2014 at 13:51
Ubisoft can suck it. Im not buying this crap.
Paulo Ferreira
November 12, 2014 at 19:47
As long as it’s not a competive mode what others do with their money and own personal experiences ingame shouldn’t matter to others or you in general since it only effects that person and their experience not yours. The way I see it if it does matter or bother you that much your simply jealous and mad because they have the money and resources to be able to do so and you don’t.
Remember that gaming is a business and not some charity so there’s nothing wrong with this as long as it only effects that persons own personal experience like I said and the demand is there as far as coop goes you don’t have to do it or play with that person if you don’t want to.
People forget that cheats have been and are part of gaming since the beginning and if anything the only thing wrong with this is that they don’t allow people the option to cheat like they always have and now are trying to charge people to basically do something lthat has always been a free and added bonus in games campaign/single player wise for those who would like to do so or consider it fun to do with their games.
Now that’s what is really wrong with this is that people now are basically having to pay to cheat lol man I miss the up, down, up, down, left, right, A, B, start nintendo and Sega days and even the game shark and game genie days which at least if you did pay it was worth it.
bebas74
November 13, 2014 at 00:30
Its sad to see Ubisoft doing this. Really sad..
flarn2006
November 13, 2014 at 02:14
I am offended to see Lord Helix’s name associated with such foul practices.
Sir Rants A Lot is a DADDY
November 13, 2014 at 04:53
The problem here is the massive difference in cost. If you don’t want to spend the cash you have to clearly grind the game to !#$% to get any upgrades. Ubisoft is therefore effectively putting in an artificial paywall.
Well done Ubisuck.
Zoe, don’t be pissed at how the guy in co-op will have good gear for paying. The guy/girl clearly simply doesn’t have the time to grind for in-game points
unicronic
November 13, 2014 at 05:55
There is definitely a disparity on earned money vs bought credits. However complaining about someone who doesn’t have the time to spend 100 hours on the game but wants to experience the best gear is such an off base argument.
RustedFaith
November 13, 2014 at 10:49
Yeh micro transactions is a great idea especially the pay to win variant. Nothing wrong with selling virtual gold for R1000, its morally and ethically legit and the world should follow this example cause it will eventually uplift the human race.
zacon4321
November 14, 2014 at 10:07
Just ignore its not like its forcing u to do …maybe its effect for co-op but iam single player I couldn’t give less fu** about micro-transactions when I can unlock everything in my game progress 🙂 what’s all what I care and fu**co -op chove it up u assess
Ac series always meant to be single player not MP world like dragon age so I’ll pretend its not exist although its bad idea who made that awful idea …stupid ass fu** fan I guess
Go play COD all over again 😉
Bo Treat
November 28, 2014 at 00:43
co op is still broken.
Val
December 1, 2014 at 11:30
This matters not in the least. You get the best gear by just playing the game anyway. Gear also doesn’t impact gameplay as you seem to think, it doesn’t instantly win your missions, you still need to play well in order to “win”.