It might be time for “shop designer” to establish itself as a job title in its own right, because even we thought when we tested Crossfire: Legion that its shop was designed for a Pay2Win system. Only after publisher Prime Matter had guaranteed us the opposite with letter and seal did we change our assessment in the text.
But because that wasn’t enough to calm the community’s worst fears, developer Blackbird Interactive is now drawing a line and stomp the shop completely. In this article we will clarify what this means for the future of the classic real-time strategy game.
Diablo Immortal recently demonstrated how much Pay2Win can damage the gaming experience of a community with its purchasable loot advantages:
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Diablo Immortal – This is Pay2Win from Hell
“It was confusing”
With this admission, the developers direct their Blog entry to the big update 1.1 and announce that they are now considering a better progression system. The in-game shop should never be more.
The idea was that players would earn more and more currency over time and use it to unlock new units or unit variants – Real money content was never offered. Nevertheless, the players naturally asked themselves why they didn’t use a classic experience point system.
With the abolition that has now taken place, the developers are ending the ongoing Pay2Win debates and are unlocking all units previously available in the shop for all players. The same procedure should then be followed for any future units.
Whether the shop approach was really never intended for a later second monetization of the game can probably never be clarified. However, they plan to at least continue working on DLCs and thus continue to support the title, which is also designed for e-sports tournaments.
In our podcast, we discuss with two industry insiders who, among other things, look after indie gems such as Curious Expedition 2, that earning money with games today requires far more complex answers than just putting it on the (virtual) store shelves:
link to Podcast Content
The co-op missions will also be abolished
Surprisingly, with update 1.1, the co-op missions called “Operations” for up to three players also fall victim to the scissors. As far as we know, there was no special connection to the shop, so the only possible reason was a lack of player interest.
In its place is the new »Battlelines« mode, which shifts the gameplay from micro to macro management and is intended to appeal to a different type of player. Instead of commanding individual units, you play around with your army composition in 1vs1, 2vs2, or 3vs3 duels. The actual fights then run automatically.
Of course, like many classic real-time strategy games, Crossfire: Legion also has a single-player campaign, which now receives its second of four planned acts with this patch. In four new missions, the three ideologically opposed corporations continue to fight for global supremacy.
Whether the changes are the rudder for Crossfire: Legion, which was released on May 24, 2022 and currently with mediocre ratings on Steam bobbles around, can tear around again, time will tell. For many players, the greatest hopes for real-time strategy as a genre lie with former Blizzard veterans Frost Giant, who want to inherit Warcraft 3 with a risky plan.
Do you think it makes sense to abolish the shop or would it not have mattered to you whether you unlock progress with skill points or pure in-game currency? Tell us what you think in the comments!
