If you are around ‘gamer circles’ in forums and social networks, you are surely aware of the negative reactions generated by the latest Rocksteady Games game, especially for being one of the so-called ‘games as services’ (which have microtransactions and constant content updates ). I am one of those who defended him. If you read my review, you will see that I gave it a very positive rating.. However, as much as I enjoyed the game, I can’t defend the terrible business model that followed. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League upon its release, demonstrated in season 1 starring the Joker.
On Thursday, March 28, 2024, this title received a huge content update with a new ‘Elseworld’ world to explore, new weapons, quests, and some surprises. Of course, the biggest of all is the new controllable character.
Warner Bros. Games, distributors of the game, made a lot of noise declaring that all the new characters and non-cosmetic content that they will add post-launch were going to be free. That’s fair. After all, we are talking about a game worth more than 300,000 Colombian pesos. Knowing the greed of that company —which they recently demonstrated in Mortal Kombat 1— I don’t know how I didn’t see the huge asterisk coming in that promise.
The Joker has no cost, unless…
Yeah, Joker is free for all Season 1 players Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, but we will not find it immediately unlocked. If we want to play with the clown prince of evil we have to reach ‘scary level 35’ in the episode. That means playing around twenty new missions on the new map.
This is disappointing, but nothing really strange. Having to do difficult optional tasks in a video game to unlock something is practically a tradition. The unpleasant thing is that We can “avoid grinding” by buying directly from the Joker with 1000 Premium Coins that cost around 40,000 Colombian pesos.
It is a trap. A way to earn extra money in exchange for players who were eager to try the new character and who do not want or cannot dedicate hours to the task of unlocking it… or for those who are confused and believe that paying is the only way to have it.
These kinds of “time-saving” microtransactions speak very badly of the creators of the titles that have them. Aren’t your games fun enough to make your players want to do the activities you ask them to do? It doesn’t really matter, what matters is being able to get a few more pesos out of the wallets of those who already spent money buying the game.
And if that were not enough, a season pass
In my review I said not to worry too much about microtransactions or game-as-a-service elements. My reasoning was that these didn’t interfere with the main adventure and the game-as-a-service elements were only present in the postgame. Additionally, “there were no paid loot boxes, a battle pass or anything like that.”
My review has aged poorly, at least in that sense.
With the arrival of season 1 of the game starring the Joker and new microtransactions a battle pass also arrived Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
Season passes allow players to pay for a long list of rewards that they unlock as they play, but they also commit them to playing at the risk of not recovering the value of the game. It is a common element of free games, but This is not a free game, it is a game worth more than 300,000 pesos that is asking us to invest even more money in it.
Community reaction
There are many players who are not happy with this situation. If we visit the game’s subreddit we will find multiple discussions criticizing Warner Bros. Games for this terrible season system. Others are trying clarify the convoluted way to unlock the Joker without paying.
Some of the game’s most vocal defenders are saying they will stop playing and streaming in protest.
“But the games are too expensive to make”
It’s easy to criticize Warner Bros. Games for this mess and simply say that they’re greedy. And they are, but there is more behind this than simple greed. Developing, publishing and promoting AAA games with this level of visual quality is expensive, very expensive. Despite the current very high price of games, including the even more expensive limited and collector’s editions, a title requires very high levels of success to be profitable.
To compensate for this and the obsession with “business growth” that large companies have, many games resort to microtransactions, paid DLC, subscription services and other “tricks” to get more money from players. The game may have earned enough to pay everyone involved and begin development on the next title, but companies are demanding more and more to keep investors and shareholders happy.
If it seems to you that this system is not sustainable, it is because it is not. This is the reason for the current crisis in the industry that made 2023 the worst year for video games and that is making 2024 even worse.
I like it a lot Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. I can feel the love that its creators put into its gameplay, story and thousands of details. I know that the decision to make it a game as a service and ruin season 1 of the Joker is not up to the artists or the programmers. But you can no longer separate the terrible monetization systems from the game itself.
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