It’s not a joke: Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is going to get microtransactions due to Activision Blizzard!

Although the update currently is not available yet for the remake of the PS1 go-kart game from 1999 (as it is planned to come out on August 2), we can already say what it will contain aside from the Back N. Time Grand Prix event (Stone Age-looking circuits and the characters also become young), it will also add microtransactions, not liked by many people…

A blog post has confirmed that we’ll be able to buy Wumpa coins in multiple bundles, and while the pricing is not known yet, Activision already says that „the new option won’t change the game’s core mechanics.” These Wumpa coins can be earned by playing the game, too, and you can spend them in the Pit Stop Store to acquire characters and cosmetic items, skins (a few examples from the Back N. Time update: Mad Scientist Crash, Sabretooth Pura, Stone Age N. Tropy).

But the problem here is the monetization itself. Didn’t Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII follow a similar scenario? After the launch of the base game, an update brought microtransactions in, and it was done so that the publisher can avoid bad reputation by including them in the game at launch, meaning the game could sell better in the launch period, which is important for them. So what Activision Blizzard is doing with Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is nothing short of being foul. Sure, using microtransactions is not mandatory, but imagine if Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy had an option to buy lives with real money in the summer of 2016 when it first came out on PlayStation 4? It’d have looked terrible, wouldn’t it?

The publishers seem to push monetization a step too far, and they should not be taken off the hook – if we let them do it, they will put it everywhere (like in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, where the first PC update immediately took away the possibility to use Cheat Engine in it… good job, Bethesda!).

Source: GameSpot