If it was a free-to-play game, it wouldn’t be such a problem, but when you can find microtransactions in a full-priced product and spend many times more than you spent on the game, it’s not fair!

Diablo IV has the Dark Pathways pack that costs $20, actually $30. You get different looking portals, and you get extra platinum for that amount of money. This situation is so incomprehensible that many people on Reddit don’t even understand the logic behind it. The fact that you can’t get cosmetic items for $20 is ridiculous. This is the typical tying of goods where you can’t be positive about Blizzard’s move because you’re forced to get something else, so you have to give the company more than you have to.

There are other ways to look at money hunger. We can buy a complete game for that amount of money. For an extra ten, we can buy Helldivers 2 for $/€40. Or for 30 we can get a copy of Palworld or Enshrouded, two games from the 2024 survival game lot (discussed in more detail yesterday). We can even get Divinity: Original Sin II for almost three copies for that amount of money. This could go on, but we could write a dozen games per genre.

This portal microtransaction is only in Diablo IV because there are people (whales… unrestrained spenders!) who will buy it, even though it’s just a cosmetic change. If no one would open their wallets, then Blizzard should go back to the old tried and true method. These different looking portals and particle effects could have been unlocked in an old game with different challenges per character class, or Blizzard could even give this pack away for free today if we can get to level 100 in a season.

Instead, greed won out. Because people are going to buy this pack.

Source: PCGamer, Reddit