The only way Frontier Developments’ game could hurt its standing in the community would be if it got Denuvo on PC nine years after its release (almost all of Frontier’s newer games use it and don’t usually take it out).

Recent Steam reviews of Elite: Dangerous put the game in the Mixed category, with a new update that includes a new starship, the Python Mk II. This can only be purchased by those who spend 16250 Arx. Arx is one (!) of the currencies in Elite: Dangerous, and you can get up to 400 per week. So it would take 10 months of grinding to get the ship. So this limitation might be good for those who play Frontier’s product regularly.

Elite: Dangerous also has another currency called Credits. This cannot be bought with real money, and you cannot buy the Python Mk II with credits… but you can buy the Arx with your wallet. So they’ve made a starship a microtransaction, and they’re going to keep it that way for three months, because you can’t buy it with credits until August 7th! Other powerful pre-built ships are also available in the Arx shop, and Frontier says this will allow new players to get into the areas they’re most interested in faster, or existing players who want to start a new career in the game but don’t have time to build a new ship from scratch.

Some people are decrying this on Steam: “You’re paying to win! The whole point of the game is to earn credits, explore a beautiful galaxy, and buy ships. What is the problem with that? Well, now you can skip the work of earning credits for ships and just pay real money for pre-built ships to do whatever you want. Don’t even get me started on the fact that the new Python MK2 is locked behind a cash shop paywall until August 7th. Too bad, it was a good game.” But there are those who support it on Reddit: “I’m actually all for the microtransaction route as it’s being handled. I mean, the ship is essentially a timer exclusive for those willing to pay, but it’s not locked behind that forever. As someone who has no interest in microtransactions, I’m not losing out on anything, I’m just not getting it as soon, which is fine with me. [Frontier] is giving players a choice. It’s not like they’re turning the game into a subscription model where if you don’t pay you can’t play.”

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Source: PCGamer, Frontier, Steam