With The Division less than two months away from release, developer Ubisoft Massive addressed the question of micro-transactions, saying there won’t be any, but you will find paid DLC.
In an interview with VG247, Creative Director Magnus Jansen revealed that they won’t allow include any pay-to-win micro-transactions:
It’s one of the things that we looked at because if people like the game and want to purchase extra things I don’t mind that. But micro-transactions, as it’s defined, we do not have them. You cannot spend a little bit of money and fast-track to get better gear or pay to win or vanity items. We do not have that. The short answer is no, we don’t have micro-transactions, period.
We will have DLC. We don’t have it yet because we’re just barely finishing the game. I just don’t want anyone to say that when we announce the DLC, ‘You said [no micro-transactions].’
Clarifying things up a bit with Eurogamer, Jansen said:
I don’t know if there’s a globally agreed definition of the word micro-transactions, but you don’t pay to win or advance or anything like that. We have DLC plans – which we’re not talking about now – and obviously you’ll pay for that, but in addition to that there’s no micro-transactions, as I define them.
When asked for comment, Ubisoft replied, “Magnus’s statement is correct, there will be no micro-transactions at all. Not even for vanity items. Vanity items will be sold as DLC, through the regular first-party stores.”
Then, in an interview with GameSpot, Jansen, revealed that Ubisoft Massive has “just started to work on the free updates and DLC,” with DLC production now ramping up. For him, updates “are free content,” while DLC is a package of paid “‘stuff’ we’re going to work on.”
While micro-transactions for shortcuts were once considered for The Division, they “never made it into the game. So there won’t be any micro-transactions like that. No shortcuts.”
When GameSpot brought up how the numbers suggest people don’t mind paying for micro-transactions, Jansen replied:
It’s a super interesting idea. People will happily pay for the game, but I think the issue people have is when they feel like some content has been held back. They feel as though in previous years they would have got all the content for free. Even worse, some people find that certain micro-transactions allow people to pay to compete. Pay-to-win, essentially. So I understand the hesitation. I don’t see an issue with people paying for content, and there will of course be DLC, because there’s nothing bad about creating more content after we release this huge game.
As we learned back in June, there will be a Season Pass for The Division, and it includes a full year of major expansions and exclusive benefits.
The Division releases on March 8 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A closed beta will take place at the end of this month.
