After the release of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Ubisoft expressed its disappointment with the game’s performance, both critically and commercially. So much so, that the company decided to delay three of its biggest upcoming games: Gods and Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Watch Dogs: Legion. One of Breakpoint’s biggest issues is the use of microtransactions that fans feel are excessive, which Ubisoft attributes to the success of Ghost Recon Wildlands’ in-game store. Apparently, many fans utilized Wildlands‘ in-game purchase system and Ubisoft wanted to replicate that success with Breakpoint.
Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot explained that Breakpoint’s monetization is merely a way to give players “options.” He elaborated:
In the case of Ghost Recon, our philosophy is for the player to play the full game, 100%, without having to spend money. We have no pay-to-win elements in our games, and what we can say there is that [this is] the philosophy we have for all our games, but it has to be linked to more events, more content for players to play longer.
On live games like Ghost Recon Wildlands, we already had a store and people were buying items on the store. What we did was give more options at the beginning of Breakpoint. We understand it has been seen as too big a store and that it was really not appreciated at all, but it came from the fact that players were spending time in the store and buying things in Wildlands, and our teams thought they could give them the opportunity to have more choice. Which has not been well-interpreted, but that was the goal.
Despite Ubisoft defending Breakpoint’s microtransactions, the developer will be addressing its in-game economy in November. It’s unclear what changes will be made, so we’ll have to wait to see. We do also know there will be fixes incoming that will improve the game’s performance and eliminate technical issues players have been having.
What do you make of Breakpoint’s in-game purchase system?
[Source: Ubisoft via Gaming Bolt]
