As a service game with microtransactions, Diablo 4 keeps raising Pay2Win concerns.
The action RPG already makes a pretty good impression in a preview version, but concerns remain in the community.
In particular, the rampant monetization of the mobile offshoot Diablo Immortal is difficult to forget, which is why something similar is feared for Diablo 4.
Let's take a look at the most obvious questions:
Is there a shop in Diablo 4?
Yes. Diablo 4 sees itself as a live service game that wants to release free new content such as gameplay features, live events and additional story chapters on a regular basis, but also lets you spend real money in an in-game shop using a premium currency.
The shop was featured in a blog post a few months ago.
The whole blog entry can be found Here
What is sold in the shop?
According to the current status, the shop should only be able to buy purely cosmetic items.
More precisely, it's about transmogs, i.e. skins for weapons and equipment found while playing. Before you buy, you should be able to take a close look at all the items contained in bundles.
It also means that these armors don't always look cooler than what you might pick up in-game.
The Shop sells cosmetics for Premium Currency. Cosmetics give players even more options to customize the visual appearance of their characters. Nothing offered in the Shop grants a direct or indirect gameplay advantage. So, while many of these may look like powerful pieces of gear, they have no in-game stats.
Time will tell if this promise is kept.
You should also not be able to speed up your game progress there, either directly or indirectly, or gain playful advantages from items from the shop.
How much the items from the shop and the Battle Pass cost is not yet known.
What are the benefits of the Battle Pass?
In addition to individual items, you will also be able to purchase a paid Battle Pass every season, i.e. every 3 months, as a supplement to a free version.
In contrast to the free Battle Pass, you will receive additional cosmetic items, but no gameplay advantages such as experience point boosts.
The latter are only included in the free Battle Pass. So you can earn the following rewards through the Battle Pass:
- Cosmetic items (new armor and weapon looks)
- Premium currency for the shop (in the free and in the paid pass)
- Experience Booster (Free Pass Only)
Screen captures of Legendary Armors earned through the game (left) versus Armor Cosmetics in the Shop (right).
In addition, it is possible to skip stages of the Battle Pass for premium currency, but you cannot unlock the season or experience boosts in this way: These require additional level milestones, which you only get by playing.
Conclusion
According to the current information on microtransactions and the in-game shop, these cannot be described as Pay2Win, since you cannot purchase any gaming advantages for money.
Of course, it's still within the realm of possibility that something will change before release, or after.
Diablo Immortal also originally said there should be no gameplay advantages in the shop.
The reality then looked different, since there were no items to buy, but powerful crests for better rewards.
Additional Content:
During the latest live stream from december, the developers introduced the new Codex of Power system, talked about the story between Lilith and Inarius, gave you all the information about the Diablo IV pre-order editions, and answered questions.
All images used are official pre-release ingame footage provided by Blizzard.
How do you feel about the ingame shop?
Is it worth to spend money on cosmetics that seem to obtainable during normal gameplay?
Do we even trust them or is it going to be a cash grab fiasco as in Diablo Immortal?
I don't have any fears that Diablo 4 will be pay to win. I understand the mobile game being so, as pretty much every mobile game ever is pay to win garbage. But I feel as though they'll be careful with Diablo 4, especially after Diablo 3 and the real-money auction house they had.
(Which, by the way, I rather liked. I made a good hundred dollars off of it before they shut it down! xD)
Yeah, I know a few who made money with the real money AH back then :D
But I still hope this will never come back.