Fans praised Steam for eliminating all microtransactions for an enjoyable gameplay experience.
Shiny Shoe Games of Monster Train fame and more recently Inkbound are receiving high praise from players for eliminating microtransactions from their games indefinitely. By not monetising players through this means, Shiny Shoe have decided that monetising player purchases this way isn’t the way forward for their company’s development efforts.
Inkbound’s Early Access launch featured both its battle pass and in-game currency shop as a means for developers to generate extra income while working on the game; both features were intended to assist in supporting “ongoing development of the game.” However, both have now been taken away indefinitely from Early Access versions.
Shiny Shoe recently took to Steam message boards to announce this change, saying, “it has become clear that industry and player sentiment has grown increasingly hostile towards these features, which is why we have decided to remove in-game monetisation completely and offer supporters free DLC packs instead.” No more battle pass will exist and supporters can now redeem free DLC packs instead; cosmetic items will still be earned within-game though.
Players will still have the ability to buy cosmetic items, though these will now cost currency earned while playing rather than paid-for currency. Any players holding paid currency will have it converted to this new earnable one and receive a refund equivalent to two times its initial value.
Explaining further, the developer stated “For instance, if you previously purchased 1,000 Shinies regardless of if or when spent, we will grant an extra 2,000 Vault Dust. Furthermore, players already owning battle passes will instantly unlock every level and receive 1,000 vault dust.”
Microtransactions have long been seen as controversial among gamers; fans seem enthusiastic about this change and hope other executives take notice and follow suit; microtransactions remain sensitive issues to many.
