Now, from a certain point of view, hell yeah! You never hear about microtransactions being removed from a game unless the entirety of the gaming community rises up in united fury and a company thinks their bottom line will be affected. It's nice to see a company just decide that microtransactions are hurting their game's aesthetic, so they are doing away with them. Kinda be nice if they didn't wait 6 months to claim artistic integrity, but there you go.
In a community post, Warner Bros. addressed their new stance on microtransactions:
"The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with your personal allies and enemies in a dynamic open world. While purchasing Orcs in the Market is more immediate and provides additional player options, we have come to realize that providing this choice risked undermining the heart of our game, the Nemesis System. It allows you to miss out on the awesome player stories you would have otherwise created, and it compromises those same stories even if you don’t buy anything. Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses. In order to fully restore the core promise of the Nemesis System, we’ll be permanently removing Gold, War Chests and the Market from Shadow of War. This means the option to purchase Gold with real-world money and the ability to gain Orc Followers from War Chests will be removed. There will be a specific amount of time given for players to utilize their unused Gold. If players have unused Gold by the end of the time allotted to spend it, any remaining Gold will be converted to in-game items."
It sounds like those with actual currency will have until the 17th of July to spend it, and although there will no longer be war chests in game, there will still be loot chests, the game just won't try to get you to buy them.
"Please note that the above updates are free for all Shadow of War owners. The ability to purchase Gold will permanently cease on May 8, 2018. The permanent removal of Gold, War Chests and the Market will take place on July 17, 2018, at the same time as all other updates discussed above."
In addition to this change, some other new updates are headed our way, in the form of new narrative elements in the campaign.
"Additionally, we’ll be updating the Shadow Wars section of the campaign, where players defend their fortresses against Sauron’s repeated counter-attacks. This portion of the game will be improved with new narrative elements and streamlined for a more cohesive experience. For players who choose to continue with these on-going fortress defense missions, the Endless Siege update released last November will still be available. We’ll also be incorporating many other gameplay improvements that will be detailed in future build notes, including Nemesis System updates, new player skins, skill tree additions, gear system upgrades and progression updates, just to name a few that we’re excited about."
It would have been nice if they would have figured out that microtransactions weren't good for their game earlier than six months out, but better late than never.
Shadow Of War is available now for PS4, Xbox One and Steam.
