Prices for 2XKO Microtransactions Are Causing a Stir in the Community

The release of 2XKO into early access marks more than just the game finally coming out after years and years of what seemed like development hell. It marks the release of the first truly F2P fighting game. Free fighting games existed before, but never on this scale, and they were never done by people who have experience of running succesful F2P live service titles.

This also means that it's effectively the first time when we see a fighting game that really needs to rely on microtransactions to become profitable. There are many games like this out there, but they're far from being equal in how they monetize.

Even though "pay-to-win" is largely a thing of the past, within the free to play market, the games differ significantly based on their pricing structures and handling of the shop items. Today, a lot of the FGC is learning that Riot are among the worst at it.

It has been a long running issue for League of Legends, with the game nerfing the free rewards while buffing the prices, to a point where it received a $500 premium skin that leeches on the star power of Faker, and now features elements borrowed straight from gacha titles.

Meanwhile, Valorant is not quite as robust in terms of what you can buy, but the individual skins and bundles will run you anywhere from 5 bucks to over a 100 dollars. A delux edition of some upcoming AAA game can be cheaper than a collection of weapon skins in a video game. What's more, you can't even buy anything you want, whenever you want it. You're at the mercy of a rotating shop. If the skins you wanted aren't there, well... better luck next time.

And now, this model is coming to fighting games.

The reaction to the game's bundle offers itself has been largely negative, even if it could be a vocal minority. The standard offer of 30 USD is not entirely unreasonable and should allow you to unlock the entire roster and still be left with some of the game's premium currency. The 60 USD offer is basically that but with more character unlocks that should last you through several new releases. However it's the 100 USD offer that is bother a lot of people.

Not only is it a pretty hefty price, but it's also the only way to currently purchase the Arcane skins that are bundled with the Ultra edition. It's worth noting that you can buy those separately, but remember that part about the rotating shop? So yeah, if there's anything in particular that you want, just hope that it ends up in the store eventually. It's an openly scummy tactic that pressures people into paying more and paying now, so that they don't miss the opportunity that might not come around again for some time.

Naturally there are still quite a few people who defend it. This happens with any game that has overpriced MTX. The answer to the critics is usually "just don't buy them." After all, they're not vital to the gameplay, and buying those skins funds the future development of the game. It's a win/win situation where you are not forced to pay for any relevant part of the game, and developers/publishers get to make money, right?

The problem with this sort of thinking, at least in my humble opinion, is that it puts the wants and needs of the developers over those of the players. You most definitely should respect developers as you would respect any other human being, but you shouldn't dismiss your own preferences for the sake of a billion-dollar company earning a sufficient amount of money to support their game.

Let's be real. Even people who think that gameplay is king and cosmetics are just some irrelevant fluff that you shouldn't care about, everyone still loves customizing their characters. We love adding a bit of a personal touch to our characters because it's a part of our in-game or online presence. We as individuals don't want to blend in with the crowd, and we don't want the crowd to be a grey mass of clones that all look and dress the same.

When Under Night or City of the Wolves added more robust customization feature, the community celebrated it. You didn't hear anyone shout "this doesn't matter, don't waste time on it!" People were excited that they will have more freedom to personalize their look. And think of all the other games. How often do you see people rocking the default costumes and default colors? Even among the retro fighters, there are people who go through the effort of whipping out palmod and creating their own unique color palettes for their favorite 3rd Strike characters.

To act that the affordability of cosmetics should not or does not matter to the average player just feels like... well, it's a cope. It's just not what we see in reality. When players get priced out of being able to express themselves, it's not going to get them more invested in the game. A lot of people who could've potentially spent money on the game will no longer do so. And even if it might not be the defining factor, it could definitely contribute to the game's growth stagnating instead of flourishing. After all, if a player can't get the look they want, they might not feel the same connection to the game, and there are dozens upon dozens of other games that are already fighting for their time and attention.

Something else to consider here is that steep prices are often done with only one demographic in mind – the whales. The people who make up a tiny portion of the playerabase, but contribute the majority of MTX profit.

With games like Valorant or League of Legends, Riot is casting a massive net that covers dozens of million of monthly players. It doesn't matter if many of them will never spend even a cent, because they will (and already have) catch enough whales to sustain and prosper. With fighting games, it's hard to estimate how many people are playing 2XKO without something like Steam charts or Circana reports, but it can't be nearly as large of an audience. 

Even if the cost of running 2XKO is not comparable to something like League, employing all the people who handle management, development, finances, maintenance, and more does not come cheap, and we're looking at additional expenses if they want to do proper marketing and support the competitive scene.

Hopefully it all works out for both the developers and the community, but for now it's going to be a big point of contention that might become even more problematic depending on how the new player experience will look in the future.