Diablo 4is finally here, and while launch day hasn’t gone off entirely without issues, there are still plenty of Nephalem stomping their way through Sanctuary happily murdering the forces of evil. Unfortunately, there’s one demon that players can never slay, and that’s capitalism.
As we were warned several weeks ago, Diablo 4 has an in-game shop where players can purchase cosmetics. Thefree and paid battle passesalso provide cosmetic rewards, but there are plenty of other armors to purchase in the shop, with prices ranging anywhere from $8 for the lowest-pricedhorsearmor to as high as $28 for certain character bundles.
Related:Hey Casuals, you may Just Play Diablo 4 For The Story
Of course, these cosmetics aren’t being sold for real-world money. You first have to purchase “Platinum,” Diablo 4’s premium currency. And you’re able to’t just buy the exact amount you want, either. You need to purchase Platinum in increments as low as 200 for $2 and as high as 11,500 for $99. Everything starting at the $25 increment starts giving you “free” or bonus Platinum as the 10 Platinum to $1 ratio ends ($25 actually gets you 2,800 Platinum–a 300 Platinum bonus).
Besides encouraging players to spend more by offering this “free” Platinum,a Reddit threadnoted that the prices for these cosmetics seem way out of touch with what most players are actually willing to spend to make their horses look pretty. An astute response from another Redditor noted that might be the point.
“They maybe don’t expect most people to buy at these prices,” wrote userasprintf. “They’ll make bank off of discounts and sales. You won’t pay $15 for a cool cosmetic, but will you cave and pay $7.50 when a limited-time sale hits?”
This exact practice of setting expectations in the consumer in order to provide extra incentive during a sale is called “price anchoring,” and it’s proven to be very effective in gaming. Only the “whales” will actually spend $25 for a cosmetic bundle. The rest of us will covet a preferred cosmetic for months before finally jumping at the chance to buy it when it goes on sale.
You could argue that these high cosmetic prices are just the result of inflation, butVG247ran the math and compared the price of horse cosmetics in Oblivion to the price you pay in Diablo 4. Even accounting for inflation, a $2.50 cosmetic in 2006 should only be $3.77 in today’s money. Diablo 4 is charging more than triple the price for even its cheapest piece of horse bling.
And you might not even be looking at your horse all that often. ManyDiablo 4playersare complaining that the horse gets stuck on objects that appear like they really shouldn’t impede your mighty steed, forcing them to get off and walk everywhere.
Next:Sidequesting In Diablo 4 Is Like Playing An Anthology Horror Movie
