14 DAY TRIAL // Free-to-play titles have relied on microtransactions to create a revenue stream and CCP will do the same for the upcoming Dust 514 shooter, but the development team plans to change the way gamers look at a loadout and at buying equipment.
The developers say that a player will be able to fully equip a character with the best weapons and items for 0.24 dollars (0.18 Euro),which might seem like a very small amount, but because of the structure of the game players who die will lose everything they have and then have to pay the sum again.
Morgan Godat, who is the vice president in charge of art working on Dust 514, told Eurogamer that, “There’s a thing about Dust, which is every time you die, you lose your items, so we’re talking about relatively small amounts of money.”
He detailed the system by saying, “You can buy 100 copies of this gun, you can buy 100 copies of this suit of armour. We’ve got to make sure we’re pricing things at the right level, because if you die.
“We’re still tuning prices – the costs will change according to the feedback we get on the beta – but I believe when I calculated it last, at its most high-end – if you assume that somebody came in and had to buy, with real-world money, the best gear for a serious throw down – it was like a 24-cent thing.”
Most other free-to-play video games tend to give new equipment for real world money and allow players to use it for an unlimited time after it is unlocked.
The approach that CCP has taken for Dust 514 is designed to point players towards the fact that they should rely on real-world money only as a last resort and that in-game currency is much better suited for their equipment needs.
A new round of beta invites for Dust 514 will be sent out late in June.