When Middle of Earth: Shadow of War released mid last year there was lots of controversy surrounding the open-world adventure game. Besides the whole ‘Forthog’ issue, fans were pretty displeased to see just how geared the new iteration was for microtransactions. Now it seems that nearly a year later Warner Bros will be going against the microtransaction business model. From May 8th, the ability to purchase gold will be removed, following this Gold, War Chests, and the Market will then be fully removed on July 17.
Warner Bros took to their blog to announce the news:
“The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with your personal allies and enemies in a dynamic open world,” the post reads. “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.”
What’s more, fans can expect new updates from Monolith to improve narrative elements and provide a more “cohesive experience”.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War is out now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
