What is the “defining trait” of the gaming industry? Many would argue that it’s “creativity,” because there are so many developers out there, making all manner of games across numerous genres and coming up with characters that fans can’t get enough of and gameplay that they want more of. While that may be a fair estimation, it’s also fair to think that there’s another word that defines much of the gaming industry: greed. Specifically, the greed that is “allowed” by developers and publishers to milk every single cent out of gamers as much as possible. Diablo 4 is just the latest example of this kind of greed rearing its ugly head.
So, what did Activision Blizzard do this time? The team decided to do a crossover collaboration with the beloved manga series Berserk. It’s an all-time great series with beloved characters, great art, and easily some of the most hardcore violence you’ll see in such a medium. Don’t worry, people like the violence.
Bringing it into a game like Diablo 4 makes sense, as the manga’s protagonist, Guts, has to fight demons and other supernatural beings all the time. While Guts himself isn’t in the game as a build, many pieces of armor from him, Griffith, or other characters in the manga are there as cosmetics. To be clear, there are some that you can naturally get as you work your way through the game. That’s not the issue.
The issue is that the paid items cost 2800 platinum each, which amounts to about $25 per item. That’s right, PER ITEM! For context, there are six paid items that you can get in the game, and that means that just to get these cosmetic items is $150 if you decide to get them all. That’s well over double the price of the main game!
On Reddit, while fans are naturally outraged by this, they’re also not surprised by it at all. As they wisely point out, companies like Activision Blizzard have been doing this for a long time and haven’t stopped because “gamers keep paying it despite the higher prices.” Some even note that Activision Blizzard can even use this as a method of “making the prices seem extremely high,” and then they’ll lower it “just enough” in the next cosmetic set to make people think they’re getting “a deal” by getting it for a slightly lower price.
Thus, we go back to the word “greed,” because that’s truly what this is, and fans shouldn’t have to pay that much just to look like their favorite manga characters.
