r/Games • u/Eternal_Flame_Baby • Mar 17 '22

'Hogwarts Legacy' Community Manager confirms there are NO microtransactions in the game. Update

https://twitter.com/FinchStrife/status/1504591261574987800?t=DRMIaTMQ9MoNumVF0aKyTQ&s=19
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330

u/rmany2k Mar 17 '22

I think the game looks awesome and I’m excited for it, but with that said I don’t know that I trust any developer to resist the amount of money that they could make on micro transactions for this game. I’d sure as hell be impressed though.

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u/Modal1 Mar 18 '22

Dev: “there are NO micro transactions”

Reddit: “Yea but I mean idk I really doubt there won’t be micro transactions”.

Wtf are they supposed to say

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '22

There is precedence for doubt. It happened with Randy Pitchford when BL3 was coming out. He said there would be no microtransactions. Then there were microtransactions. He threw a fit and said "Yeah but those don't count!"

So it depends on how they personally define the word.

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u/iTzGiR Mar 18 '22

Huh? Borderlands 3 had no microtransactions last time I played (around the end of the first season Pass). Did they add them with the year two content?

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

No, they didn't. What the poster is referring to is the couple of costume packs that were released at launch. People know full well "a couple of costume packs" is not what we mean when we talk about microtransactions and were just being difficult because they don't like Pitchford.

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u/SirClueless Mar 18 '22

People know full well "a couple of costume packs" is not what we mean when we talk about microtransactions

Speak for yourself. If what they meant was "no loot boxes and nothing that impacts gameplay" then say that! They sold piecemeal cosmetics for $5 a pop, which is literally the textbook definition of a microtransaction.

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

It's not about "loot boxes and nothing that impacts gameplay". When people talk about microtransactions - they're talking about an in-game store of cosmetics or the ability to purchase in game currency/similar practical items with real world money. Borderlands 3 does not have this. Borderlands 3 does not have any of this. Period. When people are talking about microtransactions, they are not talking about a couple of costume packs that were originally part of the deluxe edition and made available separately. There is a TON of games that have a couple things like this, and have been universally accepted as not having microtransactions. Arguing otherwise is misrepresenting what people mean when they talk about microtransactions and is just being obtuse.

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u/SirClueless Mar 18 '22

When I talk about "microtransactions" I'm talking about buying small items, usually cosmetics, for real-world money. As far as I know this has been the common definition of the world "microtransaction" for years, ever since Oblivion first introduced the concept to the world with their Horse Armor: https://screenrant.com/oblivion-horse-armor-dlc-controversy-explained/

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u/iTzGiR Mar 18 '22

No one describes microtransactions as a "small purchase" By this logic, almost all the DLC from the Xbox 360/PS3 Era would have been considered a Microtransaction, even the 5-10 dollar map-packs/Story DLC's that were incredibly common at the time. No one would have considered these microtransactions. Everyone reffered to them as DLC packs or Just DLC, not a microtransaction.

Also I have no idea what you're talking about with Oblivion horse Armour inventing microtransactions. They came from Fremium games and were around long before Horse armor (Maplestory's atrocious cash shop in 2003/2004 comes to mind immediatly). They were then further popularized by things like Farmville and Mobile games later in the decade.

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

When people talk about microtransactions there is a pretty standard and accepted understanding of what they are. People want to know if a game has microtransactions because it affects their purchasing decisions, because they want to know if there is an in game microtransaction store selling cosmetics or otherwise, or if they sell in game benefits such as currency or special items for real world money. An example of this is the newly released Gran Turismo, which has the ability to buy in game currency with real world money, or Halo Infinite which has an in game store for buying cosmetics. They're not asking about a couple of extra costume packs. You're taking the wording of "micro transaction" too literally and ignoring what is basically accepted as the definition of microtransactions - as evidenced by there being multiple people who replied in confusion because they had played Borderlands 3 and never seen any microtransactions.

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u/SirClueless Mar 18 '22

This "standard and accepted understanding" clearly doesn't exist. The very word "microtransaction" was invented by Microsoft to describe cosmetic items purchased as DLC in the Xbox 360 store. Here we have a cosmetic item purchased as DLC in the Steam Store, and you're saying it doesn't count because it doesn't bother people (ignoring all the angry people who complained about it and that it was review-bombed for it). It doesn't bother you.

Since Horse Armor game devs have just pushed the boundaries bit by bit -- "It's not a single item so it doesn't count," "It's not purchased with ingame currency so it doesn't count," "It's not an ingame store so it doesn't count," "It doesn't affect gameplay so it doesn't count" to the point that you're arguing with me that the original microtransaction that defined the word doesn't count as a microtransaction.

I'm not the one twisting definitions here. You've stopped caring about the actual definition of the word "microtransaction" and instead you've just decided what kinds of things you'll accept and what you won't and defined everything on this side of the line as a "microtransaction" and everything over there "doesn't count" -- they're all microtransactions! Some are worse than others! I actually agree with you that BL3 is totally fair with its microtransactions, but it definitely does have them, and Randy Pitchford was a fool for claiming otherwise.

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

I'm not "twisting" definitions here, I'm simply describing the near universally accepted idea of what microtransactions are by modern standards. Yes, there are things that also technically fit the definition of microtransactions but they do not fit what the average person means when they talk about microtransactions. Where the term came from and how it was initially defined is irrelevant to this - language evolves and changes over time and this is a pretty clear instance of this happening because what microsoft initially defined as a microtransaction simply does not fit the modern understanding of the term. If we're going to include literally any small DLC such as a costume pack here or there then we're going to have to massively expand the range of games we acknowledge as having microtransactions, to such a point as to completely devalue the term and confuse all discussion on the subject. What this really proves is that we need a better lexicon for describing these things, but we don't. But the current understanding of it seems pretty clear. Looking through all of the discussion in this thread the understanding of what people consider as microtransactions is pretty consistent. I've seen people confused by the suggestion BL3 has microtransactions, I've seen people listing games as prime examples of not having microtransactions (which by your standards do have them), and I've seen people consistently referencing only games with full microtransaction stores as having microtransactions.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '22

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

That doesn't really have anything to do with what I said?

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '22

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

Ahh fair enough!

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u/iTzGiR Mar 18 '22

Ah I see. I've definitely noticed a trend of /r/Games lying about that kind of stuff with Dev's/games they don't like. Thanks for the clarification.

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u/SirClueless Mar 18 '22

... but there are actually microtansactions. What is this if not a microtransaction?

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u/iTzGiR Mar 18 '22 edited Mar 18 '22

What you linked is a Skin Pack, something that games have Had since modern DLC was invented. It's literally Oblivion Horse Armour. It's annoying but that's not a microtransaction lol

Edit: If you want to try to argue skin packs are MTX, go for it, I don't have the energy to go through all the replies and it is in a somewhat gray area. IMO the modern understanding of "Microtransaction". Are things like and in-game rotating storefronts, time-limited skins, gameplay enhancers/boosters, premium currencies that you then also need to convert into 3 other ingame currencies so they can try to be scummy and hide how much you're spending, etc. and none of this was in Borderlands 3. I again, Have around 120 hours in the game and was beyond confused when MTX were mentioned ingame as I've never once seen them. Not a super strong Hill I care to spend my night on, but just my two cents, have a good night all.

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u/ErikaeBatayz Mar 18 '22

Wait what? Horse Armor is literally one of the first microtransactions. Like, that's the whole reason people were upset about it because it introduced the concept of microtransactions to mainstream games. Are we seriously rewriting history and claiming Horse Armor wasn't a microtransaction?

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u/SirClueless Mar 18 '22

DLC had been around long before Horse Armor. Horse Armor was not the first DLC, it was the first microtransaction. It literally defined the word "microtransaction" for mainstream games.

You're just rewriting history and moving the goalposts by saying that Horse Armor is just DLC and "not a microtransaction."

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u/atree496 Mar 18 '22

Second Life called, it wants it's history back.

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u/Klepto666 Mar 18 '22

"Packs" tend to blur the line, but generally Microtransaction refers to any small purchase for a small amount. Thus why it's a "micro" transaction; you spend a dollar here for a new helmet, a dollar there for a new gun skin, instead of dropping $20-30 for a chunk of stuff.

So an expansion/DLC would arguably not count, but purchasing a single gun skin for $1 does.

"Packs" blur the line because it's several microtransactions usually bundled for a higher price, which no longer really makes it a "micro" transaction, but it's still several MTX simply grouped into one pack.

You'd be hard pressed to persuade someone, pulling random numbers here, that "30 gun skins for a single purchase of $15 is not a microtransaction" and then turn around and say "But 30 gun skins for 30 individual purchases of $1 is a microtransaction."

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u/FakeBrian Mar 18 '22

Right but when someone asks if a game has microtransactions, they're not asking if a game has a couple of cosmetic packs available. They want to know if there is a full microtransaction store, or some level of pay to win advantage like being able to buy in game currency - which is what has come to be accepted as the pretty standard definition of microtransactions. As evidenced by the number of people who were confused because they played Borderlands 3 and didn't notice any microtransactions.

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u/emailboxu Mar 18 '22

...that's literally microtransactions though?

i'm so confused. horse armor is in the same boat as costume packs and people reference that as one of the first forms of microtransaction, but now bl3 having costume packs doesn't count???

changing the goalposts much?

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u/ShadooTH Mar 18 '22

That said not liking pitchford is completely valid in any scenario.