Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's annoying microtransactions in the spotlight

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's microtransactions are annoying a lot of players.

Eidos Montreal's cool action role-playing game launched on Tuesday to a positive reception from critics (check out our Deus Ex: Mankind Divided review, in which Edwin awards the game a recommended badge), but the pre-order DLC sparked a furious reaction on the game's subReddit.

The complaints revolve around single use, single save pre-order items. In the new Deus Ex, DLC items are saved in storage, and you can transfer them at any point to your inventory.

Players were surprised to discover that after DLC items were transferred to the inventory, they could not be used again, even on another playthrough.

In response, the community suggested players make a save as soon as the game allows, then claim the pre-order DLC, then start every subsequent playthrough from that save and not from a new game in the menu. It's a ridiculous situation and an even more ridiculous workaround forced upon players.

As you'd expect, Deus Ex players reacted in anger, taking to the game's subReddit to complain. That's where Eidos Montreal community manager "Poticha" stepped in.

Poticha clarified that there are two types of item in the game: consumables and durables.

Consumables are Praxis Kits, ammo, credits and crafting parts. These are one-time use items. And yes, once you add them to your inventory, they are consumed in your current playthrough and are not re-usable.

Poticha said consumables work the way they do "due to first-party constraints", which points the finger at Microsoft and Sony, although it's such a vague statement that it's hard to work out what it means.

Durables, however, are weapons, skins and augmentations, and are not one-time use. These are automatically available in all of your playthroughs, once you have downloaded and installed them.

This statement sparked more questions from players upset that there are consumables in the game in the first place.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a full-price game, contains microtransactions for everything from in-game credits to Praxis Kits and Chipsets, the latter of which are used to buy premium booster packs and custom weapons for the Breach game mode.

But it's the microtransactions for the single-player that are causing the biggest stink. You can buy credits and Praxis Kits for the campaign, for example £3.59 for 5000 credits.

It's in this context that many players have accused publisher Square Enix of using consumables to create a microtransaction market for the new Deus Ex.

Here's Poticha again on Reddit, this time insisting Deus Ex's microtransactions had no impact on game design.

• Hi everyone. We've read your concerns, and we just wanted to step in and clarify things here. We have not, and will never, compromise the balance of the game in order to direct people towards microtransactions. The game was balanced 100 per cent independently of the microtransactions available in the store.

• Microtransactions in big-budget games is nothing new, of course, and it's fair to say that Deus Ex doesn't ram them down players' throats. But there's still something icky about microtransactions being in a single-player focused game. If I fork out full-price for a hefty campaign, the last thing I want to see is an in-game shop.

  For me? I'm just disappointed that Deus Ex, a game that by all accounts is pretty great, is being tarnished by annoying microtransactions.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-08-24-deus-ex-mankind-divideds-annoying-microtransactions-in-the-spotlight

I didn't even know there were microtransactions... so doesn't really bother me.

I'm not spending a penny on this, so far the game seems well balanced in that regard...so far so good for me

Honestly, who is dumb enough to pay for cheats?

As long as it doesn't force me to spend real money, I don't care. People who spend money on these things aren't dedicated gamers IMO. Without sense of accomplishment, games are no fun for me.

Gross.

Sure it's optional, but it's very much against the integrity of arguing this medium is an art form.

Whatever, I'm weird. Hopefully it helps those who need it.

Considering they had all them ugly pre-order tier microtranactions and had to cancel them all, this doesnt surprise me. Microtranactions arent what stopped me from buying the game though, it was a lack of freshness. At least it has a fresh story i guess, or i hope that is.

Nothing should surprise me anymore but it still blows my mind to see this shit in $60 games.

No no no you got it wrong. Microtransactions are annoying the internet who, like a vampire in need of blood leapt at this info to satiate their need to propagate the culture of negativity cyberspace hungers for.

For me and all of the other folks who actually own the game and play it, they mean nothing. I'm six hours in and I still have no idea what these microtransactions are or how they effect my game. In fact, the only way I found out about them was from all the internet yentas acting like Jenson popped a cyberboner out of his hand and shot microtransactions up their asses with it lol.

Oh internet, will you ever grow up :P

More than likely they know Publishers will get increasingly greedy as they did with preorder incentives, dlc and eventually season passes.

So yea, they did learn, through experience.

@uninspiredcup: Why edit out the part that nullified the terror of the microtransactions at hand you sly devil lol.

You could also look at the situation like this:

Publishers have been greedy assholes since last gen. These dudes finally find a way to satiate their board members in the least intrusive way possible while leaving those actually playing and enjoying the game alone and the internet crucifies them for it. What's going on here isn't even in the same universe as whats going on in that ubi video. Anyone with a modicum of critical thought and objectivity can see that.

As long as its not paywall and more as a convenience item, I wouldnt really be bothered. I mean, if you actually want to pay...to cheat...i mean yeah..

All i'm saying, Cheat Engine is always an option. I mean come on.

But yeah, not bothered.

My good friedn Unpirided Cup, it turns out 2 augmentations are locked behind seasonpass/pre-order bonuses.....yeah two full Augs.

Add this to your OP,

https://imgur.com/a/ZUmf2

Everyone needs to stop bitching about microtransactions. You're not forced to buy them. Get over it.

tbh, microtransactions are one of the worst thing happened to industry today we pay full price for game why we have to pay again for unlock items?

I don't agree with the "pay to win" mentality, but what you said is absurd. I also don't agree that all games aren't fun without a deep challenge.

Square-Enix is shit, more at 11.

That doesn't work for me anymore. Sure for a change it's nice and all but I prefer games where at least there is some sort of rewarding experience even if they don't have "deep challenge". And when it comes to Microtransactions, where I can pay to get better stuff instead of earning it myself? No thanks.

Doesn't hurt the game in the slightest Cell. Seriously, I wouldn't have even known they existed if not for all the yenta-ing.

It doesn't need to force you, but it can haggle you and inherently change the core game design.

In IOS games, you don't need to pay to play, but they attempt to make it as much a hassle as possible. by adding cooldowns and brick walls to hamper progress.

If you look at a game like Assassins Creed, from the start till now, Ubisoft have deliberately attempted to crammed as much shit into the game, with as much unlocks, to encourage to the player to buy a booster.

In the case of Rogue, rather than actually releasing what would quality as proper DLC, it is almost entirely booster packs i.e. nothing...

http://steamcommunity.com/app/311560/

Now you can "ahh this is optional and doesn't change anything" but no, not really. The game DNA itself has changed to accommodate it, and outright promote it. All this shit isn't added for depth, it's added for that.

The other obvious example (which pc gamers for some reason defend because graphics) is Battlefield. It's no longer about a team doing an objective, but XP earned and unlocking shit. Instead of half a dozen weapons like the original pc games, we now have as much shit as EA can spam at you so you can get up that tech tree, which, oh so conveniently supports boosters.

Maybe I'm insane here, but when I play a multiplayer team based objective game, or think of what made Battlefield great, it was not about getting up a massive artificial barrier.

Add this to the fact the Season Pass contains some of these items and they can only be used once only. Can't use them in other playthroughs. £25 for 2 missions and some once only items.. Despicable.

I mean whatever the whole "they aren't gamers" thing is a dumb thing on principle as it is, not the least of which is that gamers are universally fucking stupid.

But beyond that, games have easy modes man, it's their money, they can do what they want. But they are wasting money on bullshit, and are being conned by the pub/dev for it. They aren't less of a gamer (which again, eww), but they are wasting money on nonsense.

I'll be sure to tune in for this shocking development.

@uninspiredcup said:

@Cloud_imperium said:

That doesn't work for me anymore. Sure for a change it's nice and all but I prefer games where at least there is some sort of rewarding experience even if they don't have "deep challenge". And when it comes to Microtransactions, where I can pay to get better stuff instead of earning it myself? No thanks.

It doesn't need to force you, but it can haggle you and inherently change the core game design.

In IOS games, you don't need to pay to play, but they attempt to make it as much a hassle as possible. by adding cooldowns and brick walls to hamper progress.

If you look at a game like Assassins Creed, from the start till now, Ubisoft have deliberately attempted to crammed as much shit into the game, with as much unlocks, to encourage to the player to buy a booster.

In the case of Rogue, rather than actually releasing what would quality as proper DLC, it is almost entirely booster packs i.e. nothing...

http://steamcommunity.com/app/311560/

Now you can "ahh this is optional and doesn't change anything" but no, not really. The game DNA itself has changed to accommodate it, and outright promote it. All this shit isn't added for depth, it's added for that.

The other obvious example (which pc gamers for some reason defend because graphics) is Battlefield. It's no longer about a team doing an objective, but XP earned and unlocking shit. Instead of half a dozen weapons like the original pc games, we now have as much shit as EA can spam at you so you can get up that tech tree, which, oh so conveniently supports boosters.

Maybe I'm insane here, but when I play a multiplayer team based objective game, or think of what made Battlefield great, it was not about getting up a massive artificial barrier.

Of course it varies from game to game. For example if MTs are there just for some cosmetic items or to give players an item early in their SINGLE PLAYER game and the game feels balanced for those not willing to spend money then I don't think there is problem.

In fact I think giving money in this case is not "pay to win", instead it is "pay to ruin experience". Where is fun in that? You know, not having a complete experience and getting everything without doing anything yourself?

In multiplayer games, selling weapons or locking important items behind pay wall in both SP and MP is pretty shitty move though. At the end of the day, I don't want MTs in games but unfortunately here we are now.

The best we can hope from a lot of AAA game is that they balance the game right, so we are not forced to purchase anything. Gamers should also stop supporting these things as much as possible, so we can get rid of this trash. I haven't spent anything on MTs ever, so I'm doing my part :-p

Gross, gross, gross. And I would like to see reviewers weigh this more heavily in the future. It's just an option... to pay for something that used to be free, and one that brings into question the entire balance of the game, and robs you of the sensation of buying a complete product.

That's truly awful. Between this and the large preorder PR fail, I'm glad I haven't supported this game yet.

I'll pick it up for a very steep discount in a few months.

The medium isn't an art form anyway. Hence this stuff can happen because there's a happy link between money and gaming systems.

Sadly, art and gouging your consumer's wallets are not mutually exclusive concept (in fact they go pretty much hand in hand). This is just dumb, art or not.

As long as they are not required, I dont care. I never buy them nor will I ever.

Eeeeh as far as I have seen in DE:MD those micro transactions really ain't an issue, the game is built with a good flow to begin with, outside of parts (which is my fault), Praxis points and money are in excess. So the game does have a good flow to it. I would however consider that dlc to break the flow somewhat.

Babyback wussbag shyte. Give me a break. This isn't important.

Oh please. So are movies like Friday the 13th part 9 and Fast and Furious 7. Much like film, these mediums are capable of art in them but the medium as a whole isn't art. Its a business.

Them getting paid or not isn't important either.

The problem IMO is not the microtransaction in this game, but the new possibilities it gave companies.

First we didn't have any of this, the we got DLCs, then it started with cosmetics, after that "time savers", after that special itens, now this on single player games, the way things are in 2 - 3 years we'll have paywalls in all AAA games. Basically the industry is making consoles games bigger versions of mobile games and that's the problem.

That's why I think people should complain, If I wanted a crappy pay to win game I would go to my mobile or facebook games.

The thing in this game is not a problem at all, like some of you guys said, the problem is after that.

If you guys play sports games online, is basically a pay to win, people who buy boosters got a lot of advantages.

I just picked up Unity for half a shilling, and holy shit, the most egregious obnoxious forceful peace of "let's make microtransactions standard" shit humanity has ever witnessed.

Literally hitting escape = the microtransactions shop superseding practically everything else in menu - gameplay, stats and technical options.

This out of date milk wasn't joking.

Uninspired idiot. He gets his panties in a bunch pretty much once a week about this shit.

@uninspiredcup said:

I just picked up Unity for half a shilling, and holy shit, the most egregious obnoxious forceful peace of "let's make microtransactions standard" shit humanity has ever witnessed.

Literally hitting escape = the microtransactions shop superseding practically everything else in menu - gameplay, stats and technical options.

This out of date milk wasn't joking.

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Well, that should be good for you, sniper/jankarop. You're shitty at games so I imagine those bought cheats make you feel better about yourself.

The idea of microtransactions sounds like shite, but I've never actually played a game that forced them on me, or even made me feel compelled to drop any cash.

15000 credits for 8 quid? It's ridiculously easy to make that money in the game. Also they're selling 1 praxis point for 79p but it costs 10000 credits in the game. It's like whoever created these prices didn't actually play the damn game.

Currently yea, but this was the case with dlc. Now, especially with pre-order dlc they are practically attempting to pull your cheeks open. Incrementally increased bit by bit until standardized.

Playing Unity there, and it's hardly surprising since it's Ubisoft they seem to have jumped the gun from "shit in the background you don't care about", into shoving a big ad sign in your face every time you his the esc key.

Would argue games like Battlefield and Assassins Creed at their frame-work are being designed with convoluted unlock tier systems specifically to edge people into it. In the long run, we will get more and more games just filled with a kerfuffle of shit. It seems in the past they have attempted to relegate it purely to multiplayer and have migrated into the core game.

Publishers are basically the seediest biggest pile of dicks in existence, if they can get away with it they will.

? I don't know what your supposed point was. Them getting paid is based on the game, the base game selling. The base game is being well received and I would wager has sold well. The Microtransactions are optional. You DO NOT HAVE TO BUY THEM TO BEAT OR ENJOY THE GAME, you pussies.

Its like you're complaining about having crotch itch but have chosen NOT to shower. Its your choice.

I actually own the game. It is super easy to get credits, guns, praxis kits etc. No one needs to buy them with real money. The game is very forgiving.

So I don't see the problem here if some idiot wants to waste his money buying those things. Not my problem and it doesn't break the main game.

@uninspiredcup: thank you for posting it, wasn't working on mobile yesterday for the life of me.

@clone01: yo, seriously, this stupid persecution you have going is dumb. Let it the **** go Elsa.

It amuses me, so I'll continue calling sniper/jankarop out for what he is.

@clone01: it makes no more sense than you or me being jankarcop. I understand being a cyber stalker is satisfying to some, but at this point you are literally contributing less than him, to the point it makes you look stupid.

Nah. But thank you for your input.