With all the backlash being flung at Star Wars Battlefront II, Destiny 2, Shadow of War and Forza 7 over their microtransactions and loot boxes, you’d think that Ubisoft, the developers of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Origins, wouldn’t want any part of that. Well, it turns out they do.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is not new to microtransactions by any means, in previous games there have been plenty of cosmetic items to purchase, with an occasional rare item that makes you extremely powerful (looking at you Assassin’s Creed Unity). So this shouldn’t be a surprise that Ubisoft continues to sell in-game items to players in their latest iteration of Assassin’s Creed.
There is some good news at the moment though. These microtransactions don’t cost real money, just in-game currency that can be earned by playing the game. “Seems like you can only buy them with in-game currency, in the preview build at least. I bet the final build will have Helix credit,” Neogaf user, Duchess O’Death, reports in his thread I want to be angry about AC: Origins loot boxes before knowing if they’re bad.
We won’t know all the specifics of these loot boxes until the game is released on October 27th, like whether or not any of the in-game currency can be purchased with real money, or whether any content is behind a paywall. However, Neogaf users seem optimistic that regardless of the loot boxes costing real-money or not, they won’t affect game balance or enjoyment. For example on that same thread, “I have faith that they handle it just like previous AC microtransaction. Because the way they handle it is harmless and nothing effect game balance and not make thing more grind than it should be.”