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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

Fallout76 is now descending the slippery slope of micro-transactions. Some arguments can be made with regards to a few cosmetic items or other obvious, please support us, downloadable content (DLC), but I generally relegate all other micro-transaction games to the cash grab category. When you take a story driven, RPG with FPS elements, and take out the story elements, all you have is a husk of a game. In addition online only games need a certain level of income to be able to pay the bills with regards to server maintenance, etc. The reputable online only games generally take care of that by including a monthly fee or by creating more quality content for people to upgrade to. An issue I see is that this is very much in line with what Free-to-play games would do to generate more revenue. This kind of practice doesn't belong in games that already demand an up-front purchase price. It also seems to goes against their original stance of no pay-to-win elements in the game.

That addition has some fans up in arms that developer Bethesda has broken a promise to keep so-called "pay-to-win" elements out of the premium game. As Bethesda's Pete Hines told Gamespot last October [emphasis added]:

        If you don't want to spend money in the Atomic Shop for cosmetic stuff, you don't have to. We give you a shitload of Atoms just for playing the game. Folks that want to spend money on whatever the hell it is because they don't have enough Atoms, they can, but it's not, "I'm now better playing against other players because I spent money." It's not pay-to-win. And it's not loot crates.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/fallout-76-repair-kits-raise-new-pay-to-win-concerns/ [arstechnica.com]

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