You know those portals that appear in Diablo IV when you teleport or fast-travel somewhere? Wouldn’t it be neat if you could change how they look? Maybe alter their colors? Yeah. Well, you’ll need to pay Blizzard $30 to do so.
When it launched last year, Diablo 4—Blizzard’s latest entry in its popular ARPG dungeon looter series—was a big hit. A lot of folks, myself included, enjoyed the main campaign, the side quests, and the gameplay. The demon-killing RPG provided that perfect “head empty, kill shit” vibe I want from a Diablo adventure. But as time has passed and Blizzard has released big, controversial patches, rolled changes back, added expensive in-game microtransactions, and put out some not-very-popular seasons, Diablo 4 has taken a beating from players and critics. And this latest news of over-priced portals isn’t going to help win anyone back.
As spotted by GamesRadar, the reaction to Diablo 4’s new $30 “Dark Pathways” bundle—which adds five new color options for in-game portals—has been mostly people going, in various ways: “Are you serious?” It’s one thing to charge for such a minor cosmetic change but to charge that much and lock the portals behind specific classes has set folks off. Many feel this is far too much to ask for so little and that class-locking the content is just silly.
Technically, the pack does include 1000 platinum—a premium currency in Diablo 4 used to buy some fancy cosmetics—which is a $10 value. So some (including Blizzard, I imagine) might suggest that actually, this pack is only charging $20 for five different colored portals. However, $10 in made-up coins that only work in one game isn’t the same thing as actual money. Besides, even if you agree that Blizzard is giving you $10 back with this purchase, that’s still $20 for five colored portals that are class-locked. Either way you cut this demon, that’s a bad deal that stinks.
As one person on Reddit pointed out, instead of spending $30 on a pack of portals in Diablo IV you could buy Palworld, a whole video game. In fact, if I look at Steam right now, I can spot a bunch of great games that cost $30 or less that I’d rather spend my money on.
I’d like to think not many folks are buying this expensive pack of portals, but we are in the era of $20 skins. So I wouldn’t be shocked if this ends up selling well enough that Blizzard starts selling more portal packs in the future. Bleh.
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