Hell has frozen over. After over 30 years, DOOM has microtransactions
The Internet was in a frenzy after micropayments were added to DOOM. Contrary to appearances, it makes a lot of sense, and the idea is to shock and wake up the players who are being exploited.
DOOM this is one of those games that probably needs no introduction to anyone. The progenitor of the FPS genre From Software id debuted on the market in 1993and over the years we have seen five different parts, several spin-offs and two large, but moderately successful films.
The gaming market is changing. This is your last chance to object
The original, first part is also often ported to… basically anything with a screen and a processor. Including refrigerators, washing machines, lawn mowers and modified pregnancy tests. However, one enthusiast stated that “it's time to stop porting DOOM to new things and start bringing new things to DOOM”.
Thus, Guy Dupont added micropayments to the 1993 game! In its modification each time an item is picked up, the player must pay using their phone and QR code. At first glance it looks like madness and a programmer with too much time on his hands. However, there may be a deeper meaning to it.
We need to STOP running DOOM on new things
and START putting new things into DOOM.For example, today I added micro-transactions to the original game. Any time you pick up an item, the game freezes until you make a payment. pic.twitter.com/p9j9eYyOwJ
— Guy Dupont (@gvy_dvpont) April 13, 2024
Looking at the mod's author's responses to the outraged players' comments, Guy Dupont clearly wanted to draw attention to the current state of new games. It is no secret that more and more titles are released unfinished and with content cut out, but with integrated microtransactions.
A great example would be Dragon's Dogma 2. Despite the price PLN 295 for the digital release we get poor optimization and a lot of errors, and at the beginning it was not even possible to delete the character and create a new one. However, this did not prevent the creators from adding paid fast travel or resurrection.
Therefore, this may be the last moment for players to protest. This financing model is one thing in the case of free games or productions from small creators, and another thing when large and wealthy studios decide to squeeze every last penny out of the brand's loyal fans.