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Ashes of Creation, the long-in-development massive multiplayer online game role-playing game (MMORPG) has had its fair share of drama, but the development team has kicked the hive once again. After announcing the game would head to Steam after exclusively being sold via its own storefront in waves, it has now said it’ll launch a cosmetics store while in alpha.
The game was originally crowdfunded through Kickstarter in 2017 and is currently in its second round of alpha testing. Mired in a constant miasma of scrutiny from MMO fans, Ashes of Creation has rapidly become one of the more suspicious games in active development. There are claims that the game is a scam, with years of push-pull on the matter within the community.
Cash shops will bring FOMO to AoCSome of the anger comes from claims that the founder of Intrepid Studios, Steven Sharif, has said the title is fully funded. A few players on Reddit are mildly confused as to why a cash shop would need to be implemented during an alpha phase if the game was financially secure at this point, but it’s clear that the team at Intrepid is seeking a new method of income to help get the game out the door.
Cash shops have become a bit of an issue within MMOs and adjacent games. Much like with other video game cash shops, there’s a fear that it’ll introduce fear-of-missing-out, pushing players to buy up items through psychological means.
When I spoke with Old School RuneScape players, one of the shining points of the game is that it features very little FOMO, with all non-seasonal/holiday content always accessible. A couple of weeks ago, Aion 2 launched in Korea, which resulted in a backlash over its perceived “pay-to-win” mentality. It got so bad that the developers behind it had to stream an apology.
Ashes of Creation players have also not received their Kickstarter backer rewards as of yet. These are set for 1.0, but it’s ticked off some players in forums, as the shop will feature a rotating assortment of cosmetics before those rewards are delivered.
Ashes of Creation is about to get a smidge cheaperAshes of Creation is also a subscription-based game, on top of being paid for. As of right now, it costs $100 to get into the game’s alpha, as well as betas 1 and 2. Included is $15 worth of “in-game marketplace credits” (which they expressly say is “NO P2W!” in one of the more unprofessional game descriptions I’ve seen) as well as a month of game time. After that, you’ll be paying $15 a month for access to the game.
As of right now, for anyone remotely curious, it’s not currently worth buying into Ashes of Creation. With the Steam launch coming soon, the price is being slashed in half to $49.99, which comes with the same access as the $100 bundle.
All said, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up reporting that the game has made oodles of cash from these cosmetics.
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