Devil May Cry 5 to have Microtransactions for Character Upgrades

Gamespot is reporting that upcoming hack-and-slash action game Devil May Cry 5 will include microtransactions. These will allow players to pay real money to earn Red Orbs, an in-game currency which can be used for various things, among other, upgrading the player character.

In an interview with Hideaki Itsuno, game director of DMC5, Gamespot got a direct statement regards the inclusion of microtransactions. The discussion arose after Gamespot noticed the option to purchase Red Orbs in an in-game shop during a demo done by Capcom.

Itsuno was not coy at all clarifying the option for an accelerated progression option, stating that the decision to use those should be up to the player.

“With giving people the ability to purchase Red Orbs, it’s something we want to give people as an option. If they want to save time and just want to get all the stuff at once, those people can do that. But on the other hand I don’t feel you have to get all the moves. You should be able to play it the way you want to play it.” – Hideaki Itsuno

Some might be surprised how nonchalant the game director comments on the disclosure of the much-debated game mechanic, but games featuring real money purchases are very common in the Japanese gaming scene where mobile gaming is taken extremely serious by traditional game publishers and enjoy widespread success. The immediate negativity from gamers is much less apparent than among Western audiences.

This doesn’t however mean that Itsuno and his team are implementing predatory incentives on the game balance. Quite the opposite in fact. While entrance-level skills can quickly boost the player’s capabilities early on, more powerful ones will still require training and skill to use them correctly. Whether you buy them with real money or not.

“It’s interesting because from a game design point of view there’s two different things we think about when we set the prices of the moves, skills, and abilities. The first thing is the stuff that we feel people should want to get first is made cheaper. So people will think, ‘Oh this is cheap so I’m just going to buy this.’ But then for the stuff that’s going to be harder to use and master, we make that more expensive. Partly because of you save up for that you’re not going to be able to buy as many skills, so you’re going to have the time to learn it. So you have to make the decision between going for the cheaper stuff or saving up, getting the thing that has a lot of application but you’ll have to spend time learning and perfecting.” – Hideakit Itsuno

Devil May Cry 5 is coming out March 8th, 2019 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.