Art Lean
Kombatant
The funny thing is, I wouldn't mind the whole real money for crystals thing if it had good exclusive shit more than once every 6 months. In terms of stuff that's not just readily available for anyone, we've had what; the female classic ninjas for a week (not available anywhere else), two skins from Cangaceiro Kano (only available on a regional version), all of Kold War Skarlet (likewise only available on a regional version from Amazon) and the Shao Kahn commentator pack (since if you're like me and you suck, the latter is very hard to unlock in the more technical tutorial sections)... in the last YEAR.They need to change it so that skins and the store stuff costs in game kind, not time Crystal's. I mean I also have well over a billion on switch and close to a billion on xbox. They could have done it so we can buy any skin or gear piece in the game with lots of koins or real cash, but no gotta get time Crystal's by toxic league and by buying them with real cash anyway with limited options....
Everything else can pretty much be obtained by clicking "A.I. fighter" and go watch a movie with the occasional check back to click 'ok' and move onto the next fight whilst the game does it for you.
I'd understand it if every week there was something that was "OMG, FOR ONE DAY ONLY GET MK1 JOHNNY CAGE!" or "UMK3 JADE ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL SUNDAY" and it'd inspire people to go "HOLY FUCK I WANT THAT, HERE'S MY MONEY!!!!" But it's not, it's "Buy Sub Zero's Mythologies mask for the equivalent of £4.00... or you have to ask the computer to play the Towers of Time for you!!!!" and I go "ok, I will then" and click 'A.I. Fighter' accordingly then go watch a TV show I like whilst it mines me the gear I want.
My son plays Fortnite and he constantly sees some skin that's "only available for the next few days ever!" and whilst I don't agree with it, I can understand from a money perspective of this kind of "make people salivate with limited editions so they spend money!" marketing method.
Instead it's short cuts to stuff you can make the computer just grind for you for free for the most part. So why waste money on something I can make the A.I. get for me anyway as long as I demonstrate some patience?
It's not like I agree with microtransactions, but I'm trying to be devil's advocate here and even then can't see Satan's perspective. They want you to spend real money for stuff, so that they make money.... for rubbish you can get for free if you're just happy to exploit the grind with AI fighters for the most part? So they're losing out.
Wouldn't it make more sense to offer stuff more often that actually makes people WANT to spend real money?