Gears of War 4 will have Microtransactions

Gears of War 4 just showed us its first trailer recently, hoping to draw attention towards itself and remind the world that it exists. Well, mission accomplished, developer The Coalition: we're paying attention. Now show us what you got.

...And boy, did they ever. Just earlier, they had an interview with Gamespot, and in it, studio head Rod Fergusson decided to reveal that the game would, in fact, have microtransactions!

To think--of all the things he could have spoken about or revealed or hinted at... he settled on Microtransactions. What a world we live in, huh?

Anyway. In the interview, he called the microtransactions "collectables"--specifically, you could buy crates with real-world money, and each crate would have different weapon and character skins, with different levels of rarity and flourish. These skins would be purely cosmetic, and would have no impact on the gameplay outside perhaps making you easier to see in multiplayer.

"I feel like that paradigm of cards is really clear to understand for collectibles, like the ability to collect things. We had weapon skins and character skins, so that idea of collecting cards is just easily understood. It felt like it added some engagement in terms of its not the, 'Oh, I like Tiger Stripe. I bought Tiger Stripe. I'm done. I don't need to engage with that system anymore. There's no need for me to hang around.' I like the idea of why you buy Magic: The Gathering booster pack. If I could just buy the one card I want then I'm out, then you lose it, right?"

So basically, they're doing it this way so people have to buy more crates to get the skin they want, rather than just buying one and being done. I mean, yeah, he can dress it up as much as he wants about engagement, but at the end of the day, he's making it that people have to spend more money to get the cosmetics they want. So. Not exactly a noble or good-intentioned set-up, huh?

But then, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh. He did continue to say that these crates could be earned without paying any money--there were ways to earn them in-game.

"The notion that everything is earnable just through play means the only reason you would ever use real money is when you want to accelerate it. We're going to be balanced where you're going to be constantly getting crates, or enough credits to get crates through the game, so it really is just about your choice."

Alright, that's a bit better, but the question still remains: how does one earn the crates? How easy is it to do? And is there a limit? Hm. We'll have to see.

Gears of War 4 won't come out till October, so we've still got a wait.