Marvel RIvals
Marvel Rivals is doling out free heroes every month, but like other f2p games, obviously leans hard on things like paid battle passes and pricey skins. Now, it’s come up with a new microtransaction that a lot of players don’t love, albeit some seem less upset.
The idea here is that there will be a new customized color option for a number of existing skins. The recolor will apply to your intro animation, MVP and emotes, in addition to how you look in game. This will be sold for 600 Unstable Molecules, or a 1:1 exchange for Lattice. It’s not clear exactly how Unstable Molecules will be earned (this will start in season 3), but the price for the recolor is $6.
The majority of the comments underneath the post are about how that cost seems too high for what you’re getting, a simple recolor, noting that a game like Fortnite offers a number of full-on alternate styles for many skins for free. In other games, recolors are cheaper or free. The issue now is to get a “full” copy of a skin with its alternate color options could run you $25, $30, $35 or more depending on how many are sold for it. Not great. It’s similar to the chroma skins in League of Legends that players there were also upset about. These do look pretty good:
A few players are more positive saying that they do get a lot of stuff for free so they’d understand why something optional like this costs something. But that’s not the majority view. To start, only a few skins will have this (again, this will include paid skins, not just base skins), but more are supposed to be rolled out in the future. I’m guessing the goal is to have them applied to all skins at some point, especially new ones.
The idea of adding another currency just for recolored skins is also a bit convoluted. But I think the one X-factor here that we don’t know about is how exactly you might be able to earn Unstable Molecules for free by playing the game, at least allowing you the option of saving up rather than paying the $6. But if it’s a very poor accumulation rate, that may not help public sentiment here.
I mean, there is rarely a f2p game with skins that has not run into some sort of controversy with pricing. I’ve seen more irritating ones than this, but given that Marvel Rivals has not really seen that much pushback on most aspects of the game so far, this is, as they say, a “rare L” for the developer. But I think we need more information on the scope of these and how they may in fact be able to be earned in-game.
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