Assassin’s Creed Unity released yesterday for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and the game’s launch was less than stellar, to say the least.
With issues ranging from piss-poor performance analyses across all available platforms to accusations of using its review embargo to hide the game’s technical issues, Assassin’s Creed Unity’s launch day rivals the negative backlash associated with another Ubisoft title released earlier this year, Watch_Dogs.
However, it seems as though more fuel is being added to the proverbial Assassin’s Creed Unity fire (which many could argue that Ubisoft started themselves).
According to various game reviewers from a number of different gaming websites (mainly Giant Bomb and Kotaku), it appears that review copies of Assassin’s Creed Unity had its microtransaction shop system gimped. More specifically, the pricing for the various in-game microtransaction items was disabled, hidden from view – apparently due to a Ubisoft-imposed mandate of some sort.
Read more details on Assassin’s Creed Unity and Ubisoft’s questionable decisions after the break.
Assassin’s Creed Unity – Hiding Microtransaction Pricing
The following comes from Stephen Totilo‘s (of Kotaku) Twitter posts in regards to this question:
Can you confirm if microtransactions were disabled on review copies of Assassin’s Creed Unity?
To which Totilo said:
“It was obvious that the optional hack currency was tied to micropayments, but you couldn’t connect to the server to see pricing. Much of the server stuff didn’t work. No Initiates or companion app stuff. Crucially, co-op DID work. That mattered more.”
Furthermore, it appears that Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb (presumably during his review run of Unity) initially thought that the hidden microtransaction pricing was a sort of parody, because it was unclear whether or not he could actually spend real money on the review version of the game.
Quote from NeoGAF user, Myggen, on the topic:
“Jeff was talking about it (Unity) on the podcast and assumed/hoped that the stuff was somehow a parody of microtransactions, because it wasn’t clear if you could actually spend real life money on it in the version they had.
I think that says a lot about where we’re at with this stuff now.
They explicitly said that the microtransaction part of it (which they, again, weren’t sure was actually a thing when they recorded the podcast) wasn’t in the game.”
What are your thoughts on Ubisoft hiding microtransaction pricing within review copies of Assassin’s Creed Unity? More importantly, why would they do such a thing? What benefit do you think they could glean from doing so?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.