So, apparently Assassin’s Creed Syndicate “isn’t that bad” – which is a great improvement over recent entries in the franchise at least, but that’s a rant for another time – and I have to admit that the idea of climbing around the rooftops of Victorian London has a certain appeal.
However, I find myself unable to justify buying the game. Not only do I know that it will probably be a disappointing experience, involving a long slog through repetitive missions, side quests, pointless collectibles and a bland, forgettable story – and that it will probably be broken and full of bugs – but I just can’t get over the price tag…
The Cost of Joining the Assassins
Do you want to buy Assassin’s Creed Syndicate? OK, that’ll be £49.99 please! £50! Whether you buy it on a physical PS4 disk in a shop, buy it online or download it direct to your PC via Steam, this game will set you back fifty entire pounds! I appreciate that the cost of developing next-gen games is rising, but considering that I’m expecting the game to be a disappointment, there’s no way I’m shelling out that much cash! And that’s just for starters…
You want the Season Pass, which is the cheapest way of getting all the game’s DLC? Well, that’ll cost you an extra £25. I would never do that because I hate season passes, but, again, I’m saving that rant for later. Oh, and there are micro-transactions in the game too. You can buy in-game currency for real money! And so the game’s economy will almost certainly have been especially designed to be just frustrating enough to push you into paying to cut a few corners and unlock some of the more expensive gear more quickly.
Basically, Ubisoft is expecting us (or, at least, some of us) to shell out the best part of £100 for a video game. A game we will probably complete (or get bored with) in around 15 hours, depending on how much patience you have for the endless, pointless collectibles. The base game costs a sixth of the price of the console that you are about to play it on! I think this is madness and so they won’t be getting a single penny from me until it become more reasonable.
Pure Greed
A big part of the problem is that I can’t shake the feeling that the publishers are deliberately designing these games to extract the maximum amount of money from their players; wasting time and resources creating different outfits and hats to sell (not to mention the infrastructure that allows them to sell this crap), or hacking entire levels out of the game so they can be sold separately as DLC, rather than spending those resources on crafting a better game experience so that people will actually enjoy playing it and more people will buy it!
This is as much the fault of the consumers for continuing to buy this stuff, but we’ve been repetitively stung by games like this and it is only a matter of time before more people realise it and are no longer willing to pay the rising price…
Final Thoughts
I rarely pre-order games or buy them on launch day any more. This is not just because they’re usually unfinished and/or riddled with bugs, but because it’s just too damned expensive. I usually wait until they come down to a more reasonable price or pick them up second-hand. And the latter option means that the developers/publishers don’t get anything out of it at all! Part of thinks that I should feel a bit bad about that, but, as far as I’m concerned, they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
If they continue to be so greedy, and to treat gamers like nothing more than bags of money to be looted, then I’ll have no sympathy for them when the world of triple-A gaming eventually comes crashing down around them…