H1Z1, the post-apocalyptic MMO based on a zombie apocalypse, has been known for some time to be Free-to-Play. This has naturally had gamers curious on how Sony Online Entertainment planned to tackle microtransactions, and whether they would give gamers who bought them an inherent advantage over those who didn’t. According to president John Smedley on Reddit, the microtransactions will not be things like water, food, guns or ammo because ” it would suck in our opinion if we did that.” They will also not be selling things that boost or enhance water, food, guns or ammo. Rather, the microtransactions will be wearables, emote packs and character slots.
To add a layer on top of the microtransactions, Smedley said that user can loot the wearables should they kill the user who has them. In his own words, “So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game). Station Cash wearables won’t degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables. This gives the great feeling of whacking some unsuspecting fool who decided to bring a knife to a gun fight.”
Also according to Smedley, the game will have crates that contain “random cool stuff from the store”. SOE still hasn’t decided if they will allow the players to see what is in the crate before they buy a key to unlock it, much like DOTA 2.
There will be another meeting on Thursday to finalize details on microtransactions in H1Z1, and hopefully more information to share.
Published: Apr 24, 2014 06:02 pm