“It’s really just cosmetic and for fun, and doesn’t ruin the game competitively,” notes competitive multiplayer game designer (and Gamasutra contributor) David Sirlin.
I talked about this issue with Killian and a few other folks familiar with both fighting game development and the business of game monetization because to me, this feels like a bit of a watershed moment in big-budget game design.
Now, some fans are publicly venting their frustration at NetherRealm Studios for layering in microtransactions on top of the sticker price.
But how far can we go in that direction without meaningfully compromising game design?