MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was able to play Diablo 4 before the release, but found the skins offered in the shop quite boring. Now the game is here, and suddenly Blizzard is really going for it, offering cool sets and skins. Unfortunately, at a really expensive price …
I was able to test Diablo 4 before release and found everything about it really good. Only the shop wasn’t in the game yet. However, as testers, we at least got screenshots and videos of what the offers would look like.
What I could see was boring. Really: a few pretty dull skins and mounts, and they were expensive as well. For a bundle for the Necromancer, Activision Blizzard wants at least 25 euros and it doesn’t even look good.
Honestly, while playing, I found a dozen cosmetics that look better than anything in the shop’s pictures. I wondered how exactly Blizzard plans to promote the skins when everything in the game itself is prettier.
Now Diablo 4 is here, and the shop is in the game. There are not only more offers but also really good ones, at least for me. And that puts me in a bit of a dilemma.
I really like Diablo 4. I can hardly complain anywhere and had a lot of fun during my 30-40 hours before release:
Diablo 4 tempts with my favorite animals – but only briefly and for the wrong class
When I looked at the shop in the game for research, I immediately noticed the bundle “Raised by Wolves”. It includes several individual cosmetics:
- all armor slots made of wolf fur, bones, and fangs
- a new tattoo
- weapon skins for a bow and daggers
The tattoo alone surprised me because I didn’t expect it. Wolves are my favorite animals, and I love everything that is styled like this. I actually want to buy the bundle. However, it has three problems:
- it costs 2,500 platinum, which is equivalent to 25 euros
- the bundle may only be available briefly in the shop, the offers are renewed every few days
- most skins are only available for the hunter, but I will start off playing a sorceress
Normally, I don’t care much about FOMO. However, in this case, it will probably make me buy the bundle simply because I want it. And because I know that I will eventually play a hunter, at the latest as a second or third character.
Blizzard suddenly goes all out with the skins – unfortunately
Even the other bundles in the shop are … cool? Almost all the skins that are now in the shop have something. And even the “cheaper” bundles for 8 euros appeal to me. There’s a back decoration, an emote, and a special grave stone. Again: the hunter gets a wolf howl as an emote. I want that!
Normally, it doesn’t bother me to spend more money for good skins. After all, it’s good work from the designers, and I like to reward that since they clearly made something for me, even if they didn’t know it before.
Changing skins in Diablo 4 is very easy. We explain the transmog system in the video:
Then I read my colleague Dimitri Halley’s column on GameStar. He writes: „The shop is a warning, the worst is yet to come“. And he is probably right.
Looking at Call of Duty, whose shop is suspiciously similar to that in Diablo 4, it is quite certain that bolder offers will come eventually. Activision knows exactly how much they can squeeze from the fans and when they can get greedier.
Probably I will weaken when this offer comes. Luckily, I belong to those people who buy something pretty once and then use and display it permanently. Let’s hope it stays that way.
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