Epic Games now offers several other games, including Rocket League and Rocket Racing, a racing mode for Fortnite – where there are virtual car skins to buy. However, the prices in the shop were so outrageous that players complained loudly, and Epic is now responding.
These are the expensive cosmetics:
- Rocket Racing has been playable since December 8 and offers an in-game shop where you can customize the appearance of your cars. Some of the newer bundles cost 4,000 V-Bucks. These are just skins for existing cars.
- V-Bucks are a virtual currency that you can only buy in bundles.
- The cheapest options are 4 x 1,000 V-Bucks for a total of 35.96, or 5,000 V-Bucks for 36.99 €.
These are the reactions: Just shortly after release, there was much anger over the expensive prices in the shop of Rocket Racer (via Reddit). Players found that around 40 euros or dollars were too much for a skin for a single car.
There were comparisons about what else you could do with that money. Popular games like Hollow Knight could be bought twice for that, and even five times if on sale. Particularly strong criticism was directed at the apparent target audience:
Children have no concept of value. If they like [the skin] and their parents can afford it, they buy it. And considering that Epic caters to younger players and builds on this, someone must have thought that made sense.
Another user claims: His cousin is 13 and bought V-Bucks for 60 dollars and squandered them within 3 weeks. Others say: for that much money they could just fill their car’s gas tank in real life.
Epic responds to complaints, lowers the price
Epic now explains on the official X channel that the prices will be lowered. Bundles that cost 4,000 V-Bucks now cost 2,500 V-Bucks, those for 2,500 will be lowered to 1,500.
This corresponds to bundles worth 23 € and 20 € – in the cheapest case.
Additionally, there will be a partial refund. Those who purchased bundles at the higher price will receive the difference credited in V-Bucks.
The discussion about prices in the shop has quickly heated up, especially since it has been an ongoing debate in gaming for some time. Recently, there was similar trouble with Diablo 4. There is a shop in the full-priced game, which has upset many fans.
However, Epic asked for significantly more here than Blizzard did. In the shop of Diablo 4, the most expensive packages were as heavy as the now discounted version of the cars in Rocket Racer. To my shame, I have to admit, that I purchased at least one of these shop skins for 25 €.
