Since the release of the fighting game Dead or Alive 6 in March 2019, publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team Ninja have not been exactly generous with the extra content created for the game. From incredibly high-priced season passes to extra costumes that can only be purchased separately, the companies have not shied away from taking full advantage of microtransactions and the gamers willing to pay for them.
With the release of update 1.60 last week, a new dig was made into players’ pockets with the introduction of a fee to change a Dead or Alive 6 character’s hair color and, for some reason, this feature was only added to the PS4 version of the game. After intense negative backlash from the game’s player base, an apology calling the decision a “misstep” was posted on the official Dead or Alive 6 Twitter account.
In order to change the hair color of a character in Dead or Alive 6 on PS4, players must now purchase a premium ticket, which costs one dollar. This isn’t a one-time purchase that permanently unlocks the ability to alter a character’s hair color, which would be outrageous enough. No, if a player wants to make their favorite character’s hair red, it will cost one dollar. And if the player then decides they preferred the color black, it will cost another dollar to change it back.
It's not always clear whether the decision to add microtransactions is made by a game's developer or publisher, and such is the case here. However, when a Dead or Alive 6 player opened a ticket with Koei Tecmo to complain about the decision to charge money just to change a character’s hair color, they received the following response from customer support: “It is a specification of this feature that a premium ticket is used every time you change the hairstyles, and it is not a bug. Please note that even if you change back to the same color again, another ticket will be used. We would appreciate your understanding.”
As Twitter and Reddit comments clearly show, many Dead or Alive 6 players are not understanding, and they made sure to let Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja know. As a result, an official mea culpa was recently issued, which acknowledged the community’s displeasure with the new feature, gave assurances that a resolution was in the works, and apologized for the poor decision. How exactly Koei Tecmo or Team Ninja plan to fix the problem is still unclear, but it’s likely that the only resolution players will accept at this point is a complete removal of the outrageous microtransaction.
Dead or Alive 6 was released in March 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Free Step Dodge
