One Steam developer is being praised for removing microtransactions from their game, for good. Shiny Shoe, who made Monster Train, and more recently, Inkbound, have decided that monetising their players in this way isn't the right move.
Inkbound has lost both its battle pass plus the in-game currency shop. These were originally included in the Early Access launch in order to provide extra income for the developers as they worked on the game. It allowed support for the "ongoing development of the game."
Inkbound is finding more fans on Steam and their previous game Monster Train is a huge hit on Steam Deck
The developers recently took to the Steam message boards to discuss this change saying, "it’s clear that industry and player sentiment is trending against the presence of these features. For that reason we are removing in-game monetisation completely." This means no more battle pass and will be transformed into a free DLC pack for supporters. Shiny Shoe have confirmed that cosmetics will still be available to earn in-game.
Players will still be able to buy certain cosmetics, but these will now cost currency that can be earned by playing, rather than by purchasing with real money. Any players who currently hold currency they paid for will have it converted into the new earnable currency and will receive a refund doubling its value.
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Explaining further the developer said "For example, if you purchased 1,000 Shinies in the past, regardless if you spent it or not, we will grant you an additional 2,000 Vault Dust." Plus, if players already own the battle pass they will instantly unlock every level and receive 1,000 vault dust.
It's a pretty enticing idea and some fans are already loving the change, hoping that other executives take note and follow suit; microtransactions have become a very sensitive subject for many gamers.