'Devil May Cry 5' Producer Addresses Concerns Over The Game's Microtransactions

Last week, word of Devil May Cry 5 having microtransactions surfaced, and naturally, the backlash was quite substantial.

That said, following a wave of worried and angered fans, producer on the project, Matt Walker, addressed the concerns of fans, assuring them that Devil May Cry 5 is balanced just like every other previous game in the series.

Thanks for the Tweet! It’s understandable that people are worried about micro transactions in games! I’m happy knowing that people will be reassured when they play the game and find that it’s balanced the way all the other DMCs have been. ^_^

— Matt Walker (@gypsyOtoko) September 23, 2018

As you can see, Walker is pretty confident the age old concern over microtransactions -- that it impacts the game's design negatively -- won't be relevant to Devil May Cry 5. The assumption is that in order to get players to participate in the microtransactions process, developers tweak their games in certain ways in order to encourage such interaction. Whether this is usually the case or not, who knows, it certainly is sometimes, but apparently not this time.

For those that missed it: in Devil May Cry 5 there's a thing called the "Divinity Statue" in the game, which essentially acts as a shop where players can upgrade their characters. How you do this is by trading in orbs that you collect from combat encounters and exploring the game's world.

The microtransactions come into play with these orbs. Basically, you can play real money to acquire orbs, which in turn allows you to upgrade your character faster than normal, or at least, without participating in the normal gameplay loop. According to the game's director, Hideaki Itsuno, this was done in order to provide players with more choices.

"With giving people the ability to purchase Red Orbs, it's something we want to give people as an option, said Itsuno. "If they want to save time and just want to get all the stuff at once, those people can do that. But on the other hand I don't feel you have to get all the moves. You should be able to play it the way you want to play it."

Whether microtransaction implementation will negatively impact Devil May Cry 5, remains to be seen, but Capcom seems pretty confident it will be a non-issue.

Devil May Cry 5 is poised to release on March 8, 2019 via the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more news, media, and information on the game, click here.