Culture

<cite>Eternal Sonata</cite> and the New Forthright Microtransaction Abuse

Namco Bandai’s Xbox 360 RPG Eternal Sonata will arrive with a freshly baked basket of microtransaction rip-offs. But unlike publishers who attempt to convince you that locked features already on the disc that you bought are in fact "content downloads", the game’s official Japanese web site comes right out and tells you that you’re paying […]

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Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 RPG Eternal Sonata will arrive with a freshly baked basket of microtransaction rip-offs. But unlike publishers who attempt to convince you that locked features already on the disc that you bought are in fact "content downloads", the game's official Japanese web site comes right out and tells you that you're paying for nothing:

If you pay 80 Microsoft Points [$1], you can buy "unlock keys" that let you listen to the music of Chopin, which you can ordinarily only listen to as you advance through the game.

You can also unlock the songs by progressing through the game, but making people pony up iTunes prices for music that's already been figured into the price of the disc? "Sound tests" are the sort of game feature that used to be unlocked with a cheat code -- or free. Anything else is unacceptable.

Trusty Bell [via NeoGAF]