10 Promising Video Games Totally Ruined By Microtransactions

One of the first instances of what would come to be known as EA’s hideous “player choice” scams, survival horror masterclass Dead Space was turned into a pay-to-win slog marred with weaponry which required an exorbitant amount of resources to craft. These resources, of course, could be purchased with real-world money, and EA defended the mechanic by arguing that it allowed time-deficit gamers an option to speed through the experience.

Yet, not only would that require paying well over the game’s initial $60 asking price, but it also meant sacrificing the game’s quality as a result. Nobody likes grinding for resources or waiting on scavenger bots, especially not in titles as devastatingly tense as Dead Space.

Survival horror lives and dies on the thrill of just getting by with meager resources, and Dead Space 3 seems to have outed this mechanic entirely. Resident Evil was exhilarating because it was about surviving with a few herbs and a handful of shotgun shells until more resources were found. If the player could just pay for more, that would entirely defeat the purpose.

Electronic Arts will never learn, and, with Visceral games gone, Dead Space will remain just another casualty.