DECEMBER has just been launched in South Korea and a western version of the HACK N Slash is expected in the coming weeks or months. The game is distributed according to a free-to-play model and intends to finance via a virtual object shop. What nevertheless details of his business model and the content of his shop? Horizon’s tour of what is found in the South Korean version of the game — always subject to change in its western version.
Quite classically for a free-to-play game, UN December incorporates several currencies: diamonds, rubies and gold.
- Gold is the Monnaine-Game : we win by playing, and it is used with the NPCs of the Play Universe, whether with merchants, artisans or alchemists (which allow for improve the runes of his character, to combine or improve his skills);
- Diamonds are a premium currency and ends with real money, they make purchases in the premium December shop;
- Finally, the rubies are a currency bride that can buy with diamonds or be won at stake by participating in certain activities and which serve both to buy packs and in transactions between players via a Sales Hotel where any type of object exchange, including the objects of the Premium shop.
It is understandable, players who do not want to invest real money in the game will be able to acquire diamonds or premium objects with rubies and via exchanges with other players, who would attend the shop.
What do we find in the diamond shop? The Studio Need Games had promised that it would be limited to works of comfort. In concrete terms, diamonds are mainly used to acquire additional storage spaces (inventory extensions and warehouses, access to special warehouses to store runes), as well as additional functions for pets activate for seven at 28 days (like the possibility of picking up objects).
Rubies allow more varied purchases , including packs to various contents. Some integrate gold, but also reagents to improve runes or equipment (from a white or blue grade). There are also potions of different kinds and levels of efficiency, magic object identification scraps or an object to reset its statistics or skills points — as an indication, the reset is also possible. From NPCs against gold.
To balance the use of the shop , we will also remember that most packs are available in limited quantities (one can only buy one, two or four copies per account and / or month depending on their contents). Similarly, these packs do not contain any reagents of runes or high-level equipment (which only gains by playing, in particular by confronting bosses).
Obviously, spending real money will make it possible to progress faster at the beginning of the game (by buying diamonds, then by converting them into ruby to buy packs). However, the shop obviously does not integrate any exclusive object or functionality, which would be accessible only to paying players. The rubies also earn at stake and most packs or their content can also be Notes (quid their level of in-game rarity?) And exchanged with other players via the ruby sales hotel.
While waiting for the Western launch of December, everyone will judge the balance held by the developer for both to ensure a certain equity between the players and the need to finance the game.