I would spend money on Darktide if it were free to play and monetized cosmetics. I would not spend any amount of money just to gain access to the game itself. Cosmetics should be significant, including visual effects other players can recognize easily without disrupting gameplay. Others might also have friends who do not play Darktide whom would play it if it were free to play.
Path of Exile is the best example of a free to play cosmetic monetization, if you need an example. Team Fortress 2 is another decent example.
Also, I would be more likely to buy cosmetics if the software licensing changed to permissive, such that anyone can host a LAN of Darktide locally with no server authentication. Cosmetics might even be disabled during LAN play to incentivize monetization and long term game health, however having the ability to play with friends in a cabin disconnected from the outside world is invaluable to the long term value of the game.
Full disclosure: I do not own Darktide at this time.
Stash space is hardly āfar beyond cosmetics onlyā, and it is fair to bring up stash space as a counter point of critique. Fatshark could align with players better than stash space if they wanted as well.
If anything gets me to drop the game, besides server issues not being fixed, is the game going freemium. Like Reginald said, Iād rather pay a subscription instead.
If Fatsharkās current player retention design is anything to go by, trusting them to handle going freemium well is just self harm at this point.
how about a no, it a payed for game, it on their machines, and there probable a contractal agreement with GW on how freely available. inaddition to probable income spilt generated from the game. the games has cosmetics simillar price as v2, but to be honest they arenāt really going to do freenium. made. iām going to point at what happened to Overwatch 2, and the player response it triggered. fatshark has a much smaller player base and it will leave only hard core player who basically have decided this is there preferred game. your going to throw away a price for people who have payed the the 70ish+ dollars due to regional currency conversion (some countries really felt it). if you do that then your need to provide a bloody good reason why they even bought it a 1-2 years ago. or just gone with the game-pass.
I see no issue with paying for a game that also has āpremium cosmeticsā (See DRG).
The issue with DT is not the model, but how itās implemented:
-Overprice cosmetics, and FS trying to double dip with low-effort re-colors etc.
-Blatant FOMO tactics and āshop rotationā. Thereās zero reason for this other than whale hunting.
-Lack of earnable currency. There should be a path for those who invest time to earn āpremiumā currency.