Image via Striking Distance Studios
Since the advent of online gaming, downloadable content has become an established part of the industry’s business model, for better or worse. While there have been many post-release content packs that have added substantial value to the core experience of games over the years, Krafton and Striking Distance Studios’ monetization effort for The Callisto Protocol is questionable at best.
Being able to access every difficulty level a game offers is something rightfully taken for granted by the gaming community at large. Yet, Krafton has locked The Callisto Protocol’s highest difficulty setting behind the recently-released “Contagion Bundle,” which carries a $9.99 price tag.
Another inclusion in the bundle is 14 additional death animations for the game’s protagonist, Jacob, whenever he meets his demise. This is also pretty iffy, considering it doesn’t do all that much to add value to the game beyond the core experience they already paid for. It reeks of gatekeeping for the sake of a quick buck.
Rounding out the Contagion Bundle is 14 new UJC-themed player and weapon skins. Sure, cosmetics are pretty much a given paid extra in just about any game nowadays. If you want to pay for that, to each their own. However, the key point of contention remains the “Contagion” difficulty mode and the death animations.
For a game that we considered to be a little incomplete without the above inclusions in mind, which went on to reportedly underperform in its launch…