Capcom talks Dragon's Dogma 2 PC performance and microtransaction backlash

Dragon's Dogma 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and by most accounts, the experience lives up to the hype. The game received great reviews from most critics, including 9 out of 10 from us. But now that it's out in the wild, Steam streamers have been bombarding the RPG with negative reviews due to its problematic launch performance and day-one microtransactions.

In terms of performance issues, Steam players have reported issues like frame rate drops, freezing, and crashes. Capcom has acknowledged these issues in a Steam blog post It says: “To all those looking forward to this game, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience,” and adds: “We are investigating/fixing critical issues such as crashes and freezes. We will address crashes and bug fixes starting with those with the highest priority in future patches.” near.

Regarding frame rate issues, Capcom wrote,

“A significant amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and the impact of their physical presence in different areas is calculated. In some situations where multiple characters appear at once, CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that In such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may have limited impact currently; however, we are looking at ways to improve performance in the future.

The console versions have their own frame rate issues, as writer Jesse Vitelli noted in our review, where he noted, “Large-scale battles are where you'll see performance on consoles take a big hit. When I had multiple enemies on screen, The pawn would cast a large spell, and the frame rate would drop dramatically.

Microtransactions in the game have also sparked outrage. In addition to selling Rift Crystals, the game's currency, fans are upset that the game is selling useful exploration equipment like Portcrystals, fast travel points that you can place at a chosen destination (although you still need another item, Ferrystones, to use it, which is not for sale). . Capcom is also selling the Art of Metamorphosis book, an item that allows players to redesign their characters and revive items (Wakestones). You can purchase all of these items at once in the “A Boon for Adventurers – New Journey Pack”, which comes included in the Deluxe Edition of the game.

Capcom addressed these complaints in the same blog post, noting that the following items can be obtained through normal play:

• Art of Transformation – Character Editor
• Contrasting Cracked Incense – Changing pawn tendencies
• Portcrystal – warp location marker
• Wexton – Bringing the Dead Back to Life!
• 500 Rift Crystals / 1500 Rift Crystals / 2500 Rift Crystals – Points that must be spent outside the Rift
• Temporary Prison Key – Jailbreak!
• Harpysnare Smoke Beacons – Harpy bait item

If you want extra amounts of any of these items, you have the option of paying real money for them instead of getting them the old-fashioned way, so they're convenient optional skips. While it's completely understandable why players would be upset regardless, this is completely normal for Capcom titles. at recent days vampire And Monster hunter The games, for example, all offer microtransactions of a similar scale and have faced relatively little, if any, resistance.

However, fans are surprised by their appearance in Dragon's Dogma 2, and without context as to how rare or easy these items are to obtain, some players believe that the game's intentionally difficult/uncomfortable design is intended to push players toward these purchases to make the purchasing process easier. expertise. Others simply cite the old argument that full-priced games ($69.99 in the case of Dragon's Dogma 2) shouldn't charge extra money for in-game items at all.

Besides the aforementioned performance issues, disgruntled players have flooded the game with bad reviews to the point where it currently has a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam just hours after launch. Despite this initial cold reception, it doesn't look like Capcom will be changing its monetization plans at the moment.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series