The 'Clicker Heroes' sequel will no longer be free-to-play.
Clicker Heroes screenshot
The upcoming sequel to the popular idle game developed by Playsaurus in 2015 was supposed to follow the same model as the first instalment, by being free for players but offering micro-transactions to exchange real money for in-game gold, which could then be used to skip monotonous battles and upgrade heroes.
But, for "ethical reasons", Playsaurus have decided to abandon the model, and instead charge players $29.99 upfront for the game, with no hidden fees or micro-transactions within the game.
Users will also be able to get their money back if they decide they don't like the game, or exhaust it's playability, within 12 months.
The decision comes as the developers believe that whilst they made a considerable amount of money from the micro-transactions in the first game, they don't feel it is ethically right to keep taking money from people who are "addicted" to playing their mobile game.
In a statement on the 'Clicker Heroes' website, they said: "In Clicker Heroes 1, we never tried to abuse players with our real-money shop. Despite this, we found that some number of players spent many thousands of dollars on rubies. I can only hope that these people could afford it, and that they were doing it to support us, and not to feed an addiction. But I strongly suspect that this is not the case.
"We really don't like making money off players who are in denial of their addiction. And that's what a large part of free-to-play gaming is all about. Everyone in the industry seems to rationalise it by shifting the blame, assuming way too much cognisance on the part of their victims. People can make their own decisions, right? But it just doesn't sit well with me. Despite very few of our players having complained, it felt wrong when we started doing it and it still feels wrong now."
The company also believe ditching this mechanic will make for a better gameplay experience overall.
They continued: "We want the experience to be good. The mere existence of real-money purchases puts an ugly cloud over the player's experience, with the persistent nagging feeling of 'My game could be so much better if I just spent a few dollars'. That alone feels terrible. Without the free-to-play mechanics in place, it will be able to iterate and expand on its sequel without fear of undermining the value of players' purchases.
"That said, we're not going to change how we monetise Clicker Heroes 1. It would destroy our studio if we did [...] Our unlimited refund policy still stands. But going forward we're going to at least try the paid-up-front model for our business. It may or may not work. It probably isn't worth nearly as much money, but at least we can do it with a cleaner conscience."