Ridiculous Diablo 4 pricing resurrects horse armour scandal
We all like our four-legged friends to look pretty, but let's be honest, who's really splashing the cash to make your horse looks best in show for a video game? Come on, this isn't Olympic dressage. Now, Diablo 4's ridiculous pricing structure has resurrected an age-old joke from the depths of gaming.
Heading back to 2006, you might remember the drama surrounding The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and its Horse Armour DLC. In 2023, we'd call it a microtransaction, but back in the day, they didn't really exist. Charging $2.50 for a piece or armour that did nothing was a scandal, but Bethesda has nothing on Blizzard
The horse armour scandal returns
Before Diablo 4 even released, there were worries we'd get pulled back into Blizzard's murky world of microtransactions. As the industry has evolved, paying $2.5 for a cosmetic seems like a good deal compared to what we face these days. In Diablo 4, how about paying $10 for useless horse armour?
Of Diablo 4's bundles, some of the cheapest are the horse bundles. They can be bought with the Platinum currency and come in at 800 Platinum. Although this would be the equivalent of $8, which is already three times more than Oblivion's horse armour, the story doesn't end there.
You can't directly buy 800 Platinum, meaning you can buy the 1,000 pack for a princely $10 or four separate packs. If you got for the first option, that means Diablo 4's useless horse armour will hit you for $10 - a hefty four times pricier than Oblivion. There are even pricier options for horse armour, and the world is in chaos.
We thought the horse armour drama would've died down after seven years, but now, it's back with a vengeance. One critic joked, "Let people buy the horse armour. If they've already bought Diablo 4 they've already wasted their money on something dumb."
Another added, "Diablo 4 is selling horse armor for $25 meaning DLCs have looped back on themselves. That's also the cost of several, far better games so just incredible all around."
A third concluded, "Diablo 4 launches and it’s literally the f*****g worst case 'this is where we're headed' doom scenario people warned about when horse armour was a thing and I've seen nothing. Nobody really cares."
Diablo's pricing accused of being out of control
You might remember similar drama surrounding Diablo Immortal's pricing and grind being slammed as a loot box scandal. It reportedly cost $110k to max a character, while the developer was called out for making up to $2.4 million a day off the back of players' pockets.
Blizzard ended up being fined for the Diablo Immortal fiasco, although it was such a small sum, we imagine the developer didn't even see it. With the franchise being singed, Diablo 4 is accused of being even worse.
As one person put it, "We are all suckers for buying into this shit. We should of all gotten a lot madder at the $2 horse armour 18 years ago." If expensive horses aren't your thing, you could always splash $25 on the Wraith Lord set.
