With any free-to-play game like Marvel Snap, there are going to be some highly-priced cosmetic items to keep the game’s development running as a live-service title. And players have shown that they’re willing to pay for some very expensive bundles so long as the value is there.
But recently, some of the bundles posted in the store have had players scratching their heads at best and posting online in disgust at worst. A recent Reddit thread highlighted the discourse, with many players voicing their opinions on the game’s monetization.
Two of the more egregious bundles have just hit the store back-to-back. This past weekend, “Weekend Bundle #1” offered 200 Credits, 1,000 Collector’s Tokens, and 200 Gold for the whopping price of $19.99.
All three of the currencies available in the bundle can be secured simply by playing the game, doing daily challenges, and clearing out the $9.99 battle pass, so the value is just not there for the price.
Gold can be used to buy things like card variants and Credits to upgrade cards and move up the Collection Level track. Gold can be purchased with real money, but it’s easily earnable through gameplay.
“This game has such a weird monetisation plan,” said one commenter, and another replied, “your mistake is thinking they have a plan.”
The weekend and daily bundles have been coming way more frequently than before, so it does appear that the game’s developer Second Dinner is trying things out in the store to see what players are willing to spend on.
“I think it’s more experimentation than plan,” another commenter said. “But, in my opinion, presenting a poor value as an experiment is a waste of an experiment. There’s no hook here. Just a really lame offer.”
A big issue with Weekend Bundle #1 is that players are forced to convert the currencies to decide if the value is there. For example, players can purchase Gold in several increments, like $4.99 for 300 Gold, all the way up to $99.99 for 8,000 Gold. So is $20 worth it for some Gold and other currencies that can be earned pretty quickly just by playing?
“The gold prices in the shop are not realistic and no sensible person would use that as a reference because they wouldn’t spend money on that anyway,” another commenter said. “You need to calculate how many cards you can actually buy with it and if a 20 dollar bundle gets you not even a single card, why would anyone buy it?”
In the end, players don’t need to purchase the bundles. But if they continue to be presented as “poor value,” even the “whales” who spend hundreds of dollars monthly on the card game may be turned away from offers such as these.
