Monolith has announced that it will release some new free updates for Middle-earth: Shadow of War in the next months. As such, the team will be permanently removing Gold, War Chests and the Market from the game, something that will please a lot of players.
As Monolith stated:
“While purchasing Orcs in the Market is more immediate and provides additional player options, we have come to realize that providing this choice risked undermining the heart of our game, the Nemesis System. It allows you to miss out on the awesome player stories you would have otherwise created, and it compromises those same stories even if you don’t buy anything. Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses. In order to fully restore the core promise of the Nemesis System, we’ll be permanently removing Gold, War Chests and the Market from Shadow of War.”
Monolith will also update the Shadow Wars section of the campaign, where players defend their fortresses against Sauron’s repeated counter-attacks. Obviously that was the worst part of the game as it relied heavily on micro-transactions, so we are not really surprised by this decision. This portion of the game will be improved with new narrative elements and streamlined for a more cohesive experience.
Last but not least, Monolith will implement many other gameplay improvements that will be detailed in the future, including Nemesis System updates, new player skins, skill tree additions, gear system upgrades and progression updates.
Monolith will remove Gold, War Chests and the Market on July 17th!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
I feel like this all could have been avoided had they not decided to chase for the mobile market strategy.
I honestly wish all devs would stop trying to emulate the mobile market strategies, because they pose a threat in general to actual gaming/games.
“free updates coming to Middle-earth: Shadow of War… will remove micro-transactions”
I seem to remember this being the game that once sought to financially profit from cancer by way of some paid DLC that, if we’re being kind, was less than transparent in the way it was marketed. So forgive me for not being impressed by this ‘generosity’ that all but admits to them having been excessively greedy even by so-called triple-A games industry standards.
Oh, and lest we forget the ethics scandal of its predecessor’s marketing and PR as exposed by Totalbiscuit. Once exposed, Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment predictably passed the buck by throwing their contracted PR agency under the bus. Said scandal drew the attention of the FTC who found that,
“Warner Bros., through its marketing campaign, misled consumers by suggesting that the gameplay videos of Shadow of Mordor reflected the independent or objective views of the influencers. The complaint also alleges that Warner Bros. failed to adequately disclose that the gamers were compensated for their positive reviews.”
a little too late don’t ya think???
No it’s not, not for me, out of principle i was waiting for this and for the price to drop. Now let’s play the waiting game for the price drop 🙂
No, it’s not. We slate these companies when they do things wrong, how about we applaud them for doing something right. What would be the incentive to do something like this is people are still going to rip them a new one.
I gave it them when they released the game, and rightly so, however, I am prepared to say well done for this move.
It’s great that they’re admitting they messed up and are going to take steps to correct the problem. That said, why are they waiting til July 17th to remove the microtrasactions? If MT’s are so damaging to the game as Monolith stated, why wait so long? Seems like something that could be corrected much sooner.
Monolith said “happy april mops.”
If they really cared they wouldve done it within the first month of release. Nobody is playing the game anymore so this is free publicity.
Keep your ears open for a big new announcement from Warner Bros within the next few months.
aka “E3”
I’ve just bought it, people are still playing it.
They are trying to get the rest of us stragglers who weren’t conned by an anti-consumer WB, to finally squeeze the remaining pennies they can from this. Need a long stride of consistently good products and pricing models with no bullshit. WB will probably jump on the Live Services scam too.
I will get it when it is 4.99. Heavily violates Tolkien lore anyways. Might as well have Papa Smurf snorting coke off of the Sword of Omens.
Nope you’re right. I have been giving those games crap myself. Cosmetic or not, ignored or not, NO mobile model must be permitted near these big priced titles – but nothing is that binary. People buy these games because people want games and they deal with it with all marketers disgustingly knowing it is wrong – the whole “if gamers are willing to buy it” vs ethical business practices.
To me, there are no good in-app purchases since they will always create a manipulative sense of missing out or break game mechanics to force funnel players into those in-game markets to buy. DLC/Expansions can be sold separately in the digital/retail stores from which the games were purchased – never ok in-game.
Looks good on the idiots who paid into this, and now have the entire system pulled out from under them after they have been exploited for the morons they are.
Remember when Monolith was Captain Claw, Blood, NOLF, Alien Vs Predator, FEAR…?
You just forgot SHOGO out of the list, a hell of a game back in its day.
Sadly,a brand new NOLF or remake is impossible…
And that make me wonder why FEAR3 not made by them…
I’ve play that,and it doesn’t feel like original FEAR
Lets keep this abomination system for three more months, but make a big announcement how bad the system is.
Why not remove it outright within a week’s period ?
Meanwhile far cry 5 is a micro-transaction fest meticulously made to be really hard of gathering in game money since weapons are overpriced ( time wasted ) compared to simply buy them with real money . Of course you can complete everything in game but you get what I’m sayingToday news said it’s the Best selling game of the franchise lol we are ruined
Cheatengine wink wink nudge nudge and money is no longer a problem
You posting the same crap on different accounts? There’s a post that is WORD FOR WORD further up from “another” name. Nice try shill.
Ohhh so now they want to preserve the nemesis system, it didnt seem like they cared about people on the release day lol. WB trash simple as that, I will still not change the negative review on steam nonetheless. The game was awful.
WB can suck my ding dong, not buying this on principle. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice… If you fool me once I can’t get fooled again!
President Bush lol.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0b15eed2276eea72199147efac09dc7bd3da9f52f8402166879508a10933944.jpg
So FC5’s silver currency can be used for comsetic skins, how does that even compare to what WB did with Shadow of Microtransactions and loot boxes?
Because it doesn’t lock anything behind the microtransactions. In FC5 they are there to speed up the game, should you want to (for those that don’t have time to play much). So, you’re only affecting yourself if you buy the items, you don’t NEED to buy them to finish the game.
How about removing Devuno first,WB??
Too little too late
No it’s not. You can play it without buying anything, I did. Git gud.
You are everyone are you? I’ve just bought it, so you are demonstrably WRONG.
Yeah Assassin’s Creed games golden weapons are OP and they are giving a easy time for a lot of time, what’s more funny when buying for 99$ gold edition, you don’t get access to all stuff, you still need to buy some gear, other gear can be access by big grind or cash or hacked save file
People say that those weapons have no use after some time… Well AI is dumb and those weapons are have nice buffs. And in ACO and AC: Unity they scale amazing with player stats, hell in AC:O you can buy with cash 3 level up points so you can lvl up you guy.
In AC:Unity golden weapons increads stats very very much, every piece of gear (sword,daggers,pistol,cape) was giving huge hp, attack and armor boost with right combination you can create a GOD LIKE Arno in opening levels, the same is in AC: Origins
Don’t worry I didn’t buy all that gear, just used edited save file, I am not that dumb to spend 1000$ for game, or 4k$ in AC:O 😉
I said many times people see only other companies fails, bad decisions
but never Ubisoft one’s, and whatever happens they always blame EA, even
if it is other studio fault…
Someone in the past give EA bad badge, and people like stupid repeat that over and over, following that words like stupid ship, later on they throw big money to other games and don’t see a problem…hypocrites
“New free updates coming to Middle-earth: Shadow of War in the next months, will remove micro-transactions”, as long as you pay for this micro transaction 😉
Aren’t all updates free?
Purely cosmetic that’s why.
That doesn’t deserve any respect. Milking the whales and when that well runs dry they remove the microtransactions as if they are doing something decent.
Monolith will remove Gold, War Chests and the Market on July 17th!
Then I’ll keep an eye out for sales after July 17th.
How f’ing long will it take for devs to understand that players don’t want this sh*t in the first place?
Oh cool, NOW they’re removing it? I’m guessing it’s too little too late.