Devil May Cry 5 is a game that we are really looking forward to as it looks amazing and plays almost exactly like its predecessor, Devil May Cry 4. Unfortunately, though, it appears that Capcom has added microtransactions to it.

Gamespot reported that the game will offer the option to spend real money to acquire more orbs. Naturally, Capcom’s employees are justifying the inclusion of microtransactions by claiming that this will be optional. As Hideaki Itsuno, director of Devil May Cry 5, told Gamespot.

“With giving people the ability to purchase Red Orbs, it’s something we want to give people as an option. If they want to save time and just want to get all the stuff at once, those people can do that. But on the other hand I don’t feel you have to get all the moves. You should be able to play it the way you want to play it.”

As with all games supporting microtransactions, it remains to be seen whether the upgrade system has been altered in favour of them. Yes, Devil May Cry 4 also had the red Orb system via which players could unlock new moves and skills. However, it was properly balanced and did not require extreme amounts of orbs to unlock Nero’s moves. So basically, we don’t know whether players will now have to grind more in Devil May Cry 5 so they can unlock both Dante’s and Nero’s moves without resorting to microtransactions.

Itsuno added:

“It’s interesting because from a game design point of view there’s two different things we think about when we set the prices of the moves, skills, and abilities [which can be purchased with Red Orbs]. The first thing is the stuff that we feel people should want to get first is made cheaper. So people will think, ‘Oh this is cheap so I’m just going to buy this.’ But then for the stuff that’s going to be harder to use and master, we make that more expensive. Partly because of you save up for that you’re not going to be able to buy as many skills, so you’re going to have the time to learn it. So you have to make the decision between going for the cheaper stuff or saving up, getting the thing that has a lot of application but you’ll have to spend time learning and perfecting.”

Matt Walker, producer at Capcom, also claimed that the progression system is balanced and similar to the previous Devil May Cry games.

Thanks for the Tweet! It’s understandable that people are worried about micro transactions in games! I’m happy knowing that people will be reassured when they play the game and find that it’s balanced the way all the other DMCs have been. ^_^

— Matt Walker (@retroOtoko) September 23, 2018

Devil May Cry 5 is currently planned for a March 8th, 2019, release!