The newly released Spectre Divide, an online FPS helmed by Twitch streamer shroud, received criticism at launch over “delusional” pricing on skins – but the development team has issued an update, cutting prices considerably.
Spectre Divide granted fans the chance to play it early through a Closed Beta before it was fully released on September 3 on PC, with no official release date yet for consoles.
It currently has garnered “Mixed” reviews on Steam, with many of the complaints pointing to the game’s expensive cosmetic prices.
One Reddit post disapproved the first store bundle available called “Cry Kinesis”. It grants players one melee and four gun skins and costs 9,000 SP (Spectre Points), on sale from 12,000 SP.
The poster’s nauseated emoji represents how the majority of these fans feel, as this bundle would cost around $90.
The second photo shows that players would have to purchase 5,600 SP for $49.99, then 3,800 SP for $34.99 as the cheapest option. You could also go for a single purchase of 11,500 SP for a whopping $99.99.
Many responses were unimpressed by the look of the skin bundle in relation to its price. “I’m one of those losers that buys skins right away but… these are so basic I’m not even considering buying them,” one fan said.
Others noticed how these prices seemed to directly compete with Valorant’s cosmetic bundle costs.
“[T]his pricing implies it’s a direct competitor to valorant and it’s clearly miles away both in terms features,” one reply stated, “and skin appeal itself, axe comes with a super mid animation…”
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Around the same time, another post popped up, with the user calling the prices worse than Valorant.
Developers take action on skin prices after criticism
In an announcement on September 4, Mountaintop Studios, the team behind the game, announced Store Price Reductions right across the board.
In an email to Dexerto, the studio explained, “We pride ourselves on listening to our community, and after carefully considering player feedback regarding the pricing of in-game items in Spectre Divide, we have decided to adjust store prices by reducing SP costs by 17% to 25% across the board.
“We want to align more closely with the expectations of our community and provide more accessible pricing moving forward, while continuing to develop a game that remains free for everyone.For more information, please see our official post here.”
The exact price cut varies for different items and bundles, but in the example of the Cryo Kinesis Masterpiece bundle, which sparked the popular Reddit post, the cost has been reduced from 9000 SP to 7000 SP.
For those who already made purchases at the original price points, will receive 30% of the points spent added back to their account, rounded up to the nearest 100.
The developers also gave some insight into their decision-making behind the original prices, citing server costs and their status as a new and independent studio with “limited resources”, among other reasons.
Spectre Divide also has free Twitch drops which you can find out more about here.