Right on schedule, Diablo 4’s first-ever cross-over event has officially kicked off in-game, just a few days after it arrived in Diablo Immortal. This is the first collaboration with a non-Blizzard brand, and it brings the world of Berserk to Diablo.
As exciting as this occasion is for fans of both franchises, the collab has been marred by the same problems most of these cross-over events tend to have in pretty much every game they’re part of.
If you’re familiar with with how cross-over events tend to work in other games, you probably know what to expect here. There’s a small gameplay component where players get to, well, play the game, to collet a currency that they exchange for some cosmetics. This is how the Bersek event, which runs until June 3, works.
Look closely, however, and you’ll quickly realise that the items you can get just by playing are pretty low on the totem pole. All the cool character skins and outfits you see in trailers are reserved for the in-game shop, meaning you’ll have to spend real money to acquire them.
In Berserk’s case, there are four armour sets on sale, each can only be acquired individually as part of its own bundle. There’s another bundle that comes with a pet and some cosmetics for it, and one for your mount.
Bundle prices vary between 2,500 and 2,800 Platinum ($25). Since there’s no discount for buying multiples, the total cost of all six bundles comes out to 16,500 Platinum. This being an in-game store, of course, you’ll always have to buy more currency than you need, which means your best option is actually the most expensive – 18,500 Platinum – which is going to cost you $150.
You will, of course, have 2,000 leftover. In order words, Blizzard managed to create skins that make the most expensive currency purchase option in the store the most economical way of acquiring them.
Now, this is what we’ve come to expect from events in live service games, especially those made by Activision Blizzard. However, one always hopes that publishers will at least try to balance the scales somewhat in favour of players who can’t, or won’t, spend that kind of money on skins, but it just never changes.
It goes without saying that the community response on Reddit and elsewhere has been predictable. And, as always, some have argued that you don’t need to buy all (or any) of them, or that you should only buy just one for your favourite class and ignore the rest.