Image: Blizzard Entertainment
If you want to look good in Sanctuary, it’s going to cost you.
Early images of cosmetic prices from Diablo 4’s in-game store have surfaced online, and they look predictably expensive. Blizzard hasn’t officially confirmed any pricing information for the sequel’s in-game shop ahead of launch, but we now know that a single set of armour could cost players almost $30.
Blizzard has made it clear that Diablo 4’s microtransactions will not influence gameplay, but that doesn’t mean that players won’t be tempted to shell out a little more money to make their characters look good in-game. An image posted to Reddit revealed that a ‘Wraith Lord’ armour set for Necromancers is going for 2800 platinum - one of Diablo 4’s currencies used for the shop.
For comparison, the game’s premium battle pass will cost roughly 1000 platinum, and that goes for around $10. This single set of armour is worth almost three times that, which means that it could cost a player $28 to purchase. That is far more expensive than Overwatch 2’s skins, which are also being peddled in a similar in-game shop after Blizzard changed up its monetisation strategy.
Another image showcases a ‘prestige mount & horse armour’ set which costs 1600 platinum, or $16 in total. This is something of a full circle moment for microtransactions as a whole, given that the online debate of their very inclusion came to a head when Bethesda tried to sell horse armour in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for $2.50. Clearly, the horse armour market has gone through quite a bit of inflation since 2006.
We don’t know how the currency system in Diablo 4 works yet exactly, but videogames rarely allow players to purchase exact amounts of currency to spend on the skins they want. Players will probably have to spend slightly more than $16 to get that horse armour and still have some platinum left over, tempting them to top that up for another purchase. These cosmetics won’t affect gameplay, but one does wonder why a developer would price skins at $28 in a game that already costs $70.
Diablo 4 launches on June 5, 2023, but owners of the Digital Deluxe and Ultimate Editions of the game will have early access starting from June 2.