Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain will apparently have in-game microtransactions. While this particular ability to purchase skills and items and all kinds of other things have generally been relegated to free-to-play games, there has always been talk the practice is only going to grow. It appears that Konami certainly wants the practice to grow if the in-store page on Sony’s Italian website can be believed. On that page there is a note that says, “Acquisti in-game opzionali.”
Translated to English, that means “Optional in-game purchases.” The real question now is why this isn’t something the developers have been talking that much about? Is it possible this was a mistake with the website? Perhaps it’s just something that Konami didn’t want to have out there just yet. It should be pointed out that we had to look at the Italian site because the American one isn’t listing the game at all just yet.
Obviously, because no one is really talking about this feature right now, we don’t know what the extent of these microtransactions might be. There are a number of features that have been talked about in the that sound like they could certainly be enhanced with a purchase of some sort of add-on in-game.
Options such as the ability to create your own emblem might be something that could use microtransactions in order to give gamers even more choice of customization. If this does indeed come to pass, it will be interesting to see what kind of backlash it creates among fans of the series. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is due on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 on September 1. The PC version will follow fifteen days later, launching worldwide on September 15.
