World of Warcraft’s new Midnight expansion is in full swing along with its long-awaited player-housing system, and it didn’t take long for Blizzard to begin selling some pricey microtransactions related to the feature.
It was just a few weeks ago that the only decor available for purchase using WoW’s new Hearthsteel premium currency were two plushies for 100 Hearthsteel (or roughly $1) each. Flash forward to now, and there’s a number of new decor items available on the shop, including two $25 item bundles that have raised some eyebrows. The new decor items even got their own trailer.
The limited-time bundles available until April 23 include a variety of spring-themed and garden-decor items, all of which can also be purchased separately. Some of those items, like the Spring Blossom Tree, are giving players some serious sticker shock.
Blizzard originally tried to sell the decor for $7.50 apiece. Since decor items are only a single item (as in, you don’t get multiples of a tree unless you buy them), and most players would probably want a few of the trees to work with, Blizzard attempting to sell a single one for $7.50 was enough to send players racing to Reddit to complain.
Blizzard has since reduced the price of the Spring Blossom Tree to 250 Hearthsteel (or $2.50), but not before the community made its complaints heard. “What the f*** are these prices?” one widely upvoted post asked, “Did it never come to mind that maybe people want to buy these in bulk?” Others responded with a bit of levity.
Pricey microtransactions are, of course, nothing new for Blizzard’s long-running MMORPG. Players have been able to spend real money in WoW for well over a decade at this point, with the game’s current shop lineup offering various mounts, pets, and transmog bundles for upwards of $25 or more. Last year, Blizzard brought back the most expensive shop mount in the game’s history, the $90 Gilded Brutosaur.
The introduction of a premium currency in WoW just for housing items was its own controversy last year. While microtransactions in WoW are common at this point, players have always bought them with real money instead of having to buy currency packs. Blizzard insisted Hearthsteel was needed in order to make smaller decor purchases more convenient and “player-friendly,” and vowed to sell Hearthsteel at fixed, easy-to-understand prices. It also said it would sell decor at prices that matched those Hearthsteel bundles in order to avoid cases where players would be stuck with leftover currency.
So far, Blizzard has made good on its promise of easy-to-understand currency packs and decor bundles that are priced accordingly. However, $25 bundles and $7 trees do seem to be testing the limits of what the playerbase finds acceptable when it comes to monetizing WoW’s biggest new feature in years.
Housing is just one part of WoW’s next chapter. Midnight also revamped the Blood Elf city of Silvermoon and its surrounding lands, and if there’s one thing WoW players are agreeing on, it’s that Blizzard knocked that one part of the expansion out of the park.