10 Great Games Ruined By Microtransactions

I would lose my life to this game in 2006, getting hooked from the very beginning. It was unlike anything else I had ever experienced: a fantastic open world, countless dungeons, and a seemingly never-ending amount of content.

Once the credits rolled, that was it, or so I thought. You see, Bethesda decided to release some post launch content, such as The Wizard’s Tower. It costs a couple of bucks, but hey, who cares? More Oblivion. There was also a thing called horse armor, which would give my horse armor if I paid roughly $2.50 in Microsoft fun money.

Yeah, that wasn’t cool, yet the horse armor microtransaction was a massive success, and we’ve been down a slippery road ever since. Microtransactions are the worst part of modern gaming, and they’ve taken down these promising games in the process.

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10 Diablo Immortal

Seven Deadly $ins

Okay, hear me out on this one. First of all, yes, I have a phone, and also yes, I was excited to play Diablo Immortal. It’s free-to-play Diablo, how bad could it be?

In terms of the gameplay, it’s not that bad, actually! It’s a quintessential Diablo experience in the palm of my hand. I could play it on the couch, in bed, on the toilet, essentially anywhere but, you know, my computer.

Then came “the wall.” If you’ve ever played any free-to-play game, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There are two options when you reach “the wall:” grind an endless amount of hours to progress further into the game, or swipe your credit card.

This is where Diablo Immortal stopped being fun, and its true intentions became obvious. It hooks you with surprisingly enjoyable gameplay, only to pull the rug out and demand you pay real money to keep enjoying the game. Surely Blizzard would never do this again, right?

9 World of Warcraft

World of Greedcraft

Blizzard, we need to talk.

In all honesty, I don’t mind the store mounts featured in World of Warcraft, but then again, I’m not someone who cares about collecting every mount in the game. I do sympathize with that portion of the player base, though. Having to pay real money just to collect everything stinks.

My bigger issues come with the presence of the WoW Token, which literally lets you buy in-game gold for $20, as well as the character boosts, especially for Classic World of Warcraft.

On the one hand, the Token isn’t the worst thing to happen to the game, but those character boosts, particularly in Classic, are frustrating. Part of the joy of Classic WoW is spending the time to learn the ins and outs of your character, especially in Vanilla and The Burning Crusade.

There are a lot of nuances needed to play your class well that only come with experience. If you swipe your credit card and head straight into endgame content, you’re not going to perform. All of this, combined with the endless onslaught of purchasable items through the Blizzard store, has made World of Warcraft less of an MMORPG and more of a transactional experience. I’m nervous to see if Player Housing is affected by microtransactions.

That’s it, though, for Blizzard, right?

8 Overwatch 2

Completely Unnecessary

Oh, how far the mighty have fallen. Sadly, I’m talking about Blizzard and Overwatch 2.

Ignoring the fact that there’s no reason for Overwatch 2 to even exist outside of corporate greed, its super-aggressive microtransactions are a slap in the face. Yes, this isn’t a problem isolated to either Blizzard or Overwatch 2 itself, but let’s not forget that this wasn’t an issue in the original Overwatch.

It’s a bad sign when people are actively clamoring for the return of lootboxes, but that’s what’s happening here. Are lootboxes perfect? Heck no, but literally anything was better than what we got in Overwatch 2. Instead, Overwatch 2 feels less like the original and more like a team shooter version of Fortnite with its microtransactions and unwanted crossovers.

The options are to either grind an unreasonable number of hours in the Battle Pass or, again, swipe your credit card. It’s a lose-lose situation. Hey, speaking of Battle Passes…

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7 Halo Infinite

I Need A Credit Card

One of my favorite things with Halo Reach’s multiplayer was how easy it was to access all of the gear customization options. It gave me tangible goals to reach for and rewarded me for actively playing.

It’s an excellent online system that should still be around, except for, you know, corporate greed and the failures of capitalism. Halo Infinite should have borrowed this very system, but instead, it’s Battle Passes and microtransactions ahoy!

Sadly, Halo Infinite’s player base fell off despite the initial hype over the free-to-play multiplayer release. We should have seen the writing on the wall at launch: it’s a free-to-play game, so there’s going to be an eventual catch. It didn’t matter at the time, though; I was just happy to be playing Halo online again.

Once that other shoe fell, though, I dipped out like everyone else. Sadly, as the years have gone on, Halo Studios and Microsoft seem to have been unable to get the message. Some games can recover from an initially poor reception, and Halo Infinite should have been one of them.

6 Star Wars Battlefront 2

A Redemption Story

Yes, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is enjoying a resurgence in popularity today, something no one would have ever predicted in 2017.

The key reason? Microtransactions, microtransactions everywhere.

On the one hand, DICE was able to address the biggest concerns from the original 2015 Battlefront. There’s more than enough content here to keep you busy for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours. However, unless you’re lucky enough to have the Star Cards that make you better, you’re gonna have a bad time. The best way to get these Star Cards at launch? You guessed it: microtransactions!

The fan reaction was so loud that EA took the surprising steps to temporarily remove all microtransactions from the game. “We’ve heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages,” said DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson at the time. “And we’ve heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn’t get this right.”

Today, the only microtransactions in Battlefront 2 are cosmetic, which is great. So why is it on our list? Because I truly believe that if DICE and EA had it set up this way from the start, we’d be playing Battlefront 3 today.

5 Destiny 2

Pay To Play

In 2023, YouTuber Aztecross released an excellent video titled “Destiny 2 has become a Microtransaction Hell.” It highlights the introduction to microtransactions in Destiny 1, following the release of The Taken King, about the possible slippery slope that could make the game pay-to-win.

Here we are, eight years later, and it’s become apparent that microtransactions in Destiny 2 have done nothing but get worse, and it’s obvious from the get-go.

While Destiny 2 labels itself as a free-to-play game, the amount of content you get from the free-to-play version pales in comparison to something as egregious as Diablo Immortal. If you want the full Destiny 2 experience, you’re going to have to pay to get access, but it doesn’t stop there.

Here’s just a taste of what you can purchase for Destiny 2:

• Ornaments
• Upgrade Materials
• Emotes
• Finishers
• Sparrows
• Glimmer Boosters
• Shaders
• Battle Pass Progression

It’s a frustrating experience that hampers what should be a great game.

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4 NBA 2K

Holy Airball

Death, taxes, and atrocious microtransactions in NBA 2K. These are really the only things you can count on in life.

With every annual release, it feels like they become more and more prevalent in the 2K franchise, and every year, fans are getting increasingly upset. NBA 2K should be one of the best sports games on the market, especially given the lack of real innovation in the Madden franchise.

However, any attempt to see real progress through MyCareer is virtually impossible without caving and spending money on the game’s microtransactions. The fact that they are mandatory is an absolute travesty. The fact that you can splurge on the game’s most premium editions, which come with Virtual Currency, and still have to spend money to progress is a joke.

This takes what is an enjoyable game and puts a foul taste in your mouth, like Kevin Durant running away from Oklahoma City to join an already stacked Golden State Warriors team. Sadly, the problem isn’t just the NBA 2K series. It appears to be a 2K issue overall. Sadly, if you’re looking for someone else to make an NBA game, that won’t happen for the foreseeable future.

3 WWE 2K25

Jobber Status

I really did mean it when I said that WWE 2K25 isn’t just one of the best wrestling games ever made, but also an all-time great sports game. It’s a blast to play, does an excellent job of paying respect to the WWE product, and has kept me busy throughout the year.

Well, most of the game has; the one part that hasn’t, however, was the all new Island mode.

You see, in order to rise through the ranks as an up-and-coming WWE Superstar and impress Roman Reigns, I need to spend money on microtransactions. No thanks, Uce. I’d rather mess around in MyGM than a game mode solely designed for whales to spend money. Ironically, it suffers from the same issues as NBA 2K25: even with the game’s premium editions, I still need to spend money to progress through the gameplay mode.

On the plus side, it was apparent from the get-go, so I knew not to waste my time with it. I’m thankful it didn’t completely sour me on the game, but I know for a fact it had that effect on others. I’d hope that WWE 2K26 addresses this issue, but I fear that it’ll be yet another thing ruined by John Cena.

2 Guitar Hero Live

Get Off The Stage!

Guitar Hero Live honestly never stood a chance; despite the resurgence of Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the mid-2010s, these games were never going to be as popular as they were in the late 2000s.

One way Guitar Hero Live made sure of that was the usage of excessive microtransactions. Now, these weren’t new to the music genre. Rock Band had an extensive library of DLC songs you could purchase, which, while enjoyable and a very welcome addition to the game, are literally microtransactions. Here’s the thing, though: when you bought a song for Rock Band, you owned the entire song.

That’s not the case in Guitar Hero Live. The microtransactions essentially work like you’re buying songs on a Touchtunes Jukebox: you spend X amount of money to get Y amount of plays. Did you practice one of the songs before jamming with friends? Too bad, gotta pay again.

It’s a mind boggling decision that, like so many others, can only be explained by corporate greed. Again, I never had any issues forking over money back in the day to download entire albums on Rock Band. Heck, I didn’t even mind paying to repurchase songs I owned for Rock Band 4. But you’re asking me to buy limited plays of songs I want to jam out to on a regular basis? No thanks.

1 Plants vs. Zombies 2

Apocalypse Now

The first Plants vs. Zombies game is not only one of the best mobile games of all time, but an excellent tower-defense title that became a pop culture phenomenon.

When the sequel was released, many people were expecting more of the same. What they got, however, was a game plagued by necessary microtransactions to progress through certain levels.

It’s an unfortunate fall from grace for developer PopCap, which EA acquired before the game was released. At a certain point in development, a decision was made to make Plants vs. Zombies a “freemium game.” That means that while the game would be free-to-play, it would gently nudge you to spend money to do better. Only, it wasn’t so much as a gentle nudge, but more of a forceful shove. In some cases, you wouldn’t be able to beat certain levels without the assistance of microtransactions.

Another one of PopCap’s popular games, Peggle, saw the same fate, being littered with microtransactions.

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