Burning some of the goodwill it recently clawed back, RuneScape rolled out consumable microtransaction cosmetics before quickly pivoting to a "buy once, unlock forever" plan after predictable player backlash.
On August 3, RuneScape maker Jagex announced new player-owned house decoration bundles that fans could use to spruce up their homes.
"These bundles act a little differently to other bundles on the marketplace," Jagex rather ominously explained. "They contain a set number of furniture items, rather than cosmetics. As such, each bundle can be purchased multiple times."
In other words, these are disposable collections of one-time-use items designed to be bought over and over again. One of these bundles would charge $12 worth of RuneCoins for items like balloons. I'm reminded of the consumable shader controversy that plagued Destiny 2's early days, except this time the financial incentive was even clearer.
Players unsurprisingly weren't happy, especially since this decoration push followed a substantial price hike for RuneScape subscriptions, not to mention Jagex's recent pledge to clean up the game and make microtransactions less invasive. A new, egregious breed of microtransactions didn't exactly fit the message.
"Move over horse armor – A new microtransaction has hit Runescape 3... ONE TIME use player house decorations," complained one popular Reddit post.
Buried in feedback, Jagex returned on August 4 to say it's changed its mind. "We've been having a chat, and we agree that there's a better way to offer these items up," the studio insists.
It's a total reversal. These party bundles "will no longer be available for repeat purchase," anyone who bought them multiple times will be refunded for extra purchases, and the bundles will now come with permanent recipes for freely replicable items.
The changes are so obvious and have arrived so quickly that you've got to wonder how anyone thought the outcome here would be any different. The fact that the company tried this at all soured some players on Jagex's alleged turnaround.
"Player-Owned House marketplace items are still very much a new area that we're exploring, but it's important to note that none of these explorations are setting a direction in stone from the get-go," the company says. "Per-item sales for POH won't be part of that direction, and future POH offerings will be approached with a 'buy once, unlock forever' mentality."
