Two decades ago, the current pervasiveness of microtransactions in single-player games would have been unthinkable. 2006 brought us Oblivion's infamous Horse Armour, seen at the time as a shameless cash grab on Bethesda's part. Little did they know that 20 years later, $1.50 for some rad cosmetics for our horse would be seen as a bargain. The Overton window on microtransactions has certainly shifted, likely driven by the relentless monetisation of live-service titles.
These changing attitudes were reflected in a recent Reddit thread from the aptly named Wuckforld. This individual put forward a statement saying that microtransactions should be removed from Assassin's Creed. They claim to have seen evidence of microtransactions in the verified leaked early release of Assassin's Creed Shadows. However, it's hardly surprising that Shadows has microtransactions given they've been ever-present in the series since Origins.
These microtransactions are usually premium sets of gear or are purely cosmetic. There are also various boosts you can buy to make grinding in-game levels faster. The original poster says they feel the existence of these shortcuts and premium gear makes grinding less attractive to them. It's not an unreasonable opinion, but commenters on this thread vehemently disagree....
