Back in June, we were pleased to inform you that, the then-upcoming, Gears 5 would be ditching the traditional season pass model from previous games and would be giving players additional content for free. The only caveat to that was the in-game Iron currency that could be used to purchase cosmetic items.
Gears 5 has since released (we quite liked it) and no doubt countless fans have been spending their hard-earned money or Iron to make sure they look as good as possible as they chainsaw other players’ faces off.
This story won’t really affect any of you reading in the US, however it’s still interesting to know that the price of Iron has now increased over in the UK and what’s more The Coalition had absolutely no idea the price was going to change and so had no chance to prewarn fans who would have woken up to a shock over here.
At launch, the price of UK Iron in Gears 5 was £3.99 for 500, £6.99 for 1000 and £14.99 for 2250. Now, the respective units come in at prices of £4.25, £8.50 and £16.50. I know that’s not much of an increase in reality, but it’s still annoying that no one had any idea what was happening.
The confused coalition has, however, explained this change over on the Gears 5 Reddit. They had this to say:
“So we’ve been seeking out answers on this, this morning – we don’t actually control the MS Store conversion rates of Iron and it appears this was done due to some conversion rates being off. Iron costs $5, and the price changes have aligned to the actual conversion rates apparently (ie. Iron being $5 USD + Tax).
This happened due to our partners addressing the feedback around Iron store pricing not making sense – for example, some bundles of Iron were more expensive than buying the equivalent multiples of the 500 Iron pack which was completely unintended. The incorrect conversion was part of that.
To be frank, we were not aware this change was coming or we would have at least communicated on it with some context rather than the out-of-left-field surprise it’s turned out to be. That’s on us and we’ll establish better processes with our partners for the future. I also want to reiterate that we are continuing to bring your feedback into the studio on pricing and discussions are ongoing. I know that feels like a hollow statement at this point – you want action, obviously – but we want you to know that your feedback is being heard.”
Price changes don’t ever go down well with consumers, especially not ones that aren’t even announced. It does seem The Coalition was as completely clueless as the rest of us and at least they are taking the time now to communicate with the Gears 5 community.
I hope that any fans who are interested in purchasing Iron had managed to get some before the price increase. I myself don’t ever plan on purchasing any, I’m happy to just play Gears as it comes and I’m having a blast.
Let us know in the comments your thoughts on this move. Are you from the UK and are angry about this, or are you from the US and you just don’t care? Or like me, are you just happy to play and enjoy the game as it is?
