The free-to-play Torchlight Infinite by XD International for PC and mobile platforms is currently in Steam closed beta, but some fans already feel that they have been deceived. In prior interviews with the development team, it was stated that the loot-based ARPG would not have predatory pay-to-win practices for stat boosts. But a Reddit thread has compiled examples of paywalled features and monetization from the game’s most recent closed beta test that seem to break that initial promise.
Why Torchlight Infinite’s monetization is being called “deceitful”
In a thread called “Torchlight Infinite’s Deceitful Advertisement on Their Monetization” on the gachagaming sub-Reddit, the user praises the gameplay but points to various articles and interviews where the game’s developers claim that it will not have stat-boost monetization and that there won’t be “any impact on build progression from microtransactions.” At the time of this writing, the description of the game’s Steam page under “Burden-free gaming” says that “all gear, affixes, crafting material and upgrades on attributes are all loot-based.” However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, both the thread and its multiple comments compare the extent of the “deceptive” practices to Diablo Immortal.
According to the user, Torchlight Infinite has a gacha system with pets called Pactspirits. These give extra passive skill trees that provide character stat boosts to damage, crit percentage, and other attributes. These pets also have a dupe system, where similar to gems in Diablo Immortal, can grant higher stat boosts if you get duplicates. Then there are Class Traits that are special class-specific passives and there is a provided instance of one Class Trait that is locked behind a gacha paywall with paid currency. Well, that doesn’t look loot-based at all.
On top of that, it looks like there are some commonplace features in ARPGs like an auto-looter that is locked behind a battle pass, despite the developers saying there won’t be a battle pass in a tweet in early August. It’s uncertain at this point if this battle pass or if these pets won’t require paid currency in the final version of Torchlight Infinite. Perhaps there are free-to-play ways to pull for pets or to gain access to the auto-looter without having to purchase a battle pass. But right now the game’s monetization seems suspicious, to say the least.
Torchlight Infinite is scheduled to release in October 2022 for PC, iOS, and Android.
In other news, an alleged Bioshock 4 leak has revealed the game’s release window, setting, and art, and the first wave of the Xbox Game Pass September 2022 game list has been announced.
