Dead or Alive 6 fans outraged over Hair Color DLC

Koei Tecmo released Dead or Alive 6 version 1.20 a few days ago, and with it, the ability to change character hair color in the Playstation 4 version of the game. This is alongside the introduction of ingame currency call Premium Tickets.

Players require this currency to make the cosmetic change to their favorite character’s hair. However, this currency is purchased from the Playstation Store. In addition, fans will have to pay for every instance they switch colors, even if they’ve switched to that color before. In essence, Koei Tecmo is charging fans for the ability to change colors and not the colors themseleves.

Many are unhappy about this development, and have voiced their displeasure on Twitter. The hair color change is all cosmetic and though it shouldn’t affect player enjoyment negatively, some of those interested in hair color swaps feel that the monetisation practice employed here is predatory. 

Dead or Alive 6 is a fighting game that currently has four Season Passes that are released quarterly and contain an average of 50 costumes and one character per Pass for around $90. Thats more expensive than the base game and shows just how seriosuly the developer takes microtransactions.  

Whether in reaction to fan displeasure or not, Dead or Alive 6 has also begun a new promotion in which players have the chance to win costume pattern parts and add multipliers to the amount of Player Points and pattern parts they can accumulate from playing the game’s modes. 

Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters is the free-to-play version of the game which gives access to four characters, the first part of Story Mode, a couple of other modes and Online Mode. Fans can then choose to buy additional characters to build the game’s content according to their preference. From now till March 2, 2020, Marie Rose, Honoka, and NiCO will be available at no charge to DOA6: Core Fighter players. 

In a game that makes most of its money from microtransactions, it would be very counter-productive for Koei Tecmo to push fans to breaking point. However, the franchise has made a name for itself with what some call overpriced DLC packs.