The new League of Legends Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin has caused plenty of controversy around its release and pricing structure, with many players angry that the latest MOBA, but emphasizes that the planned skin and its rollout won't be changed.
"We know many of you aren't happy with Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin," League of Legends producer Jeremy 'Brightmoon' Lee says in a post to the League of Legends Reddit. "I want to clarify up front that we aren't going to change the skin or its rollout plan, but I want to explain why and provide information on why this is something we're doing at all."
Lee says the team wants to offer "a range of products for everyone, starting at the low end of free or a few dollars, scaling to more content for more." He notes that the Prestige skins, which currently sit at the highest end of the pricing spectrum, "don't fully satisfy those of you who want something more rare."
"Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin is an exploration to fill this 'rarity' ask," Lee continues, "and how we act on the we've been hearing will bear that in mind." He notes that "Players who are asking for this kind of thing are an incredibly small percent of League players, so in-game decisions give us a clearer read on whether something does or doesn't land with them specifically."
He adds that the team decided upon a variant of a skin that is already available to players, giving those who want something 'rare' an option that doesn't feel inaccessible to the rest of the audience. While I'm certainly not the type to fork out $200 for a skin of any type, I suspect I'd want something a bit flashier than just a recolor for that amount of money – but then I'm not the target audience, and maybe some will see it as an easy way to flash their cash in-game.
Lee reassures that "One of our core values on League is, has always been, and always will be that we will not sell power regardless of how we experiment with meeting the desires of different players." He also says that "experiments with content like Dark Cosmic Erasure Jhin aren't taking away resources we put toward creating content for everyone else – quite the opposite, they help us fund more gameplay work."
In closing, Lee its that the discussion is "a heated topic and one that's not particularly easy to talk about," but promises that the team will talk about it further in a future dev update video. Nevertheless, the post itself has been largely downvoted, with most comments continuing to express distaste for the decision.
Prominent League of Legends creator 'Spideraxe30' notes in reply that "the effort to pricing here quite frankly does not feel worth it" and adds that "money being the only way to acquire this content for up until a year feels atrocious." One of the most upvoted comments in a response thread takes a rather different approach: "I like the idea of $200 Chromas because now it's easier to find people that you can bully."
It appears for now at least that Riot is intent on continuing its "exploration" with the new skin's pricing, and it remains to be seen whether it will sell well enough for the developer to determine that future such experiments are worthwhile or not.
Take a look through our LoL Arena tier list if you've been enjoying the game's newest mode.