The long-awaited roguelike, deckbuilder, and card-based strategy game The Bazaar is finally available to play for free via its first-ever open beta. However, long-time fans of the could-be Teamfight Tactics and Slay The Spire rival have criticized its new in-game purchases and monetization methods, as they seemingly contradict descriptions of The Bazaar previously published by developer Tempo and its CEO and founder Andrey ‘Reynad’ Yanyuk. Replying to these criticisms, Yanyuk says that the in-game purchases do not create a pay-to-win dynamic, that some player feedback is “dramatized fearmongering,” and that the response to The Bazaar’s new monetization and patch is “a great exercise in showing why we [Tempo] should communicate less.”
A mix of card-based strategy games and roguelike deckbuilders, The Bazaar has just launched its first open beta and can be played for free. Each hero character comes equipped with a deck of 100 possible cards, but players can unlock expansions for each of them via the new Prize Pass. If you’re playing The Bazaar for free, there is a free tier of the Prize Pass. However, you can also pay to access the premium tier of the Prize Pass which, if you work your way through it in either ranked or normal play, will yield a different set of cards for select heroes. After those cards have been available through the Prize Pass premium tier for one month, they will also be available to purchase directly, by any player.
Accessing the premium tier of the Prize Pass costs $10, and you can only purchase that premium tier using real currency. However, once the expansion cards from the premium pass go on sale for everyone, they can be bought using either real money (again, they will cost $10) or using 999 gems. Gems can be earned by playing ranked games of The Bazaar.
While these monetization methods may sound similar to other modern videogames, or games like The Bazaar, when The Bazaar first arrived on Kickstarter in 2018, Yanyuk and Tempo explained that “you start the game with a couple of classes unlocked…those classes have all the cards in the game for them.” The original Kickstarter did state that “as more classes get introduced to the game, you’ll have the option of unlocking them, either by spending money or in-game currency,” but in 2020, Yanyuk tweeted that “The Bazaar is free-to-play and has no cards you need to collect at all.”
Some players are criticizing The Bazaar’s new monetization policies as they feel that they contradict these previous statements. “I don’t think I really like this way of doing card packs, locking them behind a battlepass,” one player, ‘TacoBrowser,’ writes on The Bazaar’s subreddit. “This dev team gets the benefit of the doubt from me and it still is beta,” another player writes, “but blatant pay-to-win mechanics aren’t a good start to open beta.”
In response to this criticism, Yanyuk says that the new system will not create a pay-to-win dynamic, and does not believe that players who purchase cards by any means will have an increased success rate.
“I don’t believe that spending money will be boosting anyone’s win rate,” Yanyuk writes on The Bazaar’s official Discord. “Some players blame everything other than themselves when they lose, so they keep losing. As they lose, they keep pointing to things other than their own decisions that ’caused’ that.
“If they get killed by an expansion card they’ll call it pay-to-win. If they get killed by a default card, they’ll blame balance. Or match-up RNG. Or the lack of free wins from skill-based matchmaking. If they spend money, they won’t actually be doing more winning because the incompetence is on the inside.”
Yanyuk also says that some of the responses regarding monetization are not “genuine,” and says that they “regret” publishing the latest patch notes video.
“I was so stressed about monetization over the past few years, but seeing Reddit lose it today lets me breathe a huge sigh of relief,” Yanyuk writes in response to one Bazaar player. “I’m pretty confident we’re on the right track now.
“Monetization feedback is negative 100% of the time for 100% of solvent games. It’s the boy who cried pay-to-win and the least honest of all game feedback. I encourage everyone to vote with their wallet because that’s the only way we can see the truth on this topic. The drama is the point and the fun of it for the type of people that monetization talk attracts. It’s not genuine feedback, it’s dramatized fearmongering from a small handful of people that haven’t tried the system.
“I regret doing a patch note video at all this week,” Yanyuk concludes. “It gives people a day to lie, assume the worst, and doomsay, rather than just experience the new content first hand. A great exercise in showing why we should communicate less.”
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