Summary
- The Bazaar is locking new cards behind a battle pass.
- Players are critical of this practice, especially given past statements about The Bazaar’s future monetisation.
- The Bazaar creator Reynad has responded to this criticism, calling it “reliably dishonest.”
After seven years of development, Tempo’s free-to-play autobattler The Bazaar has released in open beta. The Bazaar’s early access period attracted positive sentiment, with our own Eric Switzer calling it “the most fascinating and competitive strategy game in ages.” However, the monetisation elements present in the game’s open beta have attracted some criticism (nice spot, PC Gamer).
The Bazaar is set to receive a ‘prize pass’ – a paid system that allows players to grind hero-specific 10-card expansions. These expansions rotate out after a month, but players can still purchase them afterwards for 999 gems – premium currency worth around $10. This monetisation isn’t much different from similar features in other popular digital card games like Hearthstone. Nevertheless, a section of the game’s community isn’t happy, with several players pointing to a quote from the game’s 2018 crowdfunding campaign.
Money Moves
In the campaign’s description, the game’s creator Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk expresses his desire to solve the “pay-to-win model” of card games. “In my game, you start the game with a couple of classes unlocked. Those classes have all the cards in the game for them. Your class is just as balanced as any other,” Reynad writes. “As more classes get introduced to the game, you’ll have the option of unlocking them, either by spending money or in-game currency—Most of the revenue will come from cosmetics, think of it monetising like a traditional MOBA.”
The strategy described above differs greatly from monetisation in other digital card games where a large portion of the money-making potential is from gating powerful cards through booster packs or expensive in-game materials. Those who oppose The Bazaar’s ‘prize pass’ feel that locking cards behind a paid system isn’t in the spirit of what the campaign promised. The part about classes having every available card unlocked is a contradiction, after all.
In a Reddit thread quoting a Reynad tweet from 2021 (“Friendly reminder that The Bazaar is free-to-play and has no cards you need to collect at all”), an unhappy commenter replied, “Imagine throwing under the bus all of the people that supported your vision and company for 5 f**king years.” There are several other threads and comments with similar sentiments being expressed.
In response to the backlash, Reynad made several posts on The Bazaar’s Discord, questioning the intentions of those criticising the game’s monetisation. “A great exercise in showing why we should communicate less,” Reynard wrote. “I regret doing a patch note video at all this week. It gives people a day to lie, assume the worst, and doomsay, rather than just experience the new content first-hand.” He goes on to say that while the team does value feedback, they do not heed feedback regarding monetisation because it is “reliably dishonest.”
In response to people pointing out his now-contradictory statements from years past, Reynad replied, “Thanks for the quotes. I’m glad I managed to fulfill such ambitious goals even after that project has evolved so much over 6 years. Glad to have delivered.”
“This is the same cycle as it has been for 6 years,” Reynad wrote in a Discord message. “We announce a thing, then the people who want to complain type 1000 [times] as much as those who don’t. The game is good because we’ve consistently done the opposite of what the mob demands for 6 years, all while kids online bemoan how we’re killing the game.”
The Bazaar is currently available to play in open beta.
The Bazaar
