My issue with it is it's poor preservation of games for the future. When these online services shut down (and they will), all of that content will disappear, and there will be no legal means of acquiring it.
Gears skins? Once Live goes down, that content disappears once you have to replace the Xbox (or in other cases, you can't use things since it requires LIVE auth). You won't be able to resign the keys, so your new Xbox won't be able to decrypt it.
Halo? There's a skull in Halo Anniversary that was only available to preorders and first run copies. It wasn't cosmetic - it actually changed how the campaign plays. This will be lost to the sands of time no matter how many discs you buy once Live goes down, because you won't be able to decrypt the software key that allows the game to use it. Meanwhile, we will be able to access 100% of the original Halo 1's content forever.
We're talking about someone who's (former) company had two games legally deleted from existence, I already see what side of game preservation they stand on. And it's not a good one. Microtransactions of actual in game content (cosmetic or not) is going to eventually create a lost history of videogames. Microtransactions should be geared more towards service-based items (buy this to get more EXP, buy this to increase your storage space, etc).
Gears skins? Once Live goes down, that content disappears once you have to replace the Xbox (or in other cases, you can't use things since it requires LIVE auth). You won't be able to resign the keys, so your new Xbox won't be able to decrypt it.
Halo? There's a skull in Halo Anniversary that was only available to preorders and first run copies. It wasn't cosmetic - it actually changed how the campaign plays. This will be lost to the sands of time no matter how many discs you buy once Live goes down, because you won't be able to decrypt the software key that allows the game to use it. Meanwhile, we will be able to access 100% of the original Halo 1's content forever.
We're talking about someone who's (former) company had two games legally deleted from existence, I already see what side of game preservation they stand on. And it's not a good one. Microtransactions of actual in game content (cosmetic or not) is going to eventually create a lost history of videogames. Microtransactions should be geared more towards service-based items (buy this to get more EXP, buy this to increase your storage space, etc).