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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s latest update allows players to sign up for an insurance plan to protect certain assets on their Forward Operating Bases.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain ‘s latest update has now added the ability for gamers to insure their Foward Operating Bases from losses. When invading players steal staff members or materials, the insured player who is being stolen from will retain the items on their side, while the invader will essentially receive a copy of the items and/or staff that they stole.
Surprisingly, Konami has chosen to not only require players to use MB coins (which are generally bought with real-life money) to partake in the insurance, but has made the insurance a subscription service, much like in real life. Players who allow their insurance to lapse will be susceptible to attacks like any other uninsured player. According to a NeoGAFuser, insuring a base incosts 50 coins for one day, 100 for three days, 200 for a week, and 300 for two weeks.
Players have previously been miffed at the reliance and cost of microtransactions in Metal Gear Solid V , but insuring a base is a big surprise. Admittedly, playing the FOB mode is not necessary to enjoy Metal Gear Solid V , and Konami has been quick to point out that Mother Base coins can be earned through in-game actions. However, it hasn’t kept fans from being irritated that a full-price game has additional charges in order to enjoy the full game.
Perhaps most surprising of all is that the insurance doesn’t cover one of a base’s most valuable assets: nuclear weapons. Players recently unearthed a cutscene hidden in Metal Gear Solid V ‘s code that appears to only play if all nukes are dismantled in the FOB mode, which seems highly unlikely given their worth and potency. However, some players have taken it upon themselves to steal and then destroy nukes, hoping to work towards that cinematic. These players will undoubtedly be glad to know that stolen nukes will not be replaced, and they can continue their efforts.
Players will undoubtedly have mixed feelings about this insurance subscription service. While knowing that the majority of your belongings will be safe in case of an attack is nice, making your real-life wallet suffer to protect virtual assets is fairly absurd. Whether any given player wants to use the service or not is up to them, but chances are the vast majority can at least agree that Konami is doing everything they can to squeeze additional cash out of Kojima’s last entry to the Metal Gear Solid series.
Would you pay real cash to protect in-game base assets? And if so, for how long? Let us know in the comments.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is available now for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Source: NEOGAF, Konami