Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Reignites XP Booster Controversy
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has been out for just over a month, and in that time it has garnered solid reviews from critics and surpassed Ubisoft's expectations for a massive launch day. While players have been enjoying diving into the game's story and discovering its many secrets, it seems that Ubisoft thinks some people may want to level up a bit faster. To that end, the company has released XP boosters for the game, reigniting a controversy that was present when the last game in the series debuted.
Originally spotted by Game Informer, these boosts are available in the in-game store and come in two different flavors. One will run players 1000 Helix points (or $10) that will grant them a permanent 50% increase to all XP, while the other costs 1500 Helix points ($15) and will give you the added bonus of 50% more money earned.
Game Informer reached out to Ubisoft to ask why the boosts — called "Utilities" in the store — were added to the game after over a month. Ubisoft responded, "As more and more post-launch content becomes available, we want to give the option to players to advance their progression. Utilities allow players who lack the time to fully explore the world of Assassin's Creed Valhalla to be able to acquire the game's best gear, as well as other items, by accelerating their progress."
As noted by Kotaku's Stephen Totilo earlier this year, many fans were less than pleased with the introduction of XP boosters to Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Some fans found the progression in Odyssey to be a bit of a slog, which some felt was meant to encourage people to shell out the extra dough for the opportunity to permanently raise their XP by 50%. When Assassin's Creed: Valhalla launched without a booster system, it seemed that Ubisoft had gotten the message from fans, loud and clear. Now it seems as though some gamers are just as annoyed as they were when Odyssey launched.
On Twitter, more than a few players have mentioned that they are unsurprised by Ubisoft's latest move. Others felt that it wasn't a big deal, and that people who didn't want the XP boosters simply didn't have to buy them. Another gamer commented that a move like this isn't exclusive to just Ubisoft, bringing up Bethesda's infamous horse armor DLC packs released for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
It is strange that Ubisoft would wait a month after the game's launch before releasing boosters for Valhalla. That gap of time suggests that Ubisoft is confident that players don't actually need these boosters to be able to make decent progress through the game's large map, and are only releasing these boosters as an option for customers who would want them.
That seems to be the case, as players have been more than capable of completing Valhalla's main story and are already asking questions about where the series may go next.