Shadow of War with surprise announcement?

Recently, Warner Bros. announced that the highly anticipated sequel to Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War will include micro-transactions which will affect their renowned Nemesis system.

Players will be able to purchase Loot Chests, War Chests, XP Boosts and bundles via an in-game store called Market. Loot Chests consist of weapons and armour while War Chests will give you more Orcs as well as Training Orders, so you can level up and customise your Orc followers.

These chests can be purchased using either Mirian or Gold. The former is earned in-game by defeating Treasure Orcs, destroying gear and finding stashes while the latter can be obtained through specific milestones, participating in community challenges or by spending real money.

As such, Shadow of War will incorporate micro-transactions that will make the main playable character and his Orc army more powerful. While loot boxes are common in multiplayer games, we have rarely seen them implemented to such an extent in a full priced single-player game. Even though all of the above can be earned by simply playing the game, we have seen countless instances where developers will purposefully make it harder or increase the grind in order to encourage players to spend money.

This begs the question; can a player who finished Shadow of Mordor without any problems complete Shadow of War without grinding or constantly running into difficulty walls?

Micro-transactions have reached a point where they might as well be considered a necessary evil to support the development of big budget titles. The cost of making games is increasing all the time but their MRP, outside of specific regions, has remained the same. As a result, publishers need alternate sources of income. This is why DLC, season passes, pre-order bonuses and micro-transactions exists as buyers on launch are not enough to fund the development of a big budget game.

I still maintain that single player games should not include any sort of micro-transactions and fully priced games with multiplayer should limit the same to cosmetics only. The issue is, the audience at large has fully voted in favour of micro-transactions. However, With the continued success of GTA online, FIFA ultimate team and the loot boxes present in almost all games; it seems people have directly told publishers that they are more than willing to spend money on micro-transactions as opposed to buying a new game.