Despite performance issues and microtransaction controversies, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is still putting up record numbers for a single player game release. Read on to learn more about the different issues about the game and its current standing on Steam.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Has Over 224,000 Concurrent Players on Steam
Capcom Does It Again
Despite having a launch plagued with issues and controversies regarding performance and microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 still delivers and has reached a concurrent player count of over 224,000 players on Steam. User @Okami13_ also pointed out that "This is Capcom's biggest Steam launch ever for a single player game. More than 30% higher than Resident Evil 4."
To those who haven’t heard or seen, Dragon’s Dogma 2 released to a fanfare praising its unique gameplay and open world. However, it also came with a LOT of performance issues, dated game design choices, and a whole controversy about its microtransactions.
Still Riddled With Performance Issues
Dragon’s Dogma 2 did not have a perfect launch, as seen by a lot of outrage and skepticism concerning the game’s performance. As seen in IGN’s Performance Review of the game where all three platforms are compared against each other, both consoles were unable to reach that 60 FPS mark and were still struggling to stabilize at around 30-40 FPS in both combat scenarios and populated cities.
For PC, the game is quite demanding of a gaming rig’s high system requirements. As tested by IGN, they had two PCs using different specifications as well as different settings. One was using an RTX 3080 GPU and Ryzen 5800X3D at 4K DLSS Balanced on High settings and the other was using an RTX 4090 and Ryzen 5800X3D at 4K DLSS Quality on Maximum settings. Both PCs were struggling to reach the 60 FPS mark in populated cities and had drops during gameplay.
So it’s clear that the game is poorly optimized and doesn’t run as well as it should’ve. But this also hits the handheld PC market as the game cannot be played on a Steam Deck. As shown by Washington Post video game critic, Gene Park, on Twitter (X), the game is simply unplayable.
In a separate post, Gene also stated that this was definitely Capcom’s way of testing the RE Engine in the open world. While the engine had a great launch with Monster Hunter Rise being stable at 30 FPS on the Nintendo Switch, it wasn’t an open world game which may be another way for them to prepare for their upcoming big releases in Monster Hunter Wilds and Resident Evil 9.
AAA Pricing With Additional Fees
- Image taken on Steam US Store
Another controversy is the game not advertising or inclusion of microtransactions to make the game easier by adding purchasable fast travel points and other items. With little to no reviews posting about the game’s microtransactions, the public felt betrayed about the included business practice, especially since the game has always advertised itself to have limited fast travel.
Many were quick to point out that immoral business practices that Capcom was doing, but others also came to the conclusion that these microtransactions are simply non essential to progress through the game, and are there for shortcuts who simply have the money and no time to play through the game normally.
Streamer CohhCarnage also posted on Twitter (X) about his take on the game using microtransactions saying that not buying the microtransactions doesn’t solve the problem of it existing in the first place. He goes on to pose the question that "If these companies thought they COULD do that and get away with it, would they?" He ends his long post saying that "This is all a thought-experiment on why people get so angry at single-player DLC."
Despite It All, The Game Proves Worthy
No matter how bad it started off, the game is still selling amazingly well. To the point where it topped the Steam charts on its best selling category by revenue as seen in @NextGenPlayer’s post on Twitter(X), outselling Helldivers 2 and Horizon Forbidden West.
Twitter user @SynthPotato posted that this is proof that even after all of that noise, a game is good when it delivers and caps it off by saying: "I really think everyone avoiding Dragon's Dogma 2 is missing out, incredible game."
