Ashes of Creation's Steven Sharif Clarifies a Few Points on Cosmetics and Monthly Costs

In a lengthy and informative post by Creative Director of Ashes of Creation, Steven Sharif,  a talk of cosmetic variations and Intrepid's outlook on monetization was in full focus.

The post explains that some armor sets are cut up into many different pieces, some of which will be utilized in multiple sets. While entire sets won’t necessarily have recolored or material swapped variants, similar pieces built from the same models that have been retextured, or that utilizes different materials, will be available.

Sharif goes on to explain that customization and visual diversity is a cornerstone of his approach to cosmetics:

“The intent behind my approach to these cosmetics, as well as the cosmetics that will be achievable in the game, is to provide a richer experience of visual diversity than we are typically accustomed to in the MMORPGs we have played in the past. There will be legendary cosmetics that are ONLY achievable in game and players can know won’t be offered in some cosmetic shop in the future undermining their accomplishment.”

- Ashes of Creation Creative Director Steven Sharif

Sharif also wanted to remind players that Ashes of Creation is a subscription-only game with a purely cosmetic marketplace. This opens up the potential for players to start playing with a low cost of entry. This is meant to put retention of players, built on a large amount of content, as their main focus to keep subscribers playing:

“This also places an emphasis on the game's retention and our continual updates and content creation to keep players playing and staying subscribed (a put your money where your mouth is sort of philosophy for us as a company). It also means players don't have to spend $60 everytime there is an expansion.”

- Ashes of Creation Creative Director Steven Sharif

Ashes of Creation is headed into its Alpha One test in April, with its second Alpha PreTest planned for next month.