Fallen Earth unveiled its new Cash Shop. Right now there are only two in game items to buy, and the prices really aren’t too bad. Nothing like a $25 mount, yet anyway.
The first item up for sale is a $10 companion pet. He’s purely non-combat, just like the current in game dog pet, but he looks a bit different and can hold up to four items, making it a bag slot that can die. No bad though, I’d think about getting it if I was still playing Fallen Earth.
Sadly the second item sets a pretty bad precedent in a lot of peoples minds. The Brass Goggles are a level 7ish head item that is actual armor. It’s not just for looks, but actually useful in game. Some people are already raving about the sky falling on Fallen Earth and discussion threads are ripe with people talking about how they are selling useful in game items and how they aren’t going to resub at the next billing cycle.
That’s crap. The Brass Goggles are selling for $5 on the store. Before this they were a special item obtainable only (as far as I know) if you bought one specific copy of Beckett Massive Online Gamer Magazine. The odds that you could find a copy of that now are pretty slim. Not to mention if it was out there for purchase before, all they have done here is allow more people to purchase it.
And let us keep in mind that it’s a level 7 item. That might be useful for a few levels, but you’re really only spending $5 for the look of the item, not it’s use, because you’re going to level out of that pretty quickly. I see no problem with it. However if it IS the start of a bunch of armor and weapons being put up for sale…well let’s just hope it isn’t.
Manifest Pixel 
Interesting that they added a cash shop. First because now I’m thinking that more subscription MMOs have them then don’t have them. Second, Icarus went through a large layoff recently, so hopefully this will give them enough additional revenue to survive.
Yeah the layoffs really worry me. Hopefully this is a signal that they are going to turn things around and stay in business.
Well, it doesn’t seem to have affected their patching or feature release schedule. Just have to wait and see, I guess.
I’m guessing most companies take on more and more members as they get closer to release in order to finish everything and deal with the release, after a while things calm back down and you can decide to keep those people on if you’re doing well enough, or release them if you aren’t.