Hot Fix 1.1.3 - I'm aware that changes were made to the FOMO mechanics and they are a disgrace.

Gating off all freemium skins to a timed store was despicable, especially given how little Merit could be earned in the time the skins were available.

FOMO mechanics - This is where the store becomes truly predatory.

That freemium currency skins are ridiculously expensive to earn and only come as single skins is arguably another outrage on its own. Relic is aware that people are generally going to go for a uniform look for their army and forcing people to pay over and over again just to get one faction kitted out the same. It's clearly another attempt at a cash grab, given that there are virtually no full sets of units.

Splitting up skins by unit - CoH2 splitting up different vehicle types was bad enough, but this really takes the cake.

But for everything else, the option to earn them for free needs to be there. I'll add the caveat here that skins developed in tandem with the community or that are part of charity packs (like in CoH2) would be a reasonable exception to this.

Skins only available for money - Even if Warbands were gotten rid of, skins that cannot be earned for free is unacceptable.

Premium currency - This has no business in a game that charges full price.

I also have issues with the challenges as currently implemented, but they're just bad, not an insult. It's predatory and greedy and there is no politer way to say that. I can't even edit my profile to remove the badge of shame that Relic forces people that got the premium edition to use, but I'm expected to fork out almost as much as the base game to buy one single skin set for one faction? The store is outrageous for so many reasons, each of which is worth its own apology. I can only speak for myself here and my disappointment stems from me looking forward to a way to earn skins by playing and being slapped in the face with a premium currency and exclusive skins instead.

Now, there's a bunch of different reasons why OSJ soured so many people: The store is a shameless cash grab, balance and basic features received less priority than a means to make more money, etc.

It's really not until that misguided interview that CoH3 suffered anything like it. When you look at Steam reviews, you can tell that Operation Sapphire Jackal came out the same day that reviews started turning negative.

Company of heroes 2 charity skins