Yager Outlines Monetization Plans For Their PvPvE Shooter The Cycle

How a free-to-play game is monetized is always a big concern for players of that particular game. In The Cycle’s case, it’s going to be a bit more robust than a simply selling cosmetics in exchange for real world money, as the PvPveE shooter’s developer Yager Developments reveals in their latest dev diary.

“As an FPS game, vanity has a limited appeal compared to 3rd person shooters and we also did not want to gate core gameplay, for example by selling classes to the players,” they explain. “This means that to fund the project, which has over 100 developers working on it, we need to consider how we can monetize non-vanity elements in a way that is as fair as possible.”

To keep the game as fair as possible, the team is giving players options to acquire multiple in-game currencies: K-Marks, Aurum, and Salvage Tokens. K-Marks are the main currency that players earn by doing in-game stuff. Aurum is the game’s premium currency which is passively generated but can also be bought using real world money. And last but definitely not least are Salvage Tokens which can be earned via the Fortuna Pass and can be used in conjunction with the game’s gear salvage feature.

As for their uses, K-Marks or Aurum can be spent to speed up crafting and upgrades. The former can also be spent on Insurance, a portion of which will be returned to players when they die. Salvage Tokens and Aurum can also be used to insure individual pieces of equipment. Here’s how it works:

“The effective cost starts at 10 Aurum (~ 10 cents – depending on the currency of your country) and then increases per item that you insure. You can also use a mix of Tokens & Aurum, and you can mix both types of insurances on your drops.

If you use the Gear Salvage function your insured gear will be sent back to you, provided that no other player picks it up. If another player picks it up, you will receive the same number of K-Marks as compensation, as if you use the normal insurance.”

Yager will also be selling Starter Packs that will come with cosmetic items for avatars and weapons, several pieces of gear, and in-game currency. The packs will be available in four tiers: Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Legendary and will be available for purchase on either Steam or the Epic Games Store.

You can learn more about Yager’s plans to monetize The Cycle on the official site.