Free-to-play games are always a heated point of debate in the gaming community, and Marvel Snap is one of those games that’s gotten hotter than usual lately.
The upcoming Leagues feature, available in some regions around the world, has already been called pay-to-win for purchasable buffs that will allow players who pay the most to clear their opponents on the leaderboard with ease. And now, some players are calling out the game as a whole for predatory pricing.
A May 9 Reddit post started the discussion by saying that Marvel Snap is “no longer worth $120 a year” for the $10 monthly season pass because the thread’s poster can’t bring themself “to justify paying every month for a shot at just keeping up” when every month is “the same.”
“New overpowered card that YouTubers endorse,” the poster said. “New overpriced features. Being squeezed for resources at every corner. No more $5 bundles, $100 bundles every other week. I don’t understand how anyone wants to keep playing. Their whole philosophy has changed to catering to whales and milking players for all their money.”
Interestingly enough, several free-to-play players were quick to jump in the comments and preach patience to use features like Spotlight Caches to earn new cards slowly over time as opposed to purchasing every season pass, and they say this is the solution.
“Welcome to the free-to-play realm,” a top reply said. “I’ve been free-to-play for a year and a half and I have all but 14 cards. It’s the best value by far.”
“Snap and most mobile-first freemium games are long term scams that prey on your free time (or lack thereof!),” another reply said. “You can absolutely get by on diligence and patience, but Second Dinner is gonna try and make you feel stupid every step of the way through hostile design and FOMO. My only other advice— have another game you can switch to when Snap starts to frustrate or feel like a dead end. You don’t get anything out of burning your free time on a game you’re starting to hate.”
New card acquisition has been iterated on several times in Snap since it launched in October 2022, and it is indeed way better than before thanks to Spotlight Caches. As with any free-to-play title, paying can speed up the process, but it’s possible to not spend much and remain competitive.
Whether or not gamers have that level of patience, however, is another story entirely.
