Mecha Break’s $47 skin packs and gameplay-boosting auction house drag user reviews down to “mixed” even as the shooter’s concurrent player count hits 132k on Steam

Following a series of extensively played betas, Mecha Break has ultimately debuted across PC and Xbox with remarkable player numbers, yet it isn’t all smooth sailing. The shooter’s Steam user evaluations are settling at “mixed” mainly due to some quite aggressive monetization, which includes $47 cosmetic bundles and an auction house that’s treading the pay-to-win territory.

Mecha Break launched with a simultaneous player peak of 132,816 on Steam, as SteamDB indicates. The actual number is likely slightly higher, as this count does not encompass players on Xbox or those using the game’s standalone PC launcher. However, it is important to mention that the playtest earlier this year achieved vastly superior numbers.

Players are reacting very favorably to the action in Mecha Break, but – as is often seen in free-to-play titles – the monetization is provoking considerable negative Steam reviews. One of the primary grievances is that numerous cosmetics that were accessible in the beta have now been locked behind a currency system, meaning you’ve either got to grind or pay for them.

Many of those cosmetics are low-cost microtransactions, but there are, well, macrotransactions as well. The Leonie Fevrie bundle, which includes unique pilot and mech cosmetics, is priced at an astounding $47, and the 28-day countdown timer associated with it adds a bit of extra FOMO pressure.

You can theoretically acquire this bundle with currency earned through gameplay, but it appears you can only do so via the auction house, and only if another player has purchased it and listed it there. This implies you can likely expect it to be priced even higher in the auction house.

However, these are merely cosmetics, and the type of acquisitions we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in free-to-play games. The player auction house, which utilizes a currency that can be purchased with real money, enables you to acquire weapons and mods to utilize in Mecha Break’s Mashmak mode, which serves as a PvPvE extraction option. Yes, you can earn these items through play, but you can also straightforwardly acquire them from other players, creating a level of gameplay-enhancing microtransaction that tends to invoke phrases like “pay-to-win.”

For its part, developer Amazing Seasun Games has been actively responding to numerous negative reviews, providing clarity on the monetization model and assuring that the team is “actively evaluating feedback.” Whether this feedback leads to significant alterations to Mecha Break’s in-game purchases remains to be determined.

Explore our Mecha Break tier listing or the latest Mecha Break codes if you’re eager to jump in yourself.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He has been covering games (with occasional ventures into the realms of anime and professional wrestling) since 2015, initially as a freelancer, later as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years.