22Cans makes Godus Wars DLC free after micro-transaction backlash

Well, that didn’t last long.

This week saw the return of Peter Molyneux from a year’s self-imposed exile from the games press, coinciding with the release of Godus Wars – a strategy-inflected follow-up to 22Cans’ god simulator Godus.

Godus Wars was billed as somewhat of an apology for the trials of Godus, following several high-profile criticisms of Molyneux and the title for lacking major promised features and seemingly misleading those who backed the title on Kickstarter.

However, less than a day after it was released for free to Godus owners, Godus Wars fell prey to a similar backlash from players.

The title costs £10.99 for those who didn’t own the original game, but was soon found to also contain a $4.99 micro-transaction for an additional continent – one is included with the base game.

Indovel is billed as a ‘premium add-on’ on Godus War’s Steam page, but 22Cans CEO Simon Phillips soon took to the title’s blog to announce that the need to pay would be removed.

“It’s been brought to our attention that the extra content being a premium add on really isn’t a popular choice,” he said.

“Whilst we think that it does represent good value, especially considering that Godus Wars has been delivered as a free update to hundreds of thousands of users and the lower purchase price of the main game we understand previous Godus owners’ frustrations with this.

“Therefore, based on your feedback, the extra content will be available to all free-of-charge.

“Apologies for the frustrations and we hope you enjoy playing."