JP PSU Cash Shop Debut

We mentioned way back in January that the PSU "expansion" update would introduce some type of additional pay-to-play game features. With this week's JP PSU content update, we now know all the details of the new "Guardians Cash" system.

Sonic Team has posted all the information you need to know about Guardians Cash on the official JP PC/PS2 PSU Web site (untranslated). Of particular interest are the cost and purchase options of Guardians Cash, which have been posted here (untranslated).

Each Guardians Cash (GC) "point" costs exactly one yen, with the exception of the last three options which have some kind of discount applied. Those prices apparently already have the tax included. As for purchase options, there are five. Players can buy as few as 500 GC (500 yen = $5.209USD), or as much as 10500 GC (10000 yen = $104.172USD = holy shit!!!).

Here's the kicker, though. Currently, Guardians Cash can be used on only two missions. These missions are started from a special part of the Guardians' Colony, and feature special bonuses or exclusive items. Players can pay individually for each mission and/or pay for other players to join in the mission as well. Sonic Team has posted the costs for each of the two missions, and they're rather shocking. The cheapest charge is for an individual player to run a C-rank mission with three other players that are also paying. That costs 30 GC (30 yen = $0.313USD) or 40 GC (40 yen = $0.417USD), depending on which of the two missions you run.

The most expensive payment -- for a party leader to cover the costs of all players on an S-rank mission run -- is 200 GC (200 yen = $2.084USD) or 400 GC (400 yen = $4.169USD), depending on the mission. That's downright ridiculous when you consider that we already pay a monthly fee of $10 just to get access to the servers! By just running these pay-to-play missions a few times, you could effectively double your monthly payment! If Sega charged for every mission the way they are for these "bonus" missions, I'd be living in a cardboard box by now (or just not playing PSU).

It will certainly be interesting to see if the Japanese players go for this. If they don't (and I really hope they don't), this little addition won't make it across the Pacific if and when the "expansion" update comes stateside.