It’s not that it’s hard. It’s that they see it as interfering with their business model. Not only would that remove the likelihood of you seeing other people’s new skins, it also removes a dependence on them, where they can create forced obsolescence. Plus I suspect that they fear more piracy.
It’s the way Multiversus went, and it’s the way 2XKO will likely go. You need to put your thumbs on certain scales to make the math work out for free to play.
Fighting game characters take too long to make. The tried and true Riot method doesn’t work when you can’t get new content out at a regular clip, so people would have easily unlocked everything for sale without paying for it. The only option was a huge grind to attempt to make it sustainable. We’ll see this problem again when 2XKO comes out.
Grabbing it before then still means interacting with their freemium currency, so it’s an expensive purchase. They could just sell the game for $40, but that would make too much sense.
This is a larger trend with how much these games cost and how much the console market has shrunk. I think they just realized that one line crossed the other line while the ABK purchase was in limbo.
Games have short marketing cycles these days, so it’s not much of an indicator for when it’s due to release. Perfect Dark wasn’t there either, and I think both are allegedly slated for this year.
Personally, I don’t even like piracy as a form of protest. It means you’re spending time on their game when you could be spending time and money on a game that respects your values. Plus, if you like the game, you’re still spreading positive word of mouth. I don’t need to play Horizon when there’s so much else out there.
Dead of Winter - The co-op variant of the game, without a traitor. Zombie apocalypse game.
Meeple Party - A co-op game about throwing a party and making sure personality types don’t clash. Perhaps on the nose for your group, but I still recommend it.
Mental Blocks - Once again, play the variant without a traitor. This is a game about solving a 3D puzzle from different perspectives with limited abilities to communicate or touch certain blocks.