Since its announcement, Metal Gear Survive has been the subject of sharp criticism from Metal Gear Solid fans for a wide range of reasons. One reason why Metal Gear Survive has been criticized is due to its heavy use of microtransactions, with some costing as much as $50 at launch. Now that fans actually have their hands on the game, it's been discovered that microtransactions extend beyond just performance boosters, but are actually required if anyone wants to make a new character without deleting their old one.

To make a new character (and effectively a new game save) in Metal Gear Survive, players either have to delete their existing avatar or pay 1,000 SV coins. SV Coins are the in-game currency that players can purchase with real world money in Metal Gear Survive, and to get 1,000 of them, players will have to shell out a minimum of $10.

Making players pay to have additional characters is not entirely unheard of in the gaming industry (particularly in the MMO space), but considering the significant public backlash Metal Gear Survive has already experienced, it seems like it could just drum up more controversy for the game.

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It's true that Metal Gear Survive launched with a budget price, and that may justify the heavy use of microtransactions in the game to some, but others will just add this to their reasons not to support the game. Metal Gear Survive was already fighting an uphill battle, and so one would have thought Konami would want to do all it could to avoid giving people more reasons to criticize the game.

Fans have been criticizing Metal Gear Survive well before its launch, bombing its announcement trailers with dislikes and expressing their frustration on forums. It's the first Metal Gear game since Konami fired series creator Hideo Kojima, and that combined with its departure from series norms has not sat well with many members of the community.

Now that Metal Gear Survive is out, it's been making headlines for its heavy use of microtransactions and for weird rules in its EULA, including a stipulation that players can't date people they meet in the game. Whether or not the community is able to look past these controversies and give the game a chance remains to be seen.

Metal Gear Survive is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.