Do they actually have real-money microtransactions in as well?
It's only a matter of time. I mean, why else would they introduce the grind, the lootboxes (with random, and usually duplicate cards), the energy system etc.? All these systems are in place to introduce the "pay not to grind" monetization scheme.
Also, how long has it now been since Helius has added actual content to the game? 3-4 months? More?
I mentioned a few months back how their whole business system was unsustainable if they couldn't keep rolling out content at a steady pace, because unlike most other skinner boxes there really is nothing here to keep people coming back once they grow bored of the current animations.
Why are so many people supporting this?
Lots of people likely even forgot they are subscribed, and when you have thousands of people paying a few dollars every month it quickly adds up. Then again, there's also a lot of simps desperate the get their coom on regardless of how much a developer is abusing them and their wallet.
Also, to be fair, he did lose a fair bit of subscribers over the past few months, and will likely lose even more as he continues to not deliver and make the product more awful with every new iteration.
I predict he'll keep the scam going for as long as possible before he pulls another Fallen Doll.
It will have real money MTX, and yeah it has mobile game like systems because it is going mobile now. It's not an xcom style game anymore, it's some weird clash of clans rip off that seems to be made by some outsourced company.
I don't even think Helius is developing the game anymore. It's been months since any real content has come out, and in the meantime Helius has changed his story at least a dozen times.
First it was gonna be a singleplayer game, then it was going to be a singleplayer game with a multiplayer component, then the singleplayer was going to be sold separately from the multiplayer part (which Helius rather backpedaled on when too many people complained), then it became a multiplayer only skinner box, and then he announced they were porting the whole project over to Unreal 5, AND THEN they said the whole game was going to be streamed over the internet so you could play it on the mobile.
And in all this time basically zero new animations, characters, monsters, outfits, locales got released. All people are getting are concept drawings for characters that have been announced more than a year ago and still are not in the game.