Dye Hard
[Update:The officialDead or AliveTwitterhas posted a statementregarding the maligned hair colour change system, which reads as follows:
“Dear fans, we hear and acknowledge your disappointment behind our roll out of the new hair color feature forDoA6. We greatly appreciate your feedback, and are working towards a solution that helps to mitigate this issue and will share our plans in the coming days.
We apologize for our misstep, and are working hard to resolve this situation. We thank you in advance for your patience and hope you continue to enjoyDoA6.”
One would think a suitable solution would be “Don’t charge people real money to change a video game character’s hair colour”. But we’ll see what Koei Tecmo has in store for its community soon.]
Koei Tecmo’sDead or Alive 6continues to come up with new and egregious ways to treat its dedicated fanbase as walking cash registers. As its reputation as a quality, underdog fighter seemingly falls further away with each new announcement,DoA 6is now charging players real money to change their favourite character’s hair colour.
As of Version 1.20, the PS4-exclusive feature lets players spend Premium Tickets, (only purchasable with real dollarydoos), to change a character’s bouffant to one of 16 available colours. The double-kicker comes from the fact that this transaction must be made every time you give your character a dye-job, even if you’re changing them back to a colour that you’vepreviously purchased.For full disclosure, each colour change only costs around a single dollar, but that somehow makes the whole affair feelmoremiserly.
Also, for some unknown reason, the hair colour data is not saved server-side, like other in-game purchases. Thus if you delete your save data, you lose your current custom hair colour.DoAsiteFree Step Dodgehas received confirmation from Team NINJA that this is not a bug and that the hair dye system is working “as designed”.
Dead or Alive 6 continues to push incessant monetisation onto its audience. In January,DoA 6received its fourth $80+ season pass in just 12 months,for a grand total of around $340 in season passes alone. This, of course, does not include the price of the retail edition of the game itself, or any DLC that isnotincluded in the season pass, for example the $20 “Maids” costume pack that was released on thesame day. It should also be noted that some elements of theDoA 6DLC, (such as characters Rachel andKoF‘s Mai Shiranui),werealsopaid DLCfor the previous release,Dead or Alive 5.
“Dead or Aliveas Store Front” isn’t new. It’s well-known thatDoA 5racked upwell over a thousand dollars in DLCby the end of its life-cycle, (a numberDoA 6has quickly approached in just its freshman year), But the way the franchise seems to find newer ways to make post-launch cash leaves you wondering where the line is – if there even is a line.
I’ve enjoyedDead or Aliveas a fighter since the heady days ofDoA 2on the Dreamcast. I really dig its high-speed action, deep throw/counter mechanics, and read-heavy “Triangle” system. But, in my opinion,the mediocrity ofDead or Alive 6,coupled with a full year of brazen, evenevolvingmonetisation schemes strips back all of the franchise’s hard-earned positives. And while I certainly don’t judge anyone for how they choose to spend their own money, I personally can’t see pastDoA‘s clear “shopping mall” priorities anymore.Given the response from many fansto this latest news, I’m not alone in my exhaustion.Dead or Alive 6 update allows players to dye characters’ hair using Premium Tickets[EventHubs]
Premium Tickets, which allow you to purchase DLC costumes separately on PS4 are available now!After the v1.20 update, you can change the hair color from 16 colors with one Premium Ticket. PS4 onlyThe Premium Tickets can be purchased in game PS store through “WARDROBE”.#DOA6pic.twitter.com/oE4WfUnndT
— Official DEAD OR ALIVE Fighting Game (@DOATEC_OFFICIAL)July 18, 2025
