Pay-to-win mechanisms are generally seen by gamers as a way for developers to increase their revenues while ruining gameplay and making the game less fair. Nonetheless, Namco producer Masaaki Hoshino has no problem confirming that SoulCalibur: Lost Swords was specifically designed to have a "pay-to-win" option; and that's why it ended up being a single-player only game.
"Well, originally, we were thinking about having a multiplayer option," he said. "But because we’re going with a pay-to-win model, we were worried that by having online multiplayer, for all the new users that would be coming in experiencing the game for the first time, they might be immediately deterred by fighting against opponents who had superior equipment and gear."
"We didn’t want to have that kind of negative impact on new players," he added. "In the single-player experience, having a pay-to-win structure won’t impede the player’s experience with the game."