Apparently being black is now a microtransaction

Over on the Acclaim message boards, the news has popped up that in their new game, Dance! Online, you have to pay in order to have a character with black skin. Yes, you have to PAY MONEY in order to be a different race. Why? Well, let's go to coasterguy26, an "Acclaim Player Moderator" for a response.

Black is an EXTRA feature. It makes your person look unique, so that is an EXTRA feature. Therefore, you having to PAY for it. (Or ask a friend to pay for it).

Well, that's not helping things. Someone from Acclaim Staff chimed into all of this with what the actual situation is:

As an optional character upgrade, we must put this in the item shop for players to acquire. This is the only way to offer the African-American heads. However, it should be EASILY accessible to all, so we made it just 1 POINT in the shop (which is basically for FREE). You don't have to spend any money to get it, just play the game and earn points. Thanks!

Nonetheless, this is absolutely insane that if I were to ever play this game, I would have to earn the right to be black. The problem is that there's no benefit to buying the "black outfit" for your character -- it's simply a stylistic difference. To add fuel to the fire, the game allows marriages, but as one commenter at Broken Toys points out, doesn't allow gay marriages.

[Via GameSetWatch]