The Truth About Microtransactions
Microtransactions are a becoming a big part of gaming. What started on mobile apps and mobile games is slowly but steadily coming to mainstream games. The use of microtransactions is a constant subject of discussion among gamers
Microtransactions is where you buy in-game goods, characters, in-game currency or features with real money. In the mobile phone market this business model is often used with so called "freemium games". The games are free but for certain features or in-game goods you will have to pay.
The Different Types
There are different types of microtransactions in gaming. The most well known are divided into 3 categories.
Freemium
So basically you can get the game for free but a lot of items are behind a paywall, meaning you will have to use your creditcard or paypal to unlock them. This business model is often used on mobile gaming apps but is also used for games on Consoles and PC.
Pay-2-Win
This is the most frowned upon form of using microtransactions. A game is called Pay-to-Win when the player who pays for certain goods of features gains an unfair advantage over other players.
Pay-or-Play-to-unlock
I made this title up myself because I don't know if this form of microtransactions really has a name.
Recently a lot of games have been successfully implementing this strategy. It is where goods, features or characters are locked when you get the game. To get to the good stuff you have to either pay or grind to a certain level or obtain enough in-game currency to unlock your virtual treasures.
Of these variations Pay-or-Play-to-Unlock (trademark pending) seems to be the fairest. The casual player can, if he likes the game, pay for the extras and the hardcore players will grind their way to unlocking the stuff they want.
Where is this coming from?
Game developers have been searching for ways to squeeze an extra buck out of gamers from the beginning of time. It probably started with releasing variations of a game that promised some sort of improvement.
Remember Capcom's Street fighter II? Well it eventually turned into Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
With PC gaming (and later consoles) game developers saw a new opportunity. They could add extra content to expand the original game and the fun part was that they could actually charge you for it.
This might seem like a fair deal. It costs money to develop content so charging the gamer for it seems only fair. However, it becomes questionable when game developers are intentionally leaving parts out of the game only to sell it later as DLC (downloadable content).
Most recently developer Bungie has been accused of intentionally leaving parts out of the base game of Destiny only to sell it afterwards as DLC. Gamers found out that the content of the DLC was already on the disc but hidden from the players.
With the success of microtransactions on the mobile phones it is no surprise that major game developers are introducing microtransactions in their games.
Candy Crush Saga has a daily revenue estimate of $1,528,872. Let me repeat that! That's 1.5 million a day!! source
The Initial Reactions
Of course gamers welcomed the microtransactions with open arms.........
................Just kidding.
The game is afoot!
Well if you piss off your target audience with microtransactions, surely it will soon be a thing of the past! Surely people won't stand for it.
Well actually you would be wrong. because in reality......
Let's get some numbers:
Ubisoft's last year sales earnings totaled $1.61 billion of which almost 50% was earned via microtransactions and in-game spending.
Activision’s revenues from in-game content (which includes microtransactions) were approximately $3.6 billion in 2016.
Rockstar made a cool $500 million in microtransactions with GTA online in 2016.
You see where this is going?
The Stone Cold Truth
Game developers are earning a lot of money with microtransactions and the revenues keep growing each year. So don't expect that this trend to end anytime soon. Some game developers are still refusing to use microtransactions in their games but with the big boys raking it in, soon they will have to follow suit or go out of business.
Microtransactions only become a problem when Pay-2-win rears its ugly head. Paying to gain an advantage over other players is just plain wrong and has no place in gaming.
For me Pay-or-Play-to-unlock is the most acceptable form of microtransactions because it caters to the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer.
But that is just my opinion on the matter of microtransactions. Let me know how you feel in the comment section
Recent Posts
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https://steemit.com/blog/@xervantes/why-too-much-of-a-good-thing-is-a-bad-thing
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sources/links
Revenues free to play microtransactions
Ubisoft microtransaction earnings 2016
Activison microtransaction earnings 2016
Rockstar GTA online microtransaction earnings 2016
Good article, you gave it a lot of thought! Now how do you think about the Cryptocurrency GameCredits or any other currency specifically targeted at gaming microtransactions?
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/gamecredits/
As long as it is not pay to win....
How about a #Steemit -like platform based on blockchain?
Play to earn credits, just like you can earn SBD/Steem by writing posts. That is what I'm thinking of. I know this does not exist yet, but would be very interesting to investigate I think.
Aha, thats what you meant. I think I read an article on a game where you could earn crypto currency by playing. I will look it up
Great man, looking forward to it. I just love all the opportunities and possibilities there are currently :)
Good article @xervantes! I prefer Pay-or-Play-to-unlock type of games and I never pay to play, because then it gets not interesting. Kind of when you type Gods mode the game looses it's point.
However, my small brother who is 15 right now likes to pay and pay to buy all kinds of stuff in games. So there are different players out there.
Thank you. Yeah I noticed that a lot of new gamers dont mind paying for stuff. Destiny was one of those games where therw was an uproar when thry introduced microtransactions. The day they started with it people were lining up to buy emotes, skins you name it
I don't mind stuff for sale in games so much as long as you can't buy an advantage in playing for money. I mean skins and stuff is fine. But if you are playing in multiplayer and a rich guy comes a long with no skills but lots of purchase advantages, it becomes absolutely not interesting.
Thats my take on it too. However I am a little worried about the direction we are going. A lot of companoes envy revenues like kings candy crush. I couldnt believe it when i saw it. 1.5 million a day.who can say no to that.
I know what you mean. Once people get tired of this they will change their ways. I miss the old no transaction games. I am a big fan of Counter-Strike by the way.
I did an article for a long gone site I used to own that covered the birth of microtransactions. "Patient Zero" was kind of a surprise to many readers.
Does anyone remember an arcade game called Double Dragon III? In that game, for the first time, you could pay a quarter or fifty cents to "purchase" health, weapons and other items that would help you in your fight. This was the earliest point in gaming that I could find where players paid real money for in game items.
I ignored arcade games with continues or the option to pay another quarter or more for more lives though as those were all you got. Developers today apparently like that model too though.
Hey, I didnt know that. I know the game but dont remember that.
I heard that a lot from people that read the original article. I am going to try and rewrite it from memory, and research the dark parts, and post it here on #Steemit. It is an interesting fact that not many gamers know.
I do know that some arcades turned off the "in game" purchasing option so it is entirely possible for gamers to have not even experienced it while playing that game.
Edit to add:
At 1:15 in this video below you can see the mention of buying tricks and such for more money.
You should. It is an interesting topic and there are a lot of old skool gamers on steemit
I don't mind micro transactions as long as they are done properly. If the game half completes a game and decides that you can't play the rest of the game unless you pay, i find it a bit offensive and as if the company only wants my money. But if you are paying to get something such as a skin for a weapon then its personal choice and it doesn't actually effect the game play (as long as its just the way it looks) If it effects the game play and it adds a OP gun that you will not be able to beat, then I dislike the idea. Overall, its depends how the company does it in my opinion.
But I do think that the things you can buy should also be available for through other means like grinding for ingame currency. This way you can decide to either buy something and get it right away or play the game for a long time and earn it.
Great post, thank you!
Following :)
Thank you.
Extra Credits have a good video on the subject with Fallout Shelter being the case study
Really good article! I've done one about this topic.
https://steemit.com/gaming/@selfedmade/freemium-games-and-my-gow-addiction