the 10% that said they do? The CEOs
10% of game developers are actually CEOs? That doesn’t make any sense.
if you asked a ceo of a game company wouldnt he tell you he works in game development? also, it was a joke :)
Or management
But the CEO’s third luxury yacht? What about that?
The first one got confiscated.
He cheaped out on the second.
Now he has to jack up the prices and fire a few workers so he can save up for a proper one in a few years. Third time’s the charm!
Think about the economy! The 10 fired gamedevs are gonna find new employment easily while the chef, 4 security guards, captain and 10 crew are much less in demand!
The obvious
/s
Oh no we have to work harder.
Do it for Yacht.
90% of developers surveyed have no say in the matter
I’d hope 100% of customers don’t want micro transactions.
It always bothered me that Ubisoft sells micro transactions to level up characters in a single player game. Like wtf who is buying this stuff? And why?
Why pay to avoid playing a game?
To be fair, the levelling mechanics in some ubisoft games (looking at you, AC origins) are complete garbage that do nothing but arbitrarily restrict your movement.
Still unsure why people would pay to skip them though.
honestly, if they are COSMETIC only, I don’t mind micro transactions. It’s when you are able to get an advantage over the f2p(f2p being players who don’t buy further than the base game in this instance) players that I have an issue with it.
I would argue in some games MT’s are almost a requirement, like the sims has a valid argument for having microtransactions with the community store. (I don’t agree with their predatory DLC/Expansion pack nonsense though).
My rule of thumb is, if the DLC or Microtransaction is something that should be base game, I don’t think it should exist as an upcharge. Single player games to boost your level to the next level? that should be something that is available as base game via a dev console. Wallhack/god mode? should be available as a cheat/dev console. A party pink pinata hat in a game that is a serious shooter? Yea that can be a microtransaction. it’s not something that should be in the original set of files in the game.
I don’t think many people actually have issues with Microtransactions, they have an issue with how hard companies are currently abusing that system.
No because that slippery slope is how we got to current day microtransactions.
the alternative is the content just /not/ being there period though. A studio isn’t going to just supply the content for free, by having the MT’s there it’s increasing content to a game. The studios are abusing it sure, but just don’t buy it. I’ve never once spent money on any of my games for a MT that should have been base game. I have to say I haven’t had any issue with it. It’s there for the people who want to throw money away, and as long as it isn’t impacting me, I don’t care. I would rather have the option available for people to use it, then no option at all.
At the end of the day, Money talks, the studios that are abusing it are doing so because people are willing to throw money away like that. A better solution is to just not partake in the game, let the people who throw money away do their thing, just don’t buy those types of games IMO
Just wanna throw it out there that the Monster Hunter series is a perfect example of in game free content becoming microtransactions in just a few years.
Old MH games had all cosmetic items as free event quest rewards, where you’d get a unique and fun battle to play, and a cosmetic reward for winning. No paid DLC even available to buy. MH Rise (the newest game) has 221 paid cosmetic items listed on their site. That number is not including bundles, soundtracks, character edit vouchers, or the expansion (Sunbreak) itself.
$60 game, $40 expansion, and 200+ paid cosmetics that would instead be free in earlier games in the series.
I have to apologize in advance, cuz I haven’t played a monster hunter game since the PS2, I started playing world but I just didn’t like it. That being said I know the PS2 version of Monster Hunter didn’t have a whole lot(in terms of cosmetics) but again it’s PS2. And I know that monster hunter world had some items available, and that rise is where it apparently was really hit with microtransactions. But from what I understand with monster hunter rise they gave the base cosmetic sets that they normally would have gave with the game, they just offered the paid expansion for the additional skins. Now being as I never actually played rise could be dead wrong on that but Google searching it seems to have given me the same answer.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (released 2018 outside of JP) had a ton of dlc quest unlocks and they were all totally free. It’s proving difficult to find a proper separated list of exactly how many, but here’s a google doc that lists ~200 quest related equipment unlocks, the vast majority of which are dlc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hlBLacFYxdh83a-GkxYnsIF6nH7huP_H2aI4APRGicg/edit?gid=408012748#gid=408012748
Something noteworthy is that’s just quests for equipment. In contrast, there’s only 37 event quests (all event quests are free) in Rise that offer any unique item reward, and 23 of those quests give equipment.
Giving a very conservative estimate with that all in mind, I think it’s safe to say that GU had a good five times more free dlc rewards than Rise does.
Oh I’m sure a little line of coke won’t hurt. But just a peak into pandoras box…
Your mindset opened the floodgates for this market manipulation 20 years ago and you think we should try more of that?
These companies will never be satisfied until they can leverage your labor for another quarter in the machine.
There is no negotiating. Legislation is required.
Ban the entire business model. It’s neither a product nor a service - it’s a scam. Games make you value arbitrary worthless nonsense. That’s what makes them games. There is no ethical form of attaching real-world prices to that charade.
‘Oh, but if it’s only cosmetic…’ Y’mean proof that people can be made to want stuff, even if it doesn’t do anything? Entire games exist to funnel people toward emotional response, and some of them make billions. Saying ‘it’s just hats’ is the opposite of a defense.
No need to ban it. Just dont participate in it.
I’m not-buying-it as hard as I can, and hey guess what? It’s still swallowing the entire industry. It is half the revenue and growing. This abuse is so easy and risk-free that it’s in full-priced, major-franchise, single-player titles. Nobody cares that ignoring the in-game advertisements is feasible. They’re still there, nagging at every player, reminding them there’s a better version of the game if they just open up their wallets and look the other way.
We were never going to shop our way out of this. It is greed exploiting human irrationality. The only real solution is to make companies just sell games. You want recurring fees, publishers? That’s called a subscription. People don’t throw as much money at those? Wow, you don’t say. It’s almost like rational spending decisions look nothing like what this business model sucks out of people.
It’s still swallowing the entire industry
No, it’s not. There’s phenomenal indie games out there. Hades 2, Elfen Ring DLC and Black Myth Wukong are just some of the latest games I’m having a blast with, and then theres still rimworld, factorio, timberborn, CK3, Dead by Daylight … The list goes on. None of those games has Ads for ingame purchases (except DbD) and all of them are phenomenal.
None of them are AAA,truey, but idc. Theres so many fun games out there that idc what ubisoft, EA, Activision or other shit companies release.
I think iPhones are overpriced garbage, yet I’m not sitting here and asking for them to be banned - I just don’t buy it. I bought a used pixel 6, installed graphen, done.
I think casinos are stupid and a waste of money, yet I’m not sitting here and asking for them to be banned. I just don’t go there.
I think Microsoft, google and Amazon are terrible companies, yet I’m not sitting here and asking for them to be banned. I just don’t use their products and services.
Making a change starts with yourself. If you don’t buy their stuff, great - still plenty of great games out there.
‘This systemic problem doesn’t affect me personally, so it can’t be serious’ is hilarious enough without your list of games it hasn’t spread to including a game it has spread to.
I have no remaining patience for libertarianism. This business model is fundamentally abusive. Of fucking course we should regulate that, the same way we regulated gambling, and the same way the DOJ is coming for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and the same way the EU has Apple by the nuts. It is perfectly fine for you to say - ‘fuck these business practices, for anyone.’ The fact that you, personally, can choose to ignore them, doesn’t make them any less real for millions of people.
According to the 100 developers asked out of the 300 speakers at the event, 89% said that they believe that premium AAA games can be “financially successful just by being Buy-to-Play.”
Moving on to challenges facing the industry as a whole, 55% believe it’s caused by market saturation while another 46% point towards the rising development costs of games. Regarding layoffs, 57% said that layoffs will continue either at the same pace or a higher pace over the next 12 months.
All due respect to Gamescom speakers, but I may have some follow-up questions for at least 35 of them.
I mean I understand if it’s a game like Dead By Daylight or something that has regular content updates that need to be paid for, but… there’s no reason why Immortals Fenyx Rising, a single player narrative driven experience, should have me busting out the credit card to try to get some Adventure Time armor that I should just be able to unlock by playing the fucking game.
