re: Nice Micro-transaction Article

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Obviously there is a barrier to entry with hardware costs, but the dollars spent per hour when gaming is nothing compared with what you spend on other forms of entertainment.

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You can't make this claim at all without something to back it up.

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is a barrier to entry

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And you're a PC gamer, the barrier of entry is FAR higher actually. Even conservative PC gamers are going to spend $1000-$1500 every 3-4 years on hardware alone.

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And you're a PC gamer

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Actually, I have a PC, a PS3, and a 360

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You can't make this claim at all without something to back it up.

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I am trying to keep it simple. You can over analyze anything to death. Most movies will cost what ? $4 to $5 per hour if you just count the ticket cost.

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All I'm saying is you are not isolated, so you know the cost of entry to PC gaming. It ain't cheap.

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No it is not, but most serious gamers get hundreds if not thousands of hours of gaming time out of a PC.

Same for consoles.

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I'm sure they have reduced costs as much as they can. It's still going to cost a lot of money to make a high quality game.

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I'm sure they haven't. There are always cuts and changes to be made. Nintendo IS focused on changing the cost structure. The Wii-U may not be "successful," but if the next generation turns out games that are made to take advantage of microtransactions because development costs are ridiculous, then they may have made the right choice.

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I have some issues with EA, but at least they are still making games and attempting to make AAA games. Does Valve even make games anymore? I guess they are working on a new source engine at least.

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Valve ONLY makes AAA games, that's what takes them so damn long. And they aren't going to vastly expand their catalog for a long time, that's not their business focus right now.

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Movies have theatrical releases. It's also months before a good pirated version comes out. The record industry has long been suffering due to pirating.

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When did the used games market become pirating?

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Yeah, I'm sure companies are all like "Hey, screw reducing costs, we'll just add microtransactions!"

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See my example, that's PRECISELY what EA is doing. Nintendo and it's development house actually are trying to reduce cost. They don't have to follow Nintendo's model, but they can find another way.

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Valve isn't focused on making games anymore. Probably because it's too hard. But hey, those microtransactions in TF2 and DoTA2 are paying off.

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But again, Valve HAS instilled trust, so actually they don't worry me as much as EA. They are a different company.

That is part of their brand.

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Big movies make their money in the theater. Bands make more money doing concerts. The only other way video game companies make money off of a game is by charging a monthly fee to play or microtransactions/DLC. While DVD sales definitely help the studios, it isn't the end all like it is for video games. The used CD market was never really that big. Most people bought a CD to add to their collection and never expected to sell it back. Furthermore, a new CD is/was $10-20. So you really weren't/aren't saving that much money by buying used.

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I actually don't have a problem, currently, with DLC. It is problematic (Locking DLC on a disc? That's just shameful), but it's not an evil (yet).

Why do video game companies need "another way to make money?" They existed for 30+ years on single game sales, what's so different today? Oh that's right we have decided to bloat the cost of games, for no reason, and put that on the consumer through microtransactions.

Which again, is a fine call, but it's not far from creating games that specifically take advantage of such a system.

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which aren't exactly cutting edge on the graphics fronts.

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But again, who says graphics MUST Keep improving at the rate that they currently do.

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They took a nice risk with the Wii, it paid off big time for a few years,

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So finding ways to decrease cost worked? Got it.

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but now they are starting to feel the ill effects of that decision.

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There are no ill effects from there choice itsef. It's ill effects from being further disconnected from the expected state of the video game market, which is all about bloating costs.

I doubt the market can handle that much of a shift.

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Video game prices have mostly remained the same for 20+ years.

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The cost per game has sure, but we have had DLC for 5 years now. And remember, it was during this time that video games exploded. Choices have expanded. Audience have expanded. It's a good time for video games.

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When that happens you can say I told you so and have a legitimate reason to bitch. Until then, enjoy your hats and horse armor.

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It has nothing to do with hats and horse armor. And it's not like this already HASN'T been the eventuality. It already has happened for many, many companies who started microtransactions.


The context for my reaction is an MMORPG that went from:

1. Microtransactions
2. F2P with Microtransactions
3. Increasing difficulty for non-microtransactions players
4. The inability even for a SUBSCRIBED, $12.99/month player to get ALL content without microtransactions
5. Pay-2-Win

All under 18 months time.

I understand because I assume Console-only gamers aren't familiar with what CAN happen within such a system.

It's been proven time and time again, as companies go down this road, it's bad for the game, which s bad for the player, the company, and maybe even the industry.

I'd expect everyone around this thread really likes video games, really wants to see the market thrive, change, become innovative again. It kind of sucks that THIS is the way to do it.

The MMORPG genre started down the road as a whole. EA fumbled hard, and continues to fumble with microtransactions in SWTOR. The entire genre is kind of a wasteland of very few standout titles, 90% crap that relies on microtransactions, and a few very good games that hold to older models. And a few ridiculous titles that try to do both. High Quality has really gone out of the window in favor of systems and games that are built to buy things.

And remember this was from the fastest growing genre of games from approx. 2006-2010.