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[levyjl1988]

Many games are becoming Free to Play because of this, have no barrier to entry. Get them invested and hooked and soon after they will start putting money down.

 

[In Your Vase]

Holy shit. Thanks for the metrics!

 

[Explosive Zombie]

There are people with expendable income who want quality single player experiences, you'll see it when they make generous donations to kickstarters and such.

 

[M1chl]

Complain about games costing €$70
I will get it on GamePass lol suckers
Spends hundreds of €$ on microtransactions and JPEGs


Bravo gamers

Well honestly, at least to my eyes there are not much games on GamePass with predatory MTX, the situation is probably mainly driven by F2P games. And hey Sony itself makes more money through MTX than from game sales. But to be fair not much of those are Sony published games.

 

[reinking]

This is an assumption, you don't have any clear proof to support this.

We could be getting access to more games for less money, why would that be a bad thing?

The assumption in this topic is always negative but I think people need to learn how to look at both sides without having a bias for just "keeping things the way they have always been" just because it makes them comfortable.

The assumption is based on markets that already lean toward GAAS. Just take a quick look at the mobile phone markets. Not to mention the abuse we have already seen in the early days of this model on consoles and PC. I do not have faith in the industry to believe it will get better instead of worse as more money is at stake.

 

[IntentionalPun]

I read this sentence for the first time in 2005 and I still have to see an incomplete game (not because bugs or released too early) with contents to complete the game behind a paywall. Especially in an era with kickstarter campaigns and where games are so huge you need days to beat even without extra contents.

There have been some GAAS games like Destiny / The Division that launched a bit light on content but most of them made up for it with free updates.

 

[Scotty W]

As gamers, we demand that microtransactions end. It’s unethical!

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Guess how much more phone games sold vs pc and console games combined?

 

[Mabdia]

That is so sad. I mean... there was a time when people paid for good quality games. Now people pay to an item or a skin in a shit game...

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

 

[Strider Highwind]

Aside from campaign styled single player story DLC i've never bought any cosmetics, add ons, or any of that other stuff. Its not that im totally "against it" or anything like a lot of people on here..but I just dont play multiplayer much anymore so that stuff has no value like it used to for me

If a game did pull me back into MP I could see myself buying something....maybe lol

 

[Clear]

I'm going to point out a couple of things.

The first thing is that of the $175 billion spent, that essentially half of that is from mobile where games mainly FREEMIUM and if not, are priced very low. So something like 60-65% (assuming that an estimated ~90% of revenue is IAP on mobile) that of all microtransactions (of the $129 billion) is coming from mobile.

Secondly, a lot of people here are making some crappy conclusions when looking at these aggregate numbers. People here are using these numbers that paints a broad stroke of the industry and using this as evidence of why games should not cost more. Some of you seemingly disregard that there are games like Fortnite and League of Legends that bring in billions of dollars in revenue are completely FREE to play and disregard that games are not monotonous products with varying costs. Not every game has added licensing cost like NBA or Spiderman. Not every game has a story mode that's going to require extra motion capturing, bigger maps, voice acting, and hiring writers. Not every game has the same scope. Not every game even has MTX. There's a bunch of little different things situations that affect how profitable a game actual is. So to look at these broad numbers and come to the conclusion that game prices shouldn't go up because there's a bunch of money being spent on MTX is flawed.

This.

Games and platforms are not all the same. In fact one of the greatest benefits of moving towards all-digital is that its allowed the price structure to break out of the rigid structure that brick-and-mortar retail demanded. Its also worth considering that the new-gen price hike predominantly affects titles that are still sold and distributed physically.

The concern for me about services like Gamepass are that they really incentivize GaaS and MTX loading as the most effective means of monetization, with that in turn having long-term impact on the nature of the product distributed on it. The brutal reality is that although MS can and will subsidize dev cost as a means of securing titles, for the developer its more of a safety net than a roaring success. Who wants to work for years on something in order to just break even?

I'd also suggest that digital storefronts have also ushered in a new era of have's and have-nots due to how crucial product visibility and in turn marketing and promotion has become. The most successful freemium and GaaS titles tend to be backed by a steady stream of advertising the sheer cost of which is exclusionary to smaller devs.

 

[MagnesG]

More and more people especially from 2nd and 3rd world countries are dabbling in games, just not in high amount spending. Most would just buy 1-5$ dollar starter/newcomer pack for a game.

IMO this has nothing to do for the development of the high end console and PC gaming industry.

 

[UltimateUnknown]

I do believe a tremendous amount of the MTX money comes from mobile games, where whales can spend significant amount of cash in these games. This is particularly prevalent in Chinese and other Asian markets.

I know there is a lot of doom and gloom in this thread, so i will say some positive this recent trend towards GAAS/MTX has had on AAA games. In a lot of MP games, most gameplay related content is now released completely for free. Take COD for example. It wasn't long ago that they sold you a $60 game, then a $50 DLC pack, then MTX loot boxes on top which contained DLC guns or gun variants (that had different stats), on top of your standard cosmetic MTX. The monetisation was egregious beyond belief.

With this year's COD though, you simply buy the base game with all map packs, guns and modes as they come out being free for everyone who owns the game. You do have the option to buy very expensive cosmetic skins, or a battle pass filled with other cosmetics (which pays for itself if you complete it), but as someone who has never cared for cosmetics in COD, I am essentially getting what would have previously been sold as separate DLC now for free. This to me is a pretty great deal and I'm seeing more and more games going this way where they give you all upcoming gameplay related content for free, while monetising cosmetics.

 

[klosos]

to be fair i think ive spent £50-100 on cosmetics on path Of Exile , so am part of the problem. But POE is a free to play game and i love it i wanted to support Grinding Gear Games because they aren't the biggest studio.

Lets be honest it the EA sports titles and the GTAs online and others are taking massive chunks of this in the West anyway, i wonder what the numbers are just for the asian market tho?

 

[lock2k]

Proud of not spending a dime on this kind of shit.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Awful trend of the industry... Despite the new revenue stream:

* Most rank and file game industry workers make awful pay
* Games more frequently are released in an unfinished state
* Game prices increase
* Creation of new IP (in the AAA space) is slowing down

When you think about the list of titles the major companies brought to Xbox/PS2 and compare that to the X1/PS4 it really is tragic.

I've bought a few DLC packs, but never spent a dime on any of the superfluous outfits etc. I don't care if I've got the dullest character. LOL

 

[Beer Baelly]

Yes, this is reality GAF. You basedwelling fossil

 

[martino]

Yes, this is reality GAF. You basedwelling fossil

Yep with my 99% physical library on console and no MTX i really feel like that now

 

[DavidGzz]

Damn, so I bet the in game items in Diablo 4 and other games will make you look like a peasant. Want to look cool? Pony up boyos. Works for Path of Exile, you look terrible in that game unless you purchase some cool $50 armor.

 

[B-universe]

Awful trend of the industry... Despite the new revenue stream:

* Most rank and file game industry workers make awful pay

Really? They think otherwise. They think it's their best option. How do I know this? Because if they had, from their perspective, better options, they would leave. They aren't leaving; they don't have better options. It's the market working as intended.

The rank and file developers voluntarily agreed to the wages.
Evidently, the Yodas of the world know better than the developers themselves.

* Games more frequently are released in an unfinished state

Don't buy them.
You send the message.

* Game prices increase

Yes, developers can price the games however they like. Shocking, I know. This is a market economy, after all. Do you find games too expensive? Easy.
Pick another hobby, or, another shocker, play F2P games, something which wasn't even available during the infancy of the gaming industry.

You want costs to increase - better wages, longer development cycles - but want revenue to decrease - prices to stay the same or even lower.

I wonder what visionary of a CEO will listen to you.

* Creation of new IP (in the AAA space) is slowing down

And it will likely slow down even more if the contradictory wants of some gamers like yourself are perceived as demands and acted upon.

 

[aries_71]

Wow. Just wow.

It looks like the future is Fortnite and the likes, mainly played through a browser on a mobile platform. Impressive and sad at the same time. And to think that there’s people discussing about future PS6, XSX2. The innocence.

 

[balls of snow]

Its sad
So sad
Its a sad sad situation

According to Sony fanboys on Gaf and Era that pie chart should be 50% first party sales as exclusives are what matters the most right? But then reality kicks in and it shows you that the uber casual multiplat audience is what is brining in the cash ( Fortnite, COD, GTA, FIFA and your flavour of the month MTX heavy online games)

I highly doubt that folks spending money on shark cards and fortnite skins are the ones playing Bloodborne, Last Guardian or Gravity Rush. This goes to show why Sony is looking to port their first party games to PC: Extra cash and the B&B Online oriented audience would not care.

It also goes to show that the Series S was a good idea. As stated a couple of posts above mine, most of this audience plays a couple of online games, not more. You want to lower the barrier of entry for them as much as possible so that they keep spending.

Ehh. No doubt most only spent time on GaaS, but a substantial number dip in these games AND play single player games, usually the mega hype ones or open worlds.

 

[aries_71]

Yes, this is reality GAF. You basedwelling fossil

Never truer words were spoken.

 

[martino]

Damn, so I bet the in game items in Diablo 4 and other games will make you look like a peasant. Want to look cool? Pony up boyos. Works for Path of Exile, you look terrible in that game unless you purchase some cool $50 armor.

i hate poe for this (but it seems they will fix that for 2)
i also think it's probably also because the game was not made with lof of means (and talent) there at first.

 

[Boss Mog]

And people say the all digital PS5 made no sense.

Never saw anybody say such a thing. Plenty said it was not for them, myself included, but nobody said it made no sense.

 

[Postaldude40]

So 127 biljon in Fifa and 1.8 other "in game" purchases confirmed

 

[Beer Baelly]

Yep with my 99% physical library on console and no MTX i really feel like that now

 

[Daeoc]

Not surprised, there are very few single player games I get at launch, and even then it usually isn't full price. The amount of time you can get from multiplayer games has been insane for a long time, and although I don't buy cosmetics individually, I do get meaningful DLC/expansions, with one or two battle passes(which is only bought once since you can keep getting it if you actually play the game while having the pass). I get that single player games give you a different experience but you can always just wait to get that experience at a much cheaper price. The same can be said for some multiplayer titles, but those titles usually last much longer anyway and are less of a throw away since I don't tend to replay single player games.

For example, I have gotten every DLC in Dead By Daylight along with one of their rift passes, one battle pass in Fortnite, but no loot boxes in Overwatch. So that is probably around ~$70 for Dead By Daylight since I did get the base game for only $10 (522 hours so far), $10 for Fortnite (~100 hours, haven't played in awhile just a guess), ~$100 for 3 copies(2 PC, 1 console) of Overwatch (2000+ hours).

Compared to the best value single player game I've played which is Witcher 3 GOTY edition for $50, which took 100 hours to beat the main game+every side quest I could find(haven't done the expansions yet, will go back later on but I guess that would bring me up to ~140 hours). This is also after waiting for a "complete edition" to release, which you can now get for $15. . .

So many single guys around these days. Money that used to go to support a family is now available.

Also, many couples who aren't having children.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

Imagine that microtransaction piracy becomes a thing.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Upon looking round the net for game stuff I found this..

I thought Roblox was a kids game? What the fuck is this? I'm actually disgusted by it.

 

[Griffon]

This feels very weird to me.

All of my gaming money is spent on buying games, and practically zero on ingame microtransactions. And most other people I know are the same.

I don't think the MTX money is really a thing in the western world. And more likely an Asian phenomenon.