How Microtransactions Affect the Video Game Industry
Microtransactions might create revenue for game developers, but with gambling lawsuits and consumer dislike — is it here to stay?
Video game developers are starting to use microtransactions in almost all types of games ranging from mobile farming simulators to fast-paced online FPS. Game developers such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, and Rockstar Games make in-game items cost money to help fund their company and games. How much does this affect the video game industry and the players?
Games such as Destiny 2 require players to spend real money on Silver, the in-game premium currency. Prices for Silver range from 4.99 USD to 49.99 USD; items such as emotes and loot boxes are available to purchase with Silver. At first, these virtual items were only cosmetic and did not interfere with the experience of the game. However, over time, additions such as loot boxes granted players an ability to get an edge over players who haven’t spent money on microtransactions. The game is often full-priced costly expensive downloadable content, so requiring players to spend money on top of that will only anger many people of the Destiny 2 community.
For the video game company, microtransactions are a necessity because it helps accumulate revenue. In most cases, the games with microtransactions are well-made and have a huge fanbase, but the mobile gaming scene is suffering because of the endless amount of rip-offs and overly priced items. Most of these microtransaction heavy games are pay-to-win on mobile; this makes consumers feel the need to pay up, depending on how competitive and addicted they are to the game. Just because the game is free-to-play, doesn’t mean you will have the best experience playing it due to the real currency required for virtual items.
Assassin’s Creed Origins is an offline singleplayer action-adventure game made by Ubisoft. It is one of my favorite games due to the great storytelling and combat; however, the one drawback was the microtransactions. It was the first game in the series to introduce a “loot box” system, and this was a disappointment to me because fashionable cosmetic items for my character and horse were blocked off unless paying. Because of the loot box system, you have to keep opening them until you get the particular item you want. You could end up spending 100 USD and not get the one weapon you want.
Apple Inc. was recently sued by the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California for allowing games with loot boxes on the App Store. In 2019, there was a bill proposed by the Senate called the “Protecting Children From Abusive Games Act”. Even though it never passed, the growing awareness of the online gambling system is significant for consumers that want games without microtransactions. Microtransactions are here to stay, but change is in the near future. A reduction of microtransactions is needed to preserve the quality of the game and a fair playing experience.
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