4 Gaming Monetization Trends to Look for in 2020
For years, monetization in the Gaming Industry has been a rollercoaster of increasingly predatory tactics designed to siphon more and more money from player’s wallets. Though many of us have been battered into begrudging acceptance, the gaming community has made strides recently in pushing back against some of the industries’ worst offenders (RE: Star Wars Battlefront 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4). This struggle has become the catalyst for many trends we’re starting to see as developers evolve their monetization strategies in more gamer-friendly ways:
Trend 1: NO. MORE. W̶I̶R̶E̶ ̶H̶A̶N̶G̶E̶R̶S̶ . LOOT BOXES!!!
Loot boxes are so ubiquitous the term has transcended gaming culture. Players hate them because they take control out of their hands by taking advantage of our desire to get new, better items — capitalizing on that desire by forcing us to spend real money for a random chance to get loot.
Thankfully, publishers/developers are starting to get the message. Though many are simply evolving how Loot Boxes work to make them less predatory (revealing the odds of acquiring certain loot, offering other ways of earning the same rewards in-game, etc), developers like Psyonix are removing them altogether in favor of systems where players know exactly what they’re getting with their $. It’s a start.
Trend 2: You get a Season Pass, and YOU get a Season Pass…!!!
If Loot Boxes were Pokémon, they would evolve into a Season Pass. The idea of a Season Pass isn’t new, but the mechanics of them are changing from individual, separate content drops (typically months apart) to a trickle of content that steadily rolls out over time…sometimes daily/weekly.
Rather than paying for randomized drops or putting $ up-front without fully understanding what you’ll get — players have a better sense of what they’re getting before spending anything and have greater incentive to jump back into their favorite games regularly as new content rolls out. Fortnite set a standard for how to do a Season Pass right, and we’ll continue to see the rest of the industry learn from and evolve that formula.
Trend 3: *COUGH* Microtransactions *COUGH*
Though all in-game purchases are typically considered “microtransactions,” the term has become synonymous with everything that’s wrong with the industry these days. They’re not inherently evil, but can start to feel like it as Developers study our every whim to better understand when and how we can be triggered to spend more $ in their games. Even Nintendo is dipping their toes in.
In 2020, we will see companies explore new avenues for introducing microtransactions in games, and evolving how they work in current games to stay ahead of legal oversight and player demands. If you think they’ve run out of ideas for how to make more $ off of you, you’re mistaken — though when used right, microtransactions can be a great tool for empowering players to play the way they want to play (saving time, having more customization options, etc).
Trend 4: “Good” ol’ fashioned DLC
You might say that DLC is the O.G. microtransaction, or that all of the above are technically DLC. The DLC of yore has become much less ubiquitous as getting a player to purchase a single piece of additional content is less lucrative than getting players to spend money on multiple, smaller pieces of content over time (Loot Boxes, Season Passes, microtransactions, etc).
The backlash against these newer options has driven a resurgence in what many would consider “traditional” DLC, and with games like Borderlands 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 capitalizing on this perception to be the “return to what you know and love.” You can be sure they won’t be the only ones to use this tactic — and who can blame them?
2020 is poised to be another big year in the transition from consumer-unfriendly tactics to systems that better reflect how gamers prefer supporting their favorite games/developers. In a lot of ways, we have our current political climate and the ever-growing vocality of the gaming community to thank for this shift (who knew there was a bright-side to these???). You can be sure that we’ve only seen the beginning to this trend, and will see more companies (like CONTACT Systems) working to solve how publishers/developers monetize their games without taking advantage of their players.
Justin is a Social Media Manager at CONTACT Systems
With 9+ years experience in Social Media Marketing in the gaming industry, he has worked with major brands like Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Battlefield, Guitar Hero, PlanetSide 2, PUBG - combining a creative background with a passion for connecting Brands with their Communities. He’s a life-long gaymer, tech enthusiast, and all-around nerd.
