EA including microtransactions in all games
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen says EA is "building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way," but notes that the success of these moves varies heavily game-to-game.
You can expect to see more microtransactions like those found in Dead Space 3. According to Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen, the company has decided to build some aspect of small convenience payments into all of its games going forward.
Presenting at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Jorgensen talked about digital sales of games and content. "The next and much bigger piece is microtransactions within games," he said. "We're building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level, to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business."
Jorgensen did note, though, that the success of the microtransaction model is very much based on the game itself. "So The Simpsons [Tapped Out], for example, is a free-to-play game, leverages, obviously, The Simpsons TV show, and you pay all along the way. Last quarter, we did over $25 million in Simpsons business alone," he said. "So there's an opportunity there, probably smaller opportunity on a per title basis than something like a FIFA or a Battlefield."
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, EA including microtransactions in all games.
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen says EA is "building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way," but notes that the success of these moves varies heavily game-to-game.-
Wait...they made $25 million on that fucking Tapped Out game? That's insane.
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pretty sure Madden Ultimate Team has been a nice little cash infusion on top of normal Madden money
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yeah I'm not sure what the breakdown was (especially FIFA, that's a lot of $60 sales) but it's certainly a great ongoing revenue source that helps them justify more updates and such to the gameplay
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i would pay an extra 25% to have all the achievements unlocked and the game beaten for me thanks EA
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good bye EA it was fun while it lasted
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I know microtransactions are on the cool-to-hate list, but I wonder if these could be a real boon to developers. Instead of having to make the same game every year to milk a franchise, a studio could make a really good original IP, put loads of microstransactions in it, and it might make bank. I'm thinking things like XP boosters in singleplayer RPGs, or weapons/cosmetics in shooters.
If it pays the bills for really good developers to make good games, how can we not like more microtransactions?-
The worry is that the game will be built in such a way that it almost requires micro-transactions to be playable.
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On top of the $59.99 you are already spending
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This is definitely the case with Madden Ultimate Team. You basically can't play it without dumping money in to it unless you want your team to be awful (which defeats the purpose of the game mode).
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Which would be hated by 99% of gamers, so I doubt it would be a repeated mistake at the AAA level.
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If it loses them a fuck ton of money, they won't repeat it.
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Namco has done this with the last few Tales of.... games. I wonder how much they've made on that stuff.
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I might pay for more first rate content, like the upcoming Dishonored DLC, but that other stuff I have zero interest at all.
Basically, if you want to do old school expansions and call that DLC, fine, as long as they're good. But I haven't seen anything else that's remotely compelling. -
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It's already worked really well for the Bioware team. They've released a ton of free multiplayer expansions for Mass Effect 3, and support it with weekly challenges, additional playable classes and maps, and constant balance tweaks. This is supported by their microtransaction model, allowing players to choose between playing (a lot of) multiplayer games to afford weapons and equipment upgrades, or paying $1-$3 for the same upgrade packs.
Hmm, now that I think of it, it's not an either-or choice -- players can do both, and developers get (almost) directly rewarded for continuing support. The ME3 team has kicked a lot of ass with their updates, and I do not regret any of the real-world money purchases I've made in-game to support them.-
Mass Effect 3 is probably the last game that should be brought as doing DLC well.
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His point is a good one, though. The long term support of ME3 multiplayer has been fantastic, and that's entirely due to it making money for Bioware/EA. How could we not want that sort of setup in more games?
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The multiplayer support was poorly received? Really?
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No but the single player was. Maybe EA should just transition fully into making games as services instead of trying to make single player games that have a definite end like Mass Effect and Dead Space. It seems like what they want to do anyway. it would probably decrease the amount of layoffs they do at the end of every game, and it probably avoids pissing people off too.
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I doubt the profits go directly to the developers or 3rd party houses, I think they go to the manager's bonus pools for all the useless mid-management tier and the executives. This basically means that EA will start selling incomplete games where you will be expected to pay extra to finish... this will create a major incentive for hackers to bypass those restrictions.
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If the DLC and micro-transactions do well it means you might not get fired / laid off because they need people to make and support that content after the game is released. But there will be no bonus.
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As long as microtransactions don't break the game for those who play the old-fashioned way, I don't care.
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Is that wishful thinking?
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Well, Dead Space 3 certainly let people totally ignore the microtransaction system. As long as they keep at least the Triple A and/or non F2P games that way I will have no complaints.
The moment that stuff needed to advance is only available through microtransactions in a full priced game is when I will have a problem. As long as there is a free alternative I won't give a shit what they do miocrotransaction wise.-
until you have to play a game 10+ hours to achieve items/experience that would otherwise cost you a buck.
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Consider the context: this is EA's CFO speaking at a bank-sponsored corporate conference. He is playing to a specific crowd. However, it is in line with EA's current modus operandi, and John Riccitiello is eager to not get ousted as CEO before E3 2013.
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So... you're basically selling us cheat codes?
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The games will most likely be tuned so that you will be sufficiently hamstrung by not paying for xp boosts or whatever that you will feel like you HAVE to pay microtransactions. In this sense, you aren't buying cheat codes that give you an unfair advantage, you are paying to not be crippled.
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My sense is that you would also use cheat codes to not be crippled, i.e. you don't have the patience to play the game as it was designed.
The counterpoint is that the games are now being designed such that these microtransactions are starting to be required in order to play the game as it is designed. -
If XCOM came out as it currently is, but their was a microtransaction model that let you buy ranked soldiers, would that work? The original game is there, but for those who want, you could get ahead of the difficulty curve.
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It just seems a dangerous place to go with "real" games. It's pretty clear that many, if not all of the "top grossing" apps on iOS with microtransactions are balanced in such a way that gameplay becomes achingly slow without throwing money at them.
I'd hate to see that philosophy creep into traditional games. -
how would this be any different than using the hacks/tools such as trainers?
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Mod tools are impossible they say but hey here is tons of shitty DLC instead.
Suck it EA.
http://www.mordorhq.com/content.php?9-Forgotten-but-not-Abandoned-Bad-Company-2-returns-with-Mod-Tools -
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pay $1.99 to replace the badguy with obama
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God damnit.
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can you imagine if a game like final fantasy 7 had microtransactions like this? or quake1, half-life? this shit has got to stop. it works with certain games but i fear it's going to become "normal" and then when crazy taxi 4 HD REMIX comes out i'll be able to add more seconds to the clock by paying money.
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you mean if I could pay $1 to avoid 5 hours of pointless grinding? JRPGs had the F2P gameplay nailed years ago, they just missed out on how to charge to avoid playing the game.
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Or they could just design the game to not have pointless grinding instead
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next you're going to suggest that they make men look like men and offer choices in the narrative. Blasphemer.
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I'm not happy that EA is still losing money. As much as I hate a lot of their decisions, I think we do need a big company releasing good AAA titles and making profit on them. Mass Effect, Dead Space, Crysis, Dragon Age, Sim City, Battlefield - these all are great quality franchises and I would prefer EA to make profit on them and not have to go the mobile / microtransaction, but well, the market is what it is. If it takes microtransactions to have Mass Effect 4 - bring them!
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Dear EA. Please continue doing this. I would also like you to add always on DRM, mandatory Cloud save, bans for exploiting gameplay, and limited run server life to all of your future games. I'm sure I've left out a couple of "features", but feel free to add as many as possible. I've come to dislike purchasing games from just about any big publisher, and I know you can help make it easier for me to decide where to spend my money.
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Who the fuck cares? Every publisher has microtransactions in their games. Lets pile on EA though, that's the popular thing to do.
As long as it doesn't detract from a full gameplay experience I don't give a fuck. So far most of the microtransactions in their current games are for cosmetic items or early upgrades, certainly nothing game breaking. -
those pre-order bonuses so many of you ogle... are essentially microtransactions. is everyone against pre-order bonuses as much as they're against microtransations? they're trying to ensure they make the most amount of cash particularly when the price of the game ultimately drops or goes on sale. it works to keep them in business, but with obvious detriments (to the consumer)
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you'll find plenty of people complaining about preorder bonuses
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well the way i see it, they are incentives to get you to pay more to get the game at it's peak cost
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they're incentives for you to buy it at the same cost you would have but at a particular source instead of another
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"We hope you are enjoying [game] by Electronic Arts! You have now played [game] for [y] hours; in order to ensure highest quality immersion, we ask that you please authorize a one time* charge to your account. As appreciation, you will gain one key to open a locked door, this should assist with your progress.
Thank you again for purchasing [game]!"
"*Until we ask again." -
What is up with EA's trend of looking at something that is getting success in some places, and then declaring they will do it ON EVERYTHING? Certain things work better on different platforms and genres and games, yet they decide the trend will work on every single game they make. They've done it with multiplayer/online pass, and now it's microtransations. It also seems to happen about 10 years after the trend first takes off. I look forward to every single game they make being F2P in about 5 years.
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It is pretty dumb to do and even dumber to announcd
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