EA clarifies microtransactions comments
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen has clarified comments he made last week regarding microtransactions in EA games, stating that he was referring to tools that allow easy access for the developer.
Last week, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen raised some Internet ire by suggesting that all future EA-published games will have microtransactions. The executive has now clarified his comments, saying he wasn't claiming each game will have them but rather that each game can have them.
Speaking today at the Wedbush Technology Conference in New York, Jorgensen said that he was referring to in-house technology from EA that will allow its developers to handle credit card processing and digital downloads in-house, reports Polygon.
"I made a statement in the conference along the lines of 'We'll have micro-transactions in our games' and the community read that to mean all our games, and that's really not true," he said. He did note that all of its mobile games going forward will have microtransactions, "because almost all of them are going to a world where they are play for free." He called mobile the "real core" of its microtransaction strategy.
For non-mobile games, Jorgensen says the strategy is to extend the game's life, which might involve microtransactions, downloadable content, or services like Battlefield Premium. "It allows someone to take a game that maybe they played for 1,000 hours and play it for 2,000 hours," he said. "We are very conscious that we don't want to make consumers feel like they're not getting value. We want to make sure consumers are getting value."
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Steve Watts posted a new article, EA clarifies microtransactions comments.
Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen has clarified comments he made last week regarding microtransactions in EA games, stating that he was referring to tools that allow easy access for the developer.-
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Yeah; he just didn't use adequately evasive wording at the last conference. The exact quote from the Morgan Stanley conference:
"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."
"All of our games." EEEEEV-ERYYYYY-OOOOOONEah!... oopsie, should've used "can" instead of "are".
The investor conferences are the ones that the publishers really want to go into with as much of a rosy picture as possible, but wish that gaming press could be barred from attending.
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There is absolutely nothing in Dead Space 3 that is required in terms of DLC.
I honestly feel like the whining is over nothing: EA is doing the same shit that everyone else is doing. If you want to complain about EA, complain about the fact that they fucking ruined Bioware and Bullfrog (among others).-
Having a big "buy stuff!" button in a single-player campaign is disgusting to the artform, especially when it's not couched in the fiction. Everyone doing something disgusting doesn't make it any less disgusting. Also, not everyone is doing it.
Games weren't marketplaces until in-app purchases got pushed hard by marketing teams without analyzing the social consequences (see The Daily Show: TapFish). It's like any other medium-term market trend that pushes hard until it flames out and burns up.-
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Not if it didn't actually affect the quality of the game. For example Dead Space 3 is built exactly like if none of that shit was there and it plays fine without any of it.
More to the point though, that has nothing to do with anything about games being sacred. I could not like something about how a game is designed and I can express that but if I start claiming that they've messed with some "sacred" part of game design then I, too, would be fucking off my rocker. -
Battlefield Heroes, yo.
http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/en/createHeroSignup?-
Okay, that's free-to-play. I'm saying that putting a "Buy stuff" button in $60 retail games detracts from the value proposition of that game, and is insulting. Could there still be "$60 of game" in the $60 game? Some players of Dead Space 3 say "yes". But at the end of the day, there's still a cheezy "BUY BUY BUY!!" button in a $60 game, and it makes it look as pandering as a Zynga game. Parts of the aspects of reviewing a game, or of previewing for a potential purchase, are now thrown to the winds of capitalism. That's what I'm getting at when I say "sanctity".
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Having the ability to purchase additional content in a game is the natural evolution of map packs, expansion packs, and their like. Now, instead of having to go to a store and buy a boxed copy, you can purchase the additional content directly from the game and it is delivered and put into play immediately.
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Obviously you haven't seen THIS yet: http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=1240Sorry
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Extending a game's life cycle benefits them regardless of whether there's micro trans. If a game has a wealth of free updates or has the ability for players to make mods, I'm going to remember this when they make a new title and will be more likely to drop $60 on that before I buy another game that wants to micro me to death.
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The value of micro transactions needs to change. I've seen far too many F2P mobile games where the benefit you get from your $5 is mostly worthless. In some cases even $15-20 is not providing enough extra value to keep me playing much longer. There needs to be some kind of base formula where spending $x either lets me do something I can't normally do, that maybe makes the game simpler, but not necessarily easier - or the very least doesn't break the game. Or allow me to extend my enjoy of the game; like he says in the article about doubling the time you'd normally spend with a game -- and I mean total time, not this crap about $5 to recharge your energy to tap the screen a few times one day.
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the value of microtransactions are determined by the people... if enough people are willing to pay for something the price will stay. it uses the same supply and demand theory as anything else. as long as their predetermined projections are being met, you won't see prices changing.
i would like to see some surveys to see how many % of poeple buy customizations and DLCs...
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