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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Is it normal to have "microtransactions" in $60 AAA games?

I wish it wasn't.



Sigs are dumb. And so are you!

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Normal yes, but not acceptable.



Neodegenerate said:
Ruler said:
Neodegenerate said:
Ruler said:


they are cheaper now dueto technology becoming cheaper. Cartridges used to be more espensive and so did CDs/DVDs in the earlier stage. Yet they still want 60 bucks full price along DLC and Microtransactions.

The physical item has gotten cheaper but the production of the actual content continues to grow in cost.  As people demand better graphics, more voice acting, motion reference/motion capture, the costs continue to increase.  Microtransactions are a great way for these companies to obtain more money to help with their bottom line while not increasing the price across the board on all gamers.

wrong, the installbase got bigger, they get more money than ever. What changed is the high demand from stock holders to raise profits. These gaming companies sold all their shares to them instead to remain independent 


So you think the install base grew at an equal or greater rate than the cost associated with making the games?  Why then did the companies sell to the stock holders?  I can tell you why: to get enough money to make the games they want to make.  Rising costs to developers = rising costs to consumers.  Its business 101.  For now, they are using the microtransaction model.  If that were to fail out, they would wind up selling 65 dollar games.


whats so bad abobout selling 5 dollars more? Just look at these Microtransactions and DLC how much it costs and compare that to 5 dollars. And they are allready nickel and dim games for 70 $/€ if you preorder them.



is it also wrong to charge a few bucks for apps for phones that cost $500+?



Ruler said:

wrong, the installbase got bigger, they get more money than ever. What changed is the high demand from stock holders to raise profits. These gaming companies sold all their shares to them instead to remain independent 

Unfortunately, reality doesnt support this claim.
Gran turismo 1, 3 and 4 all sold more than 5 and 6, various early marios all sold more than the latest marios, same for pokemon titles and various other major franchises.

The reality is simply that while sales have remained more or less the same, production costs have skyroceted, thus profits are down.

And thus, other avenues of revenue are being explored/implamented.



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Ruler said:


whats so bad abobout selling 5 dollars more? Just look at these Microtransactions and DLC how much it costs and compare that to 5 dollars. And they are allready nickel and dim games for 70 $/€ if you preorder them.

Let's use 100 people as the number of people who buy a game, just for the sake of my example here.  Then let's say that the game company needs $6,500 to stay afloat.  If they can sell the game to all 100 people at $65 they are fine, sure.  However, lets say that only 90% of people are willing to accept an across the board game price increase.  This means that they only have 90 people buying the game and are now short $650 of their afloat number.  So instead they sell the game for the accepted $60, and are now $500 away.  They then add microtransactions.  This way the few people that are willing to pay for the microtransactions can make up for (and in a lot of cases exceed) the loss that they would experience otherwise.

One study I read shows that 1 in 10 people buy microtransactions in AAA titles.  This means that of those 100 people 10 are going to buy microtransactions.  That gets them a better chance of hitting their number.  Especially since they aren't alienating the already expectant userbase by increasing price across the board.

 

Edit: your mention of DLC and microtransactions vs increased base cost is essential taking the cost of something optional (no one is requiring you to buy the dlc to play the game at the initial price) and making it required.



As long as the base games keep having the same level of content without microtransaction, it's not a problem.

I do regret the current lack of post game unlockable content, most games post game content are now DLCs



Tachikoma said:
Ruler said:

wrong, the installbase got bigger, they get more money than ever. What changed is the high demand from stock holders to raise profits. These gaming companies sold all their shares to them instead to remain independent 

Unfortunately, reality doesnt support this claim.
Gran turismo 1, 3 and 4 all sold more than 5 and 6, various early marios all sold more than the latest marios, same for pokemon titles and various other major franchises.

The reality is simply that while sales have remained more or less the same, production costs have skyroceted, thus profits are down.

And thus, other avenues of revenue are being explored/implamented.

This. People bitch about content being more expensive with DLC and stuff, but at the same bitch about graphics not being 1080p 60fps while looking like uncharted 4.



Tachikoma said:
Ruler said:

wrong, the installbase got bigger, they get more money than ever. What changed is the high demand from stock holders to raise profits. These gaming companies sold all their shares to them instead to remain independent 

Unfortunately, reality doesnt support this claim.
Gran turismo 1, 3 and 4 all sold more than 5 and 6, various early marios all sold more than the latest marios, same for pokemon titles and various other major franchises.

The reality is simply that while sales have remained more or less the same, production costs have skyroceted, thus profits are down.

And thus, other avenues of revenue are being explored/implamented.

where do you know production costs have sky rocket? It could be the same if you count inflation.

All the games you have listed were first party exclusives by the way, you compare wiiu mario vs super nitendo mario and ps3 gran turismo vs ps2 gran turismo. Those games came out in completly different time and market condition for their platforms



Ruler said:

where do you know production costs have sky rocket? It could be the same if you count inflation.

All the games you have listed were first party exclusives by the way, you compare wiiu mario vs super nitendo mario and ps3 gran turismo vs ps2 gran turismo. Those games came out in completly different time and market condition for their platform 

Because no matter how much you fiddle with inflation, the development of the original GTA cost DMA design 380,000 usd, the development of GTAV cost over 180 million.
Budgets are on average, 40-50x higher than they were in 1997, because the production of assets costs more for higher resolution, more varies assets, music licensing and larger teams to handle the greater level of detail needed to fill the worlds.

I suggest, if you are going to try and argue your point any further from here on out, you do a little research on the subject, or at the very least, consider that you are discussing it with someone who has been an active games developer since the 8bit era for major studios.