BY: Cory Donde
Most Millennials remember a time when new games came out for $40, and we became outraged when the price was raised to $60. Now, we wish that the $60 dollar price tag was all we had to pay for a full game. Due to game developers and publishers becoming increasingly greedy, more monetization methods are being implemented into games, and most people who play games now eat up the opportunity to gain more content, even if it eats into their wallets. Whenever we log in to our favorite recent releases, we’re introduced to storefronts full of premium skins, lootboxes, and subscription services that cost us more money than the initial price we just dropped on a game. We need to be more aware of these monetization tactics and realize when we’re being scammed into buying content that could, and should, have been included in the base games.
I used to play devil’s advocate when it came to some microtransactions. I would shrug whenever they were put in free-to-play game because the game was free, so there must be a way for the creators to make money off of it. Then it became selling character skins, weapon cosmetic skins, and gun charms. Again, I turned the other way because they were just cosmetic items and didn’t directly affect the game-play. Now, it is nearly impossible to turn on a game and not be greeted with all of the aforementioned items for sale, as well as “time savers” that are nothing more than purchased experience that should have been earned in game. I understand that some people can’t afford to spend the time that others have on the game and that the boosters help them enjoy the game for the time they have available, but now it has come to developers stunting the growth of players who put time into the game in favor of those who purchase their way to the top.
One of the first instances I remember seeing of this was in Warner Brothers Studios Middle Earth: Shadow of War. While promoting the game, the developers proudly showed off their in-game storefront with the ability to purchase upgrades and boosters, which was a mockery due to the fact that the majority of the game was single player. It seemed like even after spending $60 on the base game initially, or even the gold edition for $100, you still had the option to pay the developers to not play the game and earn your upgrades. This has since begun to leak into games like EA’s Anthem, Madden 19, and Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Now other developers and producers treat microtransactions as if they are commonplace in games. Yearly releases of Call of Duty have lootboxes with skins and emblems that just on the last generation of consoles were earned by playing the game. Fallout 76, with its faulty release, came out with cosmetic items that were able to be purchased and has slowly been adding purchasable items in the game like repair kits for weapons, refrigerators to keep crafted food fresh, and the newly announced $100 yearly subscription to be able to use private servers and get a little bit of microtransaction money per month.
The most audacious microtransaction I’ve seen was in this years NBA 2K20 with a literal casino in the game to unlock in-game content. Luckily, where the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has neglected to pin these outrageous monetization attempts as gambling or unethical, governments around the world have begun to take notice of the predatory tactics these games use and are in pursuit of legislature that could prevent this from happening in future titles.
If you wish to learn more about what games are performing these unethical practices, I recommend checking out the YouTubers AngryJoeShow and Jim Sterling, who both consistently expose these practices and regularly give updates on what is being done to try and further prevent them from becoming more prevalent in the video game industry. My advice, though I won’t tell anyone how to spend their money, is to try and pay more attention when purchasing games and consult friends or employees from the stores you purchase your physical games from as to whether there will be options to buy content already in the game, or if the developers and publishers are staying true to a more ethical state of providing full games at launch with the promise of paid or free DLC coming at a later date.