News EA bringing micro-transactions to all future games

I don't think I'd mind the micro-transactions and ability to buy extra resources/units in games if it was done a bit differently or maybe limited in some way. Playing dead space 3 and seeing the option to buy extra resources each and every time you visited a bench was really game breaking because it took me the player out of the world of the game and let me know I'm just playing a game, not having an experience like I felt the first two games were. It might seem like a small dig at a decent title but honestly, if they could find a better way to present it to the player or limit how visible micro-transactions are, maybe give players the option to disable them in-game if they choose, then I don't think I'd mind playing the games so much that had them. Perhaps if I didn't feel like they were shoving it in my face so much I'd actually end up buying one or two items later on down the road after I'd enjoyed the game a bit more but then again I also don't like how some players with a big wallet can essentially pay their way to victory. It disgusts me to think that a really bad player can beat dead space 3 on hardcore mode without 1 death because they pump $ into the game and get resources to craft 5,000 large med-packs in a mode where that wouldn't be possible otherwise. There needs to be a limit to them.

 

W00t! Pay2Win cheesecake! combined with always online single player - this is going to be epic!

 

When done right it's fine. TF2 has had probably around £60 out of me in micro transactions. I have a few friends that have spent over £100, one possibly a few hundred. But they didn't do it for game advantage, purely cosmetic. The funny thing is, my friends and I are all against 'pay to win'. We shall see how it pans out, give we a good free game with micro and I'll consider it. but stick to purchase then 'rent' and it's no deal. Needless to say as it's EA, I will NOT be holding my breath.

 

weird how reviewers said the micro-transactions in dead space 3 dont impact u that much, when u clearly see the first half of the game u feel like a whimp and they hold back all upgrades unless u buy them untill the second half of the game. how is that not impacting the game, since u not getting the feel of progression the first important part of the game?

dulled down first half just so u buy ****. sorry not for me.

 

I'm not sure how "micro-transactions" can work fairly. If a game is free to play then I can see it, but when you pay £35 for a game I am not happy especially when it almost becomes a requirement to buy the packs to have an even playing field. Look at BF3 and the guns for example.

Sims is always a funny one, but this isn't really micro-transactions. To get all the expansions on steam costs about £300!

I can understand their motivation, I mean people play some games for years and the publishers don't get any more money for it from the player than if they played it for 1 day only. But then I own DVDs for years and I wouldn't expect to pay a micro-transaction there.

Publishers like EA are less of a relevance than they were before Steam / kickstarter so it's not the disaster it could have been.

 

Well I don't mind this to be honest.

Given my attitude to the likes of the Battlefield games, when I was playing Battlefield 3 I paid for the Ultimate Unlock Pack and the Premium add on.

I also will still buy EA games because of the fact that they publish allot of the games I want to play, as has been mentioned above.

Need For Speed
Sim City
Crysis
Battlefield

And many more and whilst they may try to sell the likes of Weapon Upgrades etc it's your choice to buy them considering most of the stuff, will be available to you at some point along the line anyway by just playing the game.

We will just have to see how this pan's out, because there will be people who hate it and will refuse to buy anymore EA published games because of it and there will be others out there, who will buy the games because they have the option of paying some money on top of the price of the game to unlock stuff straight away.

As long as the price of the games in the shop drop's or they go free to play etc then the micro transaction system can work quite well.

 

That will never happen

 

Well, I have to congratulate EA, I didn't think it was possible to be bigger dicks then Activision, but they found a way.

Well, I simply won't buy another game from EA. However, I will say that they wouldn't have done this if a load of people hadn't been stupid and paid for this stuff in Dead Space 3.

I guess that is the sad truth about the game industry, that people reading sits like this are in the clear minority.

 

People can say what they like about EA but nearly all will still buy a product that EA producers, They are the 3rd main game producer in the world behind Activision and nintendo.

Very difficult to avoid EA branded games entirely like some people are suggesting enough i wonder if they forget how many titles EA has made and released in just the last year alone.

Micro transactions has been in fifa13 since its launch you can either farm matches for players or buy packs for real life cash for players in ultimate team mode. Does not make alot of difference to the game since its a single player online mode.

People have to remember not everyone has 200hrs to play bf3 to get every weapon unlocked and if they can pay £5-£10 then they are going to do that instead.

Not every game is 18-25 with unlimited free time to play a game anymore.

And EA are targeting the working crowd that will pay for some unlocks so that they dont have to play more hours than they want to and can just enjoy it.

Server i play BF3 ( private server that we pay for) on every player has purchased the weapon packs as none of us have the time to sit and farm them out, but we all earn the cash to pay for it outright without issue.

Its alot like why gold buying in wow became so popular people earning £20 an hr could work 1hr and buy 10000 gold ( which was alot at the time) or you could farm in wow for about 20 hrs to get a similar result.

 

So would the premium pack for BF3 be considered a microtransaction? To me it isn't since it is a 1 time purchase for all future DLC for BF3.
I would say microtransactions would be paying a few dollars for a special camo kit, or a perk that turns the vehicle you control into a custom paint scheme vehicle.
I certainly would not want to have to pay extra for a single map, and get disconnected from a server with a message "unable to join game, you need to purchase this map from the Origin Store.
Map packs I can understand, but mainly map packs will part of the DLC expansions. Having to buy specific maps for an existing DLC would be quite annoying.

ON the whole though, I really don't mind games with microtransactions, because normally it means I can play the main multiplayer for free, and that usually does it for me

 

This one really amuses me. Do you really suck so back at BF3 that you think another player will beat you just because he has a few more unlocks? Did you not unlock anything in your first 50 hours of playing?


I've bought the full unlock pack. Because I'm time short and don't have the time to unlock everything. Am I a cheater?

 

I cannot help but feel a lot are missing the point here: this isn't a weapons pack or XP boost in a multiplayer title to bring everybody up to the same loadout (though why that should be required is beyond me if a game is balanced, but never mind), the problem with this lies in single player titles like Dead Space 3.

Beyond the obvious immersion-breaking folly that is constant reminders of the real-money shop there is the fact that, should the developer so choose, it is one easy step towards making a triple-A title little more than an aesthetically pleasing gated cow clicker-alike. Think WarZ but in single player: sure you can find resources, but you'll probably die before you get to them and there is no guarantee they'll be there in the first place. Or that old gem of paying to respawn faster.

This is the problem with microtransactions in a single player game, as it is far too easy for the developer to make these transactions almost mandatory and game breaking, plus it is quite literally the player paying to cheat. You like lag, connection issues, and mandatory grinding in a single player game? By all means, support this anti-consumer business model - everybody loved Diablo III, right?

 

I can understand the reasons people are throwing around for the usual "Pay to Advance" model, but what happened to "Unlock all" cheat codes? What happened to things simply being hidden extras, rather than paying £5.99 just to get some funny voices? It's almost like they've taken the idea of people not having enough time, and tried to work out just how much the gameplay time is actually worth to the player, then charge them for not putting in the full amount.

This is a frankly stupid idea. I long for the times when you used to be able to enter some arbitrary code at the main menu and get some amusing extra item, rather than having to click on DLC and buy the damn thing.

Hell, does anyone remember "-Seta Thereisacow 1337" anymore?

 

It could potentially be even worse, since money is involved legal issues can't be very far, so finding a way around micro transactions could very well end up getting you into the exact same trouble as pirating the game.

 

Unfortunately D3 would suck even without the RMAH

 

Diablo 3 I felt was fine, can't say I ever used the auction house its simple enough to farm anyway.

Anno 2070 is heavy on micro transactions don't see anybody complaining. Not like they are a new thing just big news because ea wants to put them in there games.

The sims 3 has about £300-£400 of microtransactions if you think it through.

Dlc been out for ages and its technically a micro transaction.

 

I know many people arent a fan of mobile gaming, but real racing 2 was an amazing game, and I happily paid the £7 for it. The new one however is free 2 play, and its completely ruined the game. Sure you can get away with paying little, but then the game is ruined by all the begging for money.

While I would like to say I'll never buy an EA game, as someone has said before they make too many big name games for me to do that. Sure it'll be a shame for EA to ruin them with micro-transactions, but I love Simcity far too much

 

Microtransactions can be a very good thing because they 'can' give you the freedom to play on your own terms. The problem is that one company's idea of using them might be to generously give you a free game with a few cosmetic extras you pay for, whereas another company's idea is to give you a really poor game with lots of stuff deliberately missing, and then constantly coerce you to pay just.... one.... more.... transaction.... to make it a half decent game. And by the time you have bought all the stuff that you sort-of 'need', you ended up spending a lot more than it used to cost to just buy a whole game in the good ole days.

I think the idea still needs a lot more time to mature. Eventually I suspect there will be some games which suck in mega bucks from people who pay a lot of money to play - fanatical sports fans, mainstream shooter/action games full of spoilt kids, and highly addictive & geeky games aimed at older audiences who have lots of money to spend on gaming. I can imagine it will cost a lot more to play those games than it does currently to just buy a game. In fact Magic The Gathering (which you can play online now) is basically a microtransaction game and 'some' people spend literally £500+ per year, on cards.

But I think there will also be more moderate and sensible games for average people who refuse to spend a lot. And I think they could end up being very successful because even if people only spend a bit, occasionally, there might be 10 million of those people playing so it adds up to more than the 'rip off' games make.

 

Playing it now and have spent £3, only because I really like the Ford GT and, well...it's £3. I spend more on my lunch. I think I'll get more mileage from RR3 and for less money actually...

 

As per the unregulated 'bute' filled horse meat in the food chain issues we have seen recently...
The drop in sales (like ready meals) forces the corporate entity to change to suit the consumer, as it should always be.
That's the food business and the same can be applied to the rest of the consumer market including the games market as discussed here.
If we keep supporting this bollocks we can expect to see much more of it. (next gen consoles come to mind)

IMO "micro transactions" are a similar effect to "death by a thousand cuts" or "boiling a frog"
Creeping profits and nothing less.

Wise up or see your monthly game based costs exceed your daily earnings (net fees + cloud based gaming + micro transactions), BLASPHEMY!
It's all about the money and nothing about the game......"buy our fake gold to purchase some worthless item that will give you pleasure for 15 mins", Oh the horror!

I fell sick, time for a beer.

Don't believe me?

Here's a plan...

In the full month of August 2013, Everyone install an old game (disc based) to play offline.
Don't play online MP games or use your console, And don't purchase any new games or any micro transactions whatsoever. Discipline is the key word here.

Pass the word around on social networks and get people to make a commitment to the embargo, Anyone with a back catalog of physically boxed games should be easy to persuade.
Likewise, Anyone who is sick of this "talent-less money grabbing spin" will be equally enthusiastic.

Corporate owned "software houses" are dictated mostly by share holders who are in turn dictated by profits.
Hurt the shareholders and have a lot of control the outcome, just like they do to us with most of the shite we buy these days.
Its so simple, But so hard when it comes to the discipline.


It would be fun to try even to see if my theory is tango........This ^^^^ should make sense to me in the morning....Beer me!