Imagine paying for a movie or a book, getting half way through and then finding out you need to pay more to continue reading or watching. This has been the reality of the gaming industry for the past few years, and it’s only becoming more common.
Many modern games have adopted the trend of restricting additional content behind an additional paywall. The purchases are usually only a few dollars, but they are so integrated in the games that they’re unavoidable. These small purchases are called microtransactions, and along with full downloadable content, they allow companies to charge for the same game many times. Downloadable content is slightly different from microtransactions in that companies provide a large amount of content for a higher price.
The biggest companies in the industry, like Electronic Arts and Activision, release games at their full 60 dollar price tag along with another 60 dollar ‘pass’ that allows access to future content. Not only do many of them charge for the game and the pass, but they also have small purchases available in game that give extra content. Gaming feels like it has recently become more about milking every penny from the consumer than providing quality experiences.
Billion dollar company Electronic Arts has an especially bad reputation in the gaming industry for charging the consumer as much as possible. One of their flagship games, Star Wars Battlefront II, had its November 2017 release marred by controversy because of microtransactions. The game cost 60 dollars and was released alongside a season pass, but what made people most angry were the loot boxes. Loot boxes are digital slot machines that companies use to entice more spending. In Battlefront II, loot boxes contained important items that would take many hours to unlock without spending real money, but even if you do buy a loot box, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the items. Users were essentially forced to gamble their money away, hoping the correct item would pop out.
This practice falls into the category of pay-to-win — games where you can pay for better items or an advantage over other players. Paying for an advantage makes gaming about who has more money to spend rather than who has the most skill, which ruins the experience.
The most recent Call of Duty game is an example of a different, yet equally flawed, method of charging players. The game released with a 50 dollar season pass as per usual, but this time the season pass fully separated the haves from the have-nots. Those who have the season pass only play with others who do, and same for those who don’t. Ninety dollars is a lot of money to spend on a video game, and it is greedy to punish those who can only spend 60 dollars on a game. Money is coming between people and enjoying the game to its fullest.
Another common method for modern video games to make money is with the free-to-play model. Free-to-play games charge nothing for you to play the game, but offer cosmetic microtransactions on the side. Some examples of the model include League of Legends and Dota 2. Both of these games make millions from microtransactions but still present themselves as free to play. The problem with these games is that being free to play means many children play them, and the microtransactions are targeted at younger people. The purchases are usually only a few dollars at a time and they provide instant gratification, they’re also made using in-game currency so there is a disconnect from spending real money.
The cost of gaming has almost doubled in the last 10 years. It’s rare for a game to release without any kind of follow up content that’s locked behind a paywall. The industry leaders are setting a precedent that it’s ok to charge players at every turn. Until gamers stop buying season passes and loot boxes, the companies who make them aren’t going to stop. If you play games you should be concerned about the direction the industry is headed in.
